Florence Golden Age 1400-1500 - Essay Example

Florence Golden Age 1400-1500 “The Renaissance really gets going in the early years of 15th century in. In this period, which we call the Early Renaissance, Florence is not a city in the unified country of Italy, as it is now. Instead, Italy was divided into many city-states (Florence, Milan, Venice etc.), each with their own form of government.” [1] Art has been the product and maintainer of civilization. One thought would discuss that art is the procurement of the knowledgeable as well as the factual, both in the sense of the ability and capacity to do, to work and to reveal that which is concealed in the soaring of the mind and the spiritual adventure of the soul in the birth-giving process of the revelation of a renaissance masterpiece called the city of Florence. “Florence saw itself as the ideal city state, a place where the freedom of the individual was guaranteed, and where many citizens had the right to participate in the government. In 1400 Florence was engaged in a struggle with the Duke of Milan. The Florentine people feared the loss of liberty and respect for individuals that was the pride of their Republic.Luckily for Florence, the Duke of Milan caught the plague and died in 1402. Then, between 1408 and 1414 Florence was threatened once again, this time by the King of Naples, who also died before he could successfully conquer Florence. And in 1423 the Florentine people prepared for war against the son of the Duke of Milan who had threatened them earlier. Again, luckily for Florence, the Duke was defeated in 1425. The Florentine citizens interpreted these military "victories" as signs of Gods favor and protection. They imagined themselves as the "New Rome" -- in other words, as the heirs to the Ancient Roman Republic, prepared to sacrifice for the cause of freedom and liberty. The Florentine people were very proud of their form of government in the early 15th century. A republic is, after all, a place that respects the opinions of individuals, and we know that individualism was a very important part of the Humanism that thrived in Florence in the 15th century. “ [2] What signifies Florence as a subject matter is that It has been the land of birth of the genuine renaissance of Italy as well as of the European world during the dark ages, which are depicted in the area age of 1400’s. Florence, in the times of the Medicis, Machiavelli, Galileo, Leonardo Da Vinci and as well as of the times of the crusades, have all established the process of the stardom of Italy during the time of decadence in Europe. Much is observed in the times when seen as in the depicted timeline of Florence during the aforesaid period; “During this period, Italy—and in the fifteenth century, Florence above all—[was] the seat of an artistic, humanistic, technological, and scientific flowering known as the Renaissance. Founded primarily on the rediscovery of classical texts and artifacts, Renaissance culture looks to heroic ideals from antiquity and promotes the study of the liberal arts, centering largely upon the individuals intellectual potential. As a result, tremendous innovations are made in the fields of mathematics, medicine, engineering, architecture, and the visual arts, while a surge of vernacular literature attempts not only to emulate, but also to surpass antique models. Some of the most celebrated figures of Renaissance Italy, supremely exemplified by the artist, scientist, and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), excel in several fields.” [1] The excellence of spirit has been shown in modern day tour sites in Italy. Even in these recent times the modernistic artists who seek a creative look back on worthy literature or a renewal of artistic tradition go back to the writers of that time to seek their muse of writing. In those times, the difference of which the Roman Empire had and –with- influenced both its progeny and as well its granddaughter –Italy- to follow in its own steps –which was also one of the cities with central forces in the Roman Empire in ancient world history- it has been subject to many blows of fate which allowed the shaping of its own figure and stance to be modern day’s political as well as artistic current history world affairs distinguisher as well as that of the maintainer of the balance and competition state both in literally as well as fine arts against France as grand-daughters of an ancient language which gathered them both under one name: the Latin language / the language of the Classics. “As we can see from Donatellos sculpture of David, the study of human anatomy was enormously important for Renaissance artists. In this, they continued where the ancient Greeks and Romans had left off. Once again, as in classical antiquity (ancient Greece and Rome) the human figure was considered beautiful. Remember that in the Middle Ages, there was VERY LITTLE interest in the human body, which was seen as only a temporary vessel for the soul. The body was therefore not important at all. If anything, the body was seen as sinful, as the cause of temptation. In the Old Testament, Adam and Eve, after they eat the apple from the tree of knowledge, realize that they are naked and cover themselves. So nakedness, and the body generally in the Middle Ages, is associated in Christianity with temptation and sin and the FALL of man. The best way to learn human anatomy is not just to look at the outside of the body of course, but to study the insides (ick)! Dissections if the human body were performed in the Renaissance, although they were rare because of church prohibitions. Renaissance artists performed dissections and were anxious to learn about the body, and gain the knowledge which would allow them to show the body in many different positions. The human body in the Renaissance was the most beautiful thing to paint, and also something that was a reflection of God.” We have seen how the artists of the Early Renaissance use scientific tools (like linear pespective and the study of anatomy, and well also see they used geometry) to make their art more naturalistic.When artists use science to make their art more naturalistic, we call this Scientific Naturalism. This scientific naturalism allows artists in the Early Renaissance to begin to demand that society think of them as more than just skilled manual laborers. Their work -- because it is based on science and math -- happens with their brains just as much as with their hands, and they therefore argued that they should be considered the same status as intellectuals and philosophers. Remember that during the Middle Ages, artists were only considered as skilled craftsman (for instance, painters were in the same guild as pharmacists, because both grind and mix things), and so they are demanding quite a change!” [3] “At this time, Florence was a hub of humanist scholarship and artistic production, due largely to the funding of the powerful Medici family, who, by the end of the period, exert their political and financial influence over much of central Italy. Significant urban development also occurs in Siena, an important artistic center, and the influential Montefeltro rulers of Urbino establish an illustrious court at which the liberal and visual arts flourish.”[4] This was clearly shown in the Sistine drawings of Michael Angelo who spent over 15 years on his back drawing it, depicting biblical stories of the Fall, Heaven as well as God’s Aiding Adam in times of grief, the arts of politics as in “The Prince” by Machiavelli who stated that: to be as cunning as a fox and as strong as a lion is to make sense and way towards people’s minds and heart. Religion was stripped out of and the country became a secular rule keeping the power of the Church away. The ages were, at the darkest hours of history, still breaking out into the enlightened period of history in Europe which lead to the bust of spirit in its revolutionary inventions (the lenses, the magnifying glass, the discovery of planets, that the world is round and not the center of the universe, Galileo, Spinoza, the famous Italian philosopher) as well as stating clearly the strength of the personal trait which states the identity of the continent in the first steps into enlightenment which were showed by the encompassing problems which occurred to Italy where the core of each nation, and specifically Florence among Italian states, have been examined to procure the welded yield of the central core of the nation. “In the XII and XIII there was a strong commercial boom thanks to the large number of artisans-ironmongers, shoemakers and jewellers. In the 1100 the city became autonomous, in 1200 it was constituted of Counsellors , with the help of Town Counsellors . Power was in the hands of the rich: this caused rivality among the rich families. The families were very united and their houses became higher, becoming when necessary fortresses with drawbridges, forming a good defendable position. “[5] Thus it seemed that with the flourish of the renaissance of Italy at the time, the philosophical role of the modeling of the shape of Florentine mind discussed the crucial issues of the time through the renown philosopher of the time: Spinoza, who, as Galileo and as any prophet would be judged in his own nation, was discarded by his own sect and abandoned for his own thoughts and beliefs which paved the way and route to the world today alongside the continent’s own minds into the brand new world in which we work and live in – upon- today, besides other contemporary masterminds of the time, as mentioned before –Machiavelli,- Aldus Manutius who introduced the printing of books initiated in Venice which lead to an increasing number of works began to be published in the Italian language in addition to the flood of Latin and Greek texts that constituted the mainstream of the Italian Renaissance, Francesco Petrarch, the best known literature and poetry laureate of the Renaissance who was largely influenced by the developing science and philosophy as one of the time’s standing out figures of the humanists, and the most famous architect of the time, who designed historical Italy’s Florentine city of today,Leone Battista Alberti. As in hard times the mind shows the concealed in property of intellect so does the status quo shows its hidden destiny to the minds of those willing to accept it. In urban Florentine the mass of renown then pariahs of the contemporary generation of leaders of thought, and today’s idols and role models of humanity, the country’s position as situated in the heart of Europe as well as its being in the heart of the turbulences of the 14th and early 15th century as well as its inside intolerances and civil wars, these earthshaking matters have yielded a contemporary league of thinkers who defied religion and sought truth on their own account, as with the Greek gods and roman gods who seek, like black panthers to just torture humanity for the sake of play, in scout of the mastermind behind the civility of the identity of the country at hand / at stake, be it a god, an angel, a brute or a semi-god/semi-brute/semi-angel called Man, the search was about the humanistic trait which depicts Man as a human and differs him from being an animal, social and as well as political, scientifically if not literally, as it was understood in the renaissance of Italy that a seeking of the roots of humanistic behavior is a return to religion in itself, in the sake of searching for true identity out of the playful hands of a playful Fate. “The constant financial drain on Florence created by the wars, and the need to marshal all of its resources, the intellectuals disapproved of Florences aggressive policy for practical reasons, meaning that the constant wars caused financial difficulties for the citys treasury and for its individual citizens. "You Florentines," he argued, "you have no thought other than to search for war, and you desire poverty and war more than wealth and peace." They criticized those who "want peace but not at their expense," yet stated, rather vaguely, that they were not referring to every war but only to "a war made by mistake" -- implying that they supported necessary wars, those essential for the safety of the patria.” [6] These problems occurred as the extraction and differentiation between state and religion occurred to maintain a liberal and free state in its essence which is more of a secular country rule than that away from the complications of religion and its sever strictness. Alike to renaissances in following centuries in Europe, the Italian or Florentine renaissance in particular was described as the intellectual and artistic revival which began in Florence and spread around Europe which radically altered man’s view of himself. Even though the Florentines showed that having an active life in the world and possession of wealth were not incompatible with virtue, as religion stated, they advocated, meantime, a new idea of liberal education centered upon the classical readings of predecessors, in face of the harsh changes of society and economy, due to the constant wars between the Pope and Emperor of Italy, the population’s growth and the cause of scarcity in food and increase in prices, which occurred during the final years of the Italian Renaissance, the European expansion affecting Florence with regard to the growth of its state of capitalism and the flourish of trade with those of the stronger grip who depended on trade rather than fixed incomes.” The Renaissance in Florence was an indigenous movement which grew out of its society and political institutions and was exported and superimposed by its contemporary artists upon the other districts of Italy and the rest of Europe with the pleasure anenjoyment of glorification of the liberated mind of the humanistic spirit and soul that initiated in Italy’s Florence, which sculpted the form of mind that the contemporary figures of the time have helped aid and reinforce in the European mind. “While the Italian Renaissance was fading, the Northern Renaissance adopted many of its ideals and transformed its styles. A number of Italys greatest artists chose to emigrate. The most notable example was Leonardo Da Vinciwho left for France in 1516, but teams of lesser artists invited to transform the created the that infused the style of the Italian Renaissance in France. From Fontainebleau, the new styles, transformed, brought the Renaissance to and thence throughout Northern Europe. This spread north was also representative of a larger trend. No longer was the Mediterranean Europes most important trade route. In 1498, Vasco Da Gama reached India, and from that date the primary route of goods from the Orient was through the Atlantic ports of Lisbon, Seville, Nantes, Bristol, and London. These areas quickly surpassed Italy in wealth and power.”[7] In Florence , in the XV century, bases were set to reflourish art and culture, here thanks to writers like Dante, Petrarca and Macchaivelli, culture and the Italian language were born. Artists like Botticelli , Michelangelo and Donatello made Florence to be one of the artistic capitals in the world.”Bibliography: [1]Wikipedia Foundation, Wikimedia. Florence. 7 May 2009. . [2]Knecht, Robert. Renaissance and Reformation. London: Publishing Group Ltd., 1967. [3]"ThinkQuest." 12 April 2009. Famous Artists from Italy. . [4] Art, National Gallery of. The Collection. 2009. . [5]Art, The Metropolitan Museumof. HeilBrunn Timeline of Art History. 2000-2009. . [6]Programs, The Western Traditions. Renaissance. 1997-2009. . [7]"ThinkQuest." 12 April 2009. Famous Artists from Italy. . Read More