Transcript PP 14th Century (Part 2)

Changes in Urban Life
• Because of the Black Death that decimated
Europe's population, there was greater
regulation of urban activities
• Delay in marriage for both men and women
• Strengthen the development of gender roles
& set limits of employment opportunities for
women
• The invention of the clock revolutionized how
people thought about and used time
Realism in Art
• The Florentine artist Giotto (1266-1337)
• Chiaroscuro is Italian for “light & dark”
• Figures in paintings are convincingly more
human, facial features are individualized,
figures have a three dimensional presence
• The Well of Moses by Dutch artist Claus Sluter
(ca. 1305-1406)
• Illuminated Manuscript – The Book of Hours
• Tres Riches Heures (Very Precious Hours)
Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned
(1290)
Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned
(c. 1310)
• Giotto was commissioned in
1303 by a wealthy banker &
money-lender named Enrico
Scrovegni to paint a series of
frescoes for the family chapel
in Padua
• Giotto illustrates various
scenes of the bible including
the lives of the Virgin and
Christ
• The colors used to create
the frescoes light the room
and the style of painting
appears as if each scene is
taking place in real space
• This scene from the
Scrovegni chapel is titled
Lamentation (Mourning of
Christ)
• In this scene, Giotto depicts
the dead Christ being held by
three women
•The woman cradling the head
of Christ is the Virgin Mary
• The mood of the painting is
that of sadness
• Claus Sluter’s Well of Moses was
executed between 1395 & 1406 for the
Carthusian monastery at Champmol in
Dijon, France
• This sculpture was originally part of a
25 ft. tall stone fountain designed to
celebrate the sacraments of Eucharist &
Baptism
• This surviving section depicts the six
(6) Old Testament Prophets: Moses,
David, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel, and
Isaiah
• Illuminated manuscripts created in the 14th century included the Book of
Hours
• These were guides to private prayer that included prayers to the Virgin
Mary and the saints
• This is an illustration from a
Book of Hours created by the
Limbourg brothers
• Tres Riches Heures (Very
Precious Hours)
• Created for Jean, Duke of
Berry and brother of the King
of France
• This is a page illustrating the
month of February which
depicts a snowscape
• Devotional realism also overtook
the popular subject of the Madonna
and Child
• Here she is depicted as a humble
matron tenderly nurturing baby Jesus
• The “Nursing Madonna” will replace
the earlier Mary as Queen of Heaven
in paintings
• With the growing interest in the human
personality brought by the Renaissance,
artists began to create portrait paintings
•This painting depicts John the Good, King
of France
The Ars Nova in Music
• Imagination and diversity characterized 14th
century music – ars nova (new art)
• Isorhythm (same rhythm): the close
repetition of identical rhythmic patterns in
different portions of the composition
• The leading proponent of ars nova was
Guillame de Machaut (1300-1377)
• Polyphony flourished in Italy a main composer
was Francesco Landini (c.1325-1397)
Here is the springtime
Here is the springtime which brings joy
to hearts,
It is the time for falling in love,
and happy faces.
We see how even the air
and the weather summon joy.
At this sweet time,
everything is beautiful.
The grass is green,
and flowers bedeck the fields,
and the trees are decorated
in like manner.
Ecco la Primavera by Francesco Landini
Love Makes Me Desire
Love makes me desire
And love;
But so foolishly
That I cannot hope
Or think
Or imagine at all
That the sweet lovely face
That strikes the spark of
love within me
Might give me joy.
If love does not do his work
So well
That I might have her
without asking.
I have such hardship to
endure
That I can scarcely
Live much longer.
For in my heart I wish to
hide
And bear
This love secretly.
Without asking for relief.
For in torment
I would rather end my life.
And so I have no thought
Indeed
That I might have her
without asking.
Amours me fait desirer By Guillame de Machaut
But desire inflames
And redoubles
This love so fiercely
That it makes me forget
everything for it.
Nor do I have
Any thought but for her
alone;
And therefore lovingly.
Humbly.
I languish without
tasting joy.
And I will die of it,
unless soon
She agrees
That I might have her
without asking.
Renaissance Italy was largely an urban society. The city-states,
especially those of northern Italy, became the centers of Italian
political, economic, and social life
The Renaissance was a period of European history that manifested itself
first in Italy and then spread to the rest of Europe
Meaning & Characteristics of the
Italian Renaissance
• Renaissance means rebirth. People living in
Italy between 1350 to 1550 witnessed a
“rebirth” of Greco-Roman civilization
• An age of recovery from the Black Death
• A revived emphasis on individual ability
• A high regard for human dignity and worth
• The Renaissance was mostly experienced by
the Italian elite class
Economic Recovery
• By the 14th century, Italian merchants were
carrying a flourishing commerce throughout
the Mediterranean and north along the
Atlantic
• The city of Florence was prominent in banking
in the 15th century because of the Medici
family
•Lorenzo de’Medici supported
scholarship and the arts
• The Medici’s commissioned the
best artists of the period such as
Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Verrocchio,
and Michelangelo
• This bust was created by the artist
Verrochio
Social Changes in the Renaissance
• Society was divided into three groups: the
Clergy, the nobility, and the peasants &
inhabitants of the towns and cities
• The Noble class, old and new, constituted
between 2 and 3%, their goal was to be the
perfect courtier
• Peasants & Townspeople made up 85 to 90%
of the population
• In Europe in the late 14th & 15th century, urban
poverty increased
Humanism
• The philosophy that man is an important part
of the universe and should try to improve
himself during his lifetime
• According to humanists, man was created by
God and should try to show that he was
worthy of being put on earth
• Most Renaissance humanists were devout
Catholics
• Humanist saw no conflict between humanism
& religious beliefs
• A rare manuscript illustration of
Petrarch in his study
• He is considered the “Father of
Humanism”
• He devoted his life recovering
classical works, copying, and
editing Latin manuscripts
• Petrarch’s passion for antiquity and his eagerness to rescue it from
neglect are evident in this passage
• This letter is addressed to his friend Lapo da Castinglionchio
• In this excerpt, Petrarch is bothered that books that are difficult to
understand are not preserved properly
• Petrarch’s Canzoniere (Songbook)
• Contains 300 poems
• sonnet 132, a fourteen line lyric
poem depicts Petrarch’s affection for
his unreachable love Laura
• sonnet 338, Petrarch is lamenting the
death of Laura
The Church
God is powerful
& man existed to
worship God
vs.
Humanists
Man was created by
God & should try to
show that he was
worthy of being on
earth