THE ITALIAN CITIES AND THE RENAISSANCE
[Sidenote: Italy the center of European culture in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries.]
117. While England and France were settling their differences in the
wretched period of the Hundred Years' War, and the little German
principalities, left without a leader,[212] were busied with their petty
concerns, Italy was the center of European culture. Its
cities,--Florence, Venice, Milan, and the rest,--reached a degree of
prosperity and refinement undreamed of beyond the Alps. Within their
walls learning and art made such extraordinary progress that this period
has received a special name,--the _Renaissance_,[213] or new birth. The
Italian towns, like those of ancient Greece, were really little states,
each with its own peculiar life and institutions. Of these city-states a
word must be said before considering the new enthusiasm for the works of
the Romans and Greeks and the increasing skill which the Italian artists
displayed in painting, sculpture, and architecture.
[Sidenote: Map of Italy in the fourteenth century.]
The map of Italy at the beginning of the fourteenth century was still
divided into three zones, as it had been in the time of the
Hohenstaufens. To the south lay the kingdom of Naples. Then came the
states of the Church, extending diagonally across the peninsula. To the
north and west lay the group of city-states to which we now turn our
attention.
[Sidenote: Venice and its relations with the East.]
Of these none was more celebrated than Venice, which in the history of
Europe ranks in importance with Paris and London. This singular town was
built upon a group of sandy islets lying in the Adriatic Sea about two
miles from the mainland. It was protected from the waves by a long,
narrow sand bar, similar to those which fringe the Atlantic coast from
New Jersey southward. Such a situation would not ordinarily have been
deliberately chosen as the site of a great city; but its very desolation
and inaccessibility had recommended it to its first settlers, who, in
the middle of the fifth century, had fled from their homes on the
mainland to escape the savage Huns.[214] As time went on the location
proved to have its advantages commercially, and even before the Crusades
Venice had begun to engage in foreign trade. Its enterprises carried it
eastward, and it early acquired possessions across the Adriatic and in
the Orient.[215] The influence of this intercourse with the East is
plainly shown in the celebrated church of St. Mark, whose domes and
decorations suggest Constantinople rather than Italy.
[Illustration: A Scene in Venice]
[Illustration: St Mark's, Venice]
[Sidenote: Venice extends her sway on the Italian mainland.]
[Sidenote: The aristocratic government of Venice.]
It was not until early in the fifteenth century that Venice found it to
her interest to extend her sway upon the Italian mainland. She doubtless
believed it dangerous to permit her rival, Milan, to get possession of
the Alpine passes through which her goods found their way north. It may
be, too, that she preferred to draw her food supplies from the
neighborhood instead of transporting them across the Adriatic from her
eastern possessions. Moreover, all the Italian cities except Venice
already controlled a larger or smaller area of country about them.
Although Venice was called a republic, there was a strong tendency
toward a government of the few. About the year 1300 all the townsmen
except the members of certain noble families were excluded from the
Grand Council, which was supposed to represent the people at large.
In 1311 the famous Council of Ten was created, whose members were
elected by the Grand Council for one year. The whole government,
domestic and foreign, was placed in the hands of this smaller council,
in conjunction with the doge (i.e., duke), the nominal head of the
republic; but they were both held strictly accountable to the Grand
Council for all that they did. The government was thus concentrated in
the hands of a very few. Its proceedings were carried on with great
secrecy, so that public discussion, such as prevailed in Florence and
led to innumerable revolutions there, was unheard of in Venice. The
Venetian merchant was a busy person who was quite willing that the state
should exercise its functions without his interference. In spite of the
aristocratic measures of the council, there was little tendency to
rebellion, so common in the other Italian towns. The republic of Venice
maintained pretty much the same form of government from 1300 until its
destruction by Napoleon in 1797.
[Sidenote: Milan and the despotically governed towns of northern Italy.]
118. Milan was the most conspicuous example of the large class of
Italian cities which were governed by an absolute and despotic ruler,
who secured control of a town either by force or guile, and then managed
its affairs for his own personal advantage. At the opening of the
fourteenth century a great part of the towns which had leagued
themselves against Frederick Barbarossa[216] had become little
despotisms. Their rulers were constantly fighting among themselves,
conquering, or being conquered by, their neighbors. The practices of the
Visconti, the family who seized the government of Milan, offer a fair
example of the policy of the Italian tyrants.
The power of the Visconti was first established by the archbishop of
Milan. He imprisoned (1277) in three iron cages the leading members of
the family who were in control of the city government at the moment, and
had his nephew, Matteo Visconti, appointed by the emperor as the
imperial representative. Before long Matteo was generally recognized as
the ruler of Milan, and was followed by his son. For over a century and
a half some one of the family always showed himself skillful enough to
hold his precarious position.
[Illustration: Tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti]
[Sidenote: Gian Galeazzo Visconti, 1385-1402.]
The most distinguished of the Visconti despots was Gian Galeazzo. He
began his reign by capturing and poisoning his uncle, who was ruling
over a portion of the already extensive territory of the Visconti.[217]
It seemed for a time that he might conquer all of northern Italy; but
his progress was checked by the republic of Florence and then cut short
by premature death. Gian Galeazzo exhibited all the characteristic
traits of the Italian despots. He showed himself a skillful and
successful ruler, able to organize his government admirably. He gathered
literary men about him; and the beautiful buildings which were begun by
him indicate his enthusiasm for art. Yet he was utterly unprincipled,
and resorted to the most hideous methods in order to gain possession of
coveted towns which he could not conquer or buy outright.
[Sidenote: Position and character of the Italian despots.]
There are many stories of the incredible ferocity exhibited by the
Italian despots.[218] It must be remembered that they were very rarely
legitimate rulers, but usurpers, who could only hope to retain their
power so long as they could keep their subjects in check and defend
themselves against equally illegitimate usurpers in the neighboring
cities. This situation developed a high degree of sagacity, and many of
the despots found it to their interest to govern well and even to give
dignity to their rule by patronizing artists and men of letters. But the
despot usually made many bitter enemies and was almost necessarily
suspicious of treason on the part of those about him. He was ever
conscious that at any moment he might fall a victim to the dagger or the
poison cup.
[Sidenote: The _condottieri_.]
The Italian towns carried on their wars among themselves largely by
means of hired troops. When a military expedition was proposed, a
bargain was made with one of the leaders (_condottieri_), who provided
the necessary force. As the soldiers had no more interest in the
conflict than did those whom they opposed, who were likewise hired for
the occasion, the fight was not usually very bloody; for the object of
each side was to capture the other without unnecessarily rough
treatment.
It sometimes happened that the leader who had conquered a town for his
employer appropriated the fruits of the victory for himself. This
occurred in the case of Milan in 1450. The Visconti family having died
out, the citizens hired a certain captain, named Francesco Sforza, to
assist them in a war against Venice, whose possessions now extended
almost to those of Milan. When Sforza had repelled the Venetians, the
Milanese found it impossible to get rid of him, and he and his
successors became rulers over the town.
[Sidenote: Machiavelli's _Prince_.]
An excellent notion of the position and policy of the Italian despots
may be derived from a little treatise called _The Prince_, written by
the distinguished Florentine historian, Machiavelli. The writer appears
to have intended his book as a practical manual for the despots of his
time. It is a cold-blooded discussion of the ways in which a usurper may
best retain his control over a town after he has once got possession of
it. The author even takes up the questions as to how far princes should
consider their promises when it is inconvenient to keep them, and how
many of the inhabitants the despot may wisely kill. Machiavelli
concludes that the Italian princes who have not observed their
engagements over-scrupulously, and who have boldly put their political
adversaries out of the way, have fared better than their more
conscientious rivals.
[Sidenote: Florence.]
119. The history of Florence, perhaps the most important of the Italian
cities, differs in many ways from that of Venice and of the despotisms
of which Milan is an example. In Florence all classes claimed the right
to interest themselves in the government. This led to constant changes
in the constitution and to frequent struggles between the different
political parties. When one party got the upper hand it generally
expelled its chief opponents from the city. Exile was a terrible
punishment to a Florentine, for Florence was not merely his native
city,--it was his _country_, and loved and honored as such.
[Sidenote: The Medici.]
[Sidenote: Lorenzo the Magnificent.]
By the middle of the fifteenth century Florence had come under the
control of the great family of the Medici, whose members played the
rôle of very enlightened political bosses. By quietly watching the
elections and secretly controlling the selection of city officials, they
governed without letting it be suspected that the people had lost their
power. The most distinguished member of the house of Medici was Lorenzo
the Magnificent (d. 1492); under his rule Florence reached the height of
its glory in art and literature.
[Illustration: The Palace of the Medici in Florence]
[Sidenote: Character of Florentine culture.]
As one wanders about Florence to-day, he is impressed with the
contradictions of the Renaissance period. The streets are lined with the
palaces of the noble families to whose rivalries much of the continual
disturbance was due. The lower stories of these buildings are
constructed of great stones, like fortresses, and their windows are
barred like those of a prison; yet within they were often furnished with
the greatest taste and luxury. For in spite of the disorder, against
which the rich protected themselves by making their houses half
strongholds, the beautiful churches, noble public buildings, and works
of art which now fill the museums indicate that mankind has never,
perhaps, reached a higher degree of perfection in the arts of peace than
amidst the turmoil of this restless town.
"Florence was essentially the city of intelligence in modern times.
Other nations have surpassed the Italians in their genius.... But
nowhere else except at Athens has the whole population of a city been so
permeated with ideas, so highly intellectual by nature, so keen in
perception, so witty and so subtle, as at Florence. The fine and
delicate spirit of the Italians existed in quintessence among the
Florentines. And of this superiority not only they, but the inhabitants
also of Rome and Lombardy and Naples were conscious.... The primacy of
the Florentines in literature, the fine arts, law, scholarship,
philosophy, and science was acknowledged throughout Italy" (Symonds).
[Sidenote: The Renaissance, or _new birth_.]
120. The thirteenth century had been, as we have seen, a period of great
enthusiasm for learning. The new universities attracted students from
all parts of Europe, and famous thinkers like Albertus Magnus, Thomas
Aquinas, and Roger Bacon wrote great treatises on religion, science, and
philosophy. The public delighted in the songs and romances composed and
recited in the language of the people. The builders contrived a new and
beautiful style of architecture, and, with the aid of the sculptors,
produced buildings which have never since been surpassed and rarely
equaled. Why, then, are the two succeeding centuries called the period
of the _new birth_,--the Renaissance,--as if there was a sudden
reawakening after a long sleep, as if Europe first began in the
fourteenth century to turn to books and art?
The word _renaissance_ was originally used by writers who had very
little appreciation of the achievements of the thirteenth century. They
imagined that there could have been no high degree of culture during a
period when the Latin and Greek classics, which seemed so all-important
to them, were not carefully studied. But it is now coming to be
generally recognized that the thirteenth century had worthy intellectual
and artistic ambitions, although they were different both from those of
Greece and Rome and from our own.
We cannot, therefore, conceive the "new birth" of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries quite as it was viewed by writers of a century ago,
who failed to do justice to the preceding period. Nevertheless, about
the middle of the fourteenth century, a very great and fundamental
change did begin in thought and taste, in books, buildings, and
pictures, and this change we may very well continue to call the
_Renaissance_. We can best judge of its nature by considering the work
of the two greatest men of the fourteenth century, Dante and Petrarch.
[Sidenote: Dante, 1264-1321.]
Dante was first and foremost a poet, and is often ranked with Homer,
Virgil, and Shakespeare. He is, however, interesting to the historian
for other things than his flights of fancy and the music of his verse.
He had mastered all the learning of his day; he was a scientist and a
scholar as well as a poet. His writings show us how the world appeared
about the year 1300 to a very acute mind, and what was the range of
knowledge available to the most thoughtful men of that day.
[Sidenote: Dante's use of Italian.]
Dante was not a churchman, as were all the scholars whom we have
hitherto considered. He was the first literary layman of renown since
Boethius,[219] and he was interested in helping other laymen who knew
only their mother tongue to the knowledge heretofore open only to those
who could read Latin. In spite of his ability to write Latin, he chose
the mother tongue for his great poem, _The Divine Comedy_. Italian was
the last of the important modern languages to develop, perhaps because
in Italy Latin remained longest intelligible to the mass of the people.
But Dante believed that the exclusive use of Latin for literary
purposes had already in his time become an affectation. He was confident
that there were many people, both men and women, who knew only Italian,
who would gladly read not only his verses but his treatise on
science,--_The Banquet_,[220] as he poetically calls it.
[Sidenote: Extent of Dante's knowledge.]
Dante's writings indicate that mediæval scholars were by no means so
ignorant of the universe as they are popularly supposed to have been.
Although they believed, like the ancients, that the earth was the center
around which the sun and stars revolved, they were familiar with some
important astronomical phenomena. They knew that the earth was a sphere
and guessed very nearly its real size. They knew that everything that
had weight was attracted towards its center, and that there would be no
danger of falling off should one get on the opposite side of the globe;
they realized also that when it was day on one side of the earth it was
night on the other.
[Sidenote: Dante's veneration for the ancient writers.]
While Dante shows a keen interest in the theological studies so popular
in his time and still speaks of Aristotle as "the Philosopher," he
exhibits a profound admiration for the other great authors of Rome and
Greece. When in a vision he visits the lower world, Virgil is his guide.
He is permitted to behold the region inhabited by the spirits of
virtuous pagans, and there he finds Horace and Ovid, and Homer, the
sovereign poet. As he reclines upon the green turf he sees a goodly
company of ancient worthies,--Socrates, Plato, and other Greek
philosophers, Cæsar, Cicero, Livy, Seneca, and many others. He is so
overcome by the honor of sitting among such great men that he finds no
words to report what passed between them. He feels no horror for their
paganism, and while he believes that they are not admitted to the
beatific joys of heaven, he assigns them a comfortable abode, where they
hold dignified converse with "faces neither sad nor glad."[221]
[Sidenote: Petrarch, 1304-1374.]
121. The veneration for the ancient writers felt by Dante becomes a
burning enthusiasm with Petrarch, who has been well called "the first
modern man." He was the first scholar and man of letters to desert
entirely the mediæval learning and lead his contemporaries back to a
realization of the beauty and value of Greek and Roman literature. In
the mediæval universities, logic, theology, and the interpretation of
Aristotle were the chief subjects of study. While scholars in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries possessed and read most of the Latin
writers who have come down to us, they failed to appreciate their beauty
and would never have dreamed of making them the basis of a liberal
education.[222]
[Illustration: Petrarch]
Petrarch declares that when a boy he delighted in the sonorous language
of Cicero even before he could understand its meaning. As the years went
on he became convinced that he could have no higher aim in life than
that of collecting copies of all the Latin classics upon which he could
lay hands. He was not only an indefatigable scholar himself, but he
possessed the power of stimulating, by his example, the intellectual
ambition of those with whom he came in contact. He rendered the study of
the Latin classics popular among cultivated persons; and by his own
untiring efforts to discover the lost or forgotten works of the great
writers of antiquity he roused a new enthusiasm for the formation of
libraries.[223]
[Sidenote: Obstacles to the study of the classics.]
It is hard for us to imagine the obstacles which confronted Petrarch and
the scholars of the early Renaissance. They possessed no good editions
of the Roman and Greek authors, in which the correct wording had been
determined by a careful comparison of all the known ancient copies. They
considered themselves fortunate to secure a single manuscript of even
the best known authors, and they could have no assurance that it was not
full of mistakes. Indeed, the texts were so corrupted by the
carelessness of the copyists that Petrarch declares that if Cicero or
Livy should return and stumblingly read his own writings, he would
promptly pronounce them the work of another, perhaps a barbarian.
[Sidenote: Petrarch's European reputation and influence.]
Petrarch enjoyed an unrivaled influence throughout western Europe, akin
to that of Erasmus and Voltaire in later times. He was in constant
communication with scholars, not only in Italy, but in the countries
beyond the Alps. From his numerous letters which have been preserved, a
great deal may be learned of the intellectual life of the time.[224]
[Sidenote: Petrarch has no sympathy with the popular studies of his
time.]
It is clear that he not only promoted the new study of the Roman
writers, but that he also did much to discredit the learning which was
popular in the universities. He refused to include the works of the
great scholastic writers of the thirteenth century in his library. Like
Roger Bacon he was disgusted by the reverence in which the bad
translations of Aristotle were held. As for the popular study of logic,
Petrarch declared that it was good enough for boys, but that nothing
irritated him more than to find a person of mature years devoting
himself to the subject.
[Sidenote: Contrast between Petrarch's and Dante's attitude toward their
mother tongue.]
While Petrarch is far better known for his beautiful Italian verses than
for his long Latin poems, histories, and essays, he did not share
Dante's confidence in the dignity of their mother tongue. He even
depreciates his Italian sonnets as mere popular trifles written in his
youth. It was not unnatural that he and those in whom he aroused an
enthusiasm for Latin literature should look scornfully upon Italian. It
seemed to them a crude form of speech, good enough perhaps for the
common people and for the transaction of the daily business of life, but
immeasurably inferior to the language in which their predecessors, the
Roman poets and prose writers, had written. The Italians, it must be
remembered, felt the same pride in Latin literature that we feel in the
works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. The Italian scholars of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries merely turned back to their own earlier national
literature for their models, and tried their best to imitate the
language and style of its masters.
[Sidenote: The humanists.]
122. Those who devoted themselves to the study and imitation first of
Roman, and later of Greek literature, are commonly called _humanists_, a
name derived from the Latin word _humanitas_; that is, culture,
especially in the sense of literary appreciation. They no longer paid
much attention to Peter Lombard's _Sentences_. They had, indeed, little
taste for theology, but looked to Cicero for all those accomplishments
which go to the making of a man of refinement.
[Sidenote: Reason for the enthusiastic study of the classics.]
The _humanities_, as Greek and Latin are still called, became almost a
new religion among the Italian scholars during the century following
Petrarch's death. In order to understand their exclusive attention to
ancient literature we must remember that they did not have a great many
of the books that we prize most highly nowadays. Now, every nation of
Europe has an extensive literature in its own particular tongue, which
all can read. Besides admirable translations of all the works of
antiquity, there are innumerable masterpieces, like those of
Shakespeare, Voltaire, and Goethe, which were unheard of four centuries
ago. Consequently we can now acquaint ourselves with a great part of the
best that has been written in all ages without knowing either Latin or
Greek. The Middle Ages enjoyed no such advantage. So when men began to
tire of theology, logic, and Aristotle's scientific treatises, they
naturally turned back with single-hearted enthusiasm to the age of
Augustus, and, later, to that of Pericles, for their models of literary
style and for their ideals of life and conduct.
[Sidenote: Pagan tendencies of the Italian humanists.]
A sympathetic study of the pagan authors led many of the humanists to
reject the mediæval view of the relation of this life to the next.[225]
They reverted to the teachings of Horace and ridiculed the
self-sacrifice of the monk. They declared that it was right to make the
most of life's pleasures and needless to worry about the world to come.
In some cases the humanists openly attacked the teachings of the Church,
but generally they remained outwardly loyal to it and many of them even
found positions among the officers of the papal curia.
[Sidenote: The classics become the basis of a liberal education.]
Humanism produced a revolution in the idea of a liberal education. In
the sixteenth century, through the influence of those who visited Italy,
the schools of Germany, England, and France began to make Latin and
Greek literature, rather than logic and other mediæval subjects, the
basis of their college course. It is only within the last generation
that Latin and Greek have begun to be replaced in our colleges by a
variety of scientific and historical studies; and many would still
maintain, with the humanists of the fifteenth century, that Latin and
Greek are better worth studying than any other subjects.
[Sidenote: Ignorance of Greek in the Middle Ages.]
The humanists of the fourteenth century ordinarily knew no Greek. Some
knowledge of that language lingered in the West all through the Middle
Ages, but we hear of no one attempting to read Plato, Demosthenes,
Æschylus, or even Homer, and these authors were scarcely ever found in
the libraries. Petrarch and his followers were naturally much interested
in the constant references to Greek literature which occur in Cicero and
Horace, both of whom freely recognized their debt to Athens. Shortly
after Petrarch's death the city of Florence called to its university a
professor of Greek, Chrysoloras from Constantinople.
[Sidenote: Revival of Greek studies in Italy.]
[Sidenote: Chrysoloras in Florence.]
A young Florentine law student, Leonardo Bruni, tells us of a dialogue
which he had with himself when he heard of the coming of Chrysoloras.
"Art thou not neglecting thy best interests if thou failest now to get
an insight into Homer, Plato, Demosthenes, and the other great poets,
philosophers, and orators of whom they are telling such wonderful
things? Thou, too, mightest commune with them and imbue thyself with
their wisdom. Wouldst thou let the golden opportunity slip? For seven
hundred years no one in Italy has known Greek literature, and yet we
agree that all language comes from the Greeks. How greatly would
familiarity with that language advantage thee in promoting thy knowledge
and in the mere increase of thy pleasure? There are teachers of Roman
law to be found everywhere, and thou wilt never want an opportunity to
continue that study, but there is but one teacher of Greek, and if he
escapes thee there will be no one from whom thou canst learn."
[Sidenote: The knowledge of Greek becomes common in Europe.]
Many students took advantage of the opportunity to study Greek, and
Chrysoloras prepared the first modern Greek grammar for their use.
Before long the Greek classics became as well known as the Latin.
Italians even went to Constantinople to learn the language; and the
diplomatic negotiations which the Eastern Church carried on with the
Western, with the hope of gaining help against the Turks, brought some
Greek scholars to Italy. In 1423 an Italian scholar arrived at Venice
with no less than two hundred and thirty-eight Greek books, thus
transplanting a whole literature to a new and fruitful soil.[226] Greek
as well as Latin books were carefully copied and edited, and beautiful
libraries were established by the Medici, the duke of Urbino, and Pope
Nicholas V, who founded the great library of the Vatican,[227] still one
of the most important collections of books in the world.
[Sidenote: Advantages of printing with movable types.]
123. It was the glory of the Italian humanists to revive the knowledge
and appreciation of the ancient literatures, but it remained for patient
experimenters in Germany and Holland to perfect a system by which books
could be multiplied rapidly and cheaply. The laborious copying of books
by hand[228] had several serious disadvantages. The best copyists were,
it is true, incredibly dexterous with their quills, and made their
letters as clear and small as if they had been printed. But the work was
necessarily very slow. When Cosimo, the father of Lorenzo the
Magnificent, wished to form a library, he applied to a book contractor,
who procured forty-five copyists. By working hard for nearly two years
these men were able to produce only two hundred volumes.
Moreover, it was impossible before the invention of printing to have two
books exactly alike. Even with the greatest care a scribe could not hope
to avoid all mistakes, and a careless copyist was sure to make a great
many. The universities required their students to report immediately any
mistakes discovered in their text-books, in order that the error might
be promptly rectified and not lead to a misunderstanding of the author.
With the invention of printing it became possible to produce in a short
time a great many copies of a given book which were exactly alike.
Consequently, if great care were taken to see that the types were
properly set, the whole edition, not simply a single copy, might be
relied upon as correct.
[Illustration: Closing Lines of the Psalter of 1459 (much reduced)[229]]
[Sidenote: The earliest printed books.]
[Sidenote: Black letter.]
[Sidenote: Roman letters.]
[Sidenote: Italics.]
The earliest book of any considerable size to be printed was the Bible,
which appears to have been completed at Mayence in the year 1456. A year
later the famous Mayence Psalter was finished, the first dated book.
There are, however, earlier examples of little books printed with
engraved blocks and even with movable types. In the German towns, where
the art spread rapidly, the printers adhered to the style of letters
which the scribe had found it convenient to make with his quill--the
so-called _Gothic_, or black letter.[230] In Italy, where the first
printing press was set up in 1466, a type was soon adopted which
resembled the letters used in ancient Roman inscriptions. This was quite
similar to the style of letter commonly used to-day. The Italians also
invented the compressed _italic_ type, which enabled them to get a great
many words on a page. The early printers generally did their work
conscientiously, and the very first book printed is in most respects as
well done as any later book.
[Sidenote: Importance of Italian art in the Renaissance period.]
124. The stimulus of the antique ideals of beauty and the renewed
interest in man and nature is nowhere more apparent than in the art of
the Renaissance period in Italy. The bonds of tradition, which had
hampered mediæval art,[231] were broken. The painters and sculptors
continued, it is true, to depict the same religious subjects which their
mediæval predecessors had chosen. But in the fourteenth century the
Italian artists began to draw their inspiration from the fragments of
antique art which they found about them and from the world full of life
and beauty in which they lived. Above all, they gave freer rein to their
own imagination. The tastes and ideals of the individual artist were no
longer repressed but became the dominant element in his work. The
history of art becomes, during the Renaissance, a history of artists.
[Sidenote: Italian architecture.]
[Sidenote: Italy inherits the art of Greece and Rome.]
The Gothic style in architecture had never taken root in Italy. The
Italians had continued to build their churches in a more or less
modified Romanesque[232] form. While the soaring arches and delicate
tracery of the Gothic cathedral had become the ideal of the North, in
Italy the curving lines and harmonious proportions of the dome inspired
the best efforts of the Renaissance builders. They borrowed many fine
details, such as capitals and cornices, from the antique, and also--what
was far more important--the simplicity and beauty of proportion which
characterized classical architecture. Just as Italy had inherited, in a
special sense, the traditions of classical literature, so it was natural
that it should be more directly affected than the rest of Europe by the
remains of Greek and Roman art. It is in harmony of proportion and
beauty of detail that the great charm of the best Renaissance buildings
consists.
[Sidenote: Niccola of Pisa, 1206-1280.]
It is, perhaps, in sculpture that the influence of the antique models
was earliest and most obviously shown. The sculptor, Niccola of Pisa
(Niccola Pisano), stands out as the first distinguished leader in the
forward movement. It is evident that he studied certain fragments of
antique sculpture--a sarcophagus and a marble vase that had been found
in Pisa--with the greatest care and enthusiasm. He frankly copied from
them many details, and even several whole figures, in the reliefs on his
most famous work, the pulpit in the baptistery at Pisa.[233] But while
sculpture was the first of the arts to feel the new impetus, its
progress was slow; it was not until the fifteenth century that it began,
in Italy, to develop on wholly independent and original lines.
[Sidenote: Frescoes and easel pictures.]
The paintings of the period of the early Renaissance were usually
frescoes; that is, they were painted directly upon the plaster walls of
churches and sometimes of palaces. A few pictures, chiefly altar pieces,
were executed on wooden panels, but it was not until the sixteenth
century that easel paintings, that is, detached pictures on canvas,
wood, or other material, became common.
[Illustration: Relief by Niccola of Pisa from Pulpit at Pisa, showing
Influence of Antique Models]
[Sidenote: Giotto, 1266(?)-1337.]
In the fourteenth century there was an extraordinary development in the
art of painting under the guidance and inspiration of the first great
Italian painter, Giotto. Before his time the frescoes, like the
illuminations in the manuscripts of which we have spoken in a previous
chapter, were exceedingly stiff and unlifelike. With Giotto there comes
a change. Antique art did not furnish him with any models to copy, for
whatever the ancients had accomplished in painting had been
destroyed.[234] He had therefore to deal with the problems of his art
unaided, and of course he could only begin their solution. His trees and
landscapes look like caricatures, his faces are all much alike, the
garments hang in stiff straight folds. But he aimed to do what the
earlier painters apparently did not dream of doing--that is, paint
living, thinking, feeling men and women. He was not even satisfied to
confine himself to the old biblical subjects. Among his most famous
frescoes are the scenes from the life of St. Francis,[235] a theme which
appealed very strongly to the imagination of people and artists alike
all through the fourteenth century.
[Sidenote: Renaissance artists often practiced several arts.]
Giotto's dominating influence upon the art of his century is due partly
to the fact that he was a builder as well as a painter, and also
designed reliefs for sculpture. This practicing of several different
arts by the same artist was one of the striking features of the
Renaissance period.
[Sidenote: Italian art in the fifteenth century.]
125. During the fifteenth century, which is known as the period of the
Early Renaissance, art in Italy developed and progressed steadily,
surely, and with comparative rapidity, toward the glorious heights of
achievement which it reached in the following century. The traditions of
the Middle Ages were wholly thrown aside, the lessons of ancient art
thoroughly learned. As the artists became more complete masters of their
tools and of all the technical processes of their art, they found
themselves ever freer to express in their work what they saw and felt.
[Sidenote: Florence the art center of Italy.]
Florence was the great center of artistic activity during the fifteenth
century. The greatest sculptors and almost all of the most famous
painters and architects of the time either were natives of Florence or
did their best work there. During the first half of the century
sculpture again took the lead. The bronze doors of the baptistery at
Florence by Ghiberti, which were completed about 1450, are among the
very best products of Renaissance sculpture. Michael Angelo declared
them worthy to be the doors of paradise. A comparison of them with the
doors of the cathedral of Pisa, which date from the end of the twelfth
century, furnishes a striking illustration of the change that had taken
place. A contemporary of Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia (1400-1482), is
celebrated for his beautiful reliefs in glazed baked clay and in marble,
of which many may be seen in Florence.
[Illustration: BRONZE DOORS OF THE CATHEDRAL AT PISA
(TWELFTH CENTURY)]
[Illustration: GHIBERTI'S DOORS AT FLORENCE]
[Illustration: Relief by Luca della Robbia]
One of the best known painters of the first half of the fifteenth
century, Fra[236] Angelico, was a monk. His frescoes on the walls of the
monastery of San Marco (and elsewhere) reflect a love of beauty and a
cheerful piety, in striking contrast to the fiery zeal of
Savonarola,[237] who, later in the century, went forth from this same
monastery to denounce the vanities of the art-loving Florentines.[238]
[Sidenote: Rome becomes the center of artistic activity.]
126. Florence reached the height of its preëminence as an art center
during the reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was an ardent patron of
all the arts. With his death (1492), and the subsequent brief but
overwhelming influence of Savonarola, this preëminence passed to Rome,
which was fast becoming one of the great capitals of Europe. The
art-loving popes, Julius II and Leo X,[239] took pains to secure the
services of the most distinguished artists and architects of the time in
the building and adornment of St. Peter's and the Vatican, i.e., the
papal church and palace.
[Sidenote: The church of St. Peter.]
The idea of the dome as the central feature of a church, which appealed
so strongly to the architects of the Renaissance, reached its highest
realization in rebuilding the ancient church of St. Peter. The task was
begun in the fifteenth century; in 1506 it was taken up by Pope Julius
II with his usual energy, and it was continued all through the sixteenth
century and well into the seventeenth, under the direction of a
succession of the most famous artist-architects of the time, including
Raphael and Michael Angelo. The plan was changed repeatedly, but in its
final form the building is a Latin cross surmounted by a great dome, one
hundred and thirty-eight feet in diameter. The dimensions and
proportions of this greatest of all churches never fail to impress the
beholder with something like awe.
[Sidenote: Height of Renaissance art.]
[Sidenote: Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raphael.]
During the sixteenth century the art of the Renaissance reached its
highest development. Among all the great artists of this period three
stand out in heroic proportions--Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and
Raphael. The first two not only practiced, but achieved almost equal
distinction in, the three arts of architecture, sculpture, and
painting.[240] It is impossible to give in a few lines any idea of the
beauty and significance of the work of these great geniuses. Both
Raphael and Michael Angelo left behind them so many and such magnificent
frescoes and paintings, and in the case of Michael Angelo statues as
well, that it is easy to appreciate their importance. Leonardo, on the
other hand, left but little completed work. His influence on the art of
his time, which was probably greater than that of either of the others,
came from his many-sidedness, his originality, and his unflagging
interest in the discovery and application of new methods. He was almost
more experimenter than artist.
[Illustration: St. Peter's and the Vatican, Rome]
[Sidenote: The Venetian school.]
[Sidenote: Titian, 1477-1576.]
While Florence could no longer boast of being the art center of Italy,
it still produced great artists, among whom Andrea del Sarto may be
especially mentioned.[241] But the most important center of artistic
activity outside of Rome in the sixteenth century was Venice. The
distinguishing characteristic of the Venetian pictures is their glowing
color. This is strikingly exemplified in the paintings of Titian, the
most famous of all the Venetian painters.
[Sidenote: Painting in northern Europe.]
[Sidenote: Dürer, 1471-1528.]
It was natural that artists from the northern countries should be
attracted by the renown of the Italian masters and, after learning all
that Italy could teach them, should return home to practice their art in
their own particular fashion. About a century after Giotto's time two
Flemish brothers, Van Eyck by name, showed that they were not only able
to paint quite as excellent pictures as the Italians of their day, but
they also discovered a new way of mixing their colors superior to that
employed in Italy. Later, when painting had reached its height in Italy,
Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein the Younger[242] in Germany vied with
even Raphael and Michael Angelo in the mastery of their art. Dürer is
especially celebrated for his wonderful woodcuts and copperplate
engravings, in which field he has perhaps never been excelled.[243]
[Sidenote: Rubens, 1577-1640, and Rembrandt, 1607-1669.]
[Sidenote: Van Dyck, 1599-1641, and his portraits.]
[Sidenote: Velasquez.]
When, in the seventeenth century, painting had declined south of the
Alps, Dutch and Flemish masters,--above all, Rubens and
Rembrandt,--developed a new and admirable school of painting. To Van
Dyck, another Flemish master, we owe many noble portraits of
historically important persons.[244] Spain gave to the world in the
seventeenth century a painter whom some would rank higher than even the
greatest artists of Italy, namely, Velasquez (1599-1660). His genius,
like that of Van Dyck, is especially conspicuous in his marvellous
portraits.
[Illustration: GIOTTO'S MADONNA]
[Illustration: HOLY FAMILY BY ANDREA DEL SARTO]
[Sidenote: Geographical knowledge in the Middle Ages.]
[Sidenote: Marco Polo.]
127. Shortly after the invention of printing, which promised so much for
the diffusion of knowledge, the horizon of western Europe was further
enlarged by a series of remarkable sea voyages which led to the
exploration of the whole globe. The Greeks and Romans knew little about
the world beyond southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia; and
much that they knew was forgotten during the Middle Ages. The Crusades
took many Europeans as far east as Egypt and Syria. As early as Dante's
time two Venetian merchants, the Polo brothers, visited China and were
kindly received at Pekin by the emperor of the Mongols. On a second
journey they were accompanied by Marco Polo, the son of one of the
brothers. When they got safely back to Venice in 1295, after a journey
of twenty years, Marco gave an account of his experiences which filled
his readers with wonder. Nothing stimulated the interest of the West
more than his fabulous description of the golden island of Zipangu
(Japan) and of the spice markets of the Moluccas and Ceylon.[245]
[Sidenote: The discoveries of the Portuguese in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries.]
About the year 1318 Venice and Genoa opened up direct communication by
sea with the towns of the Netherlands.[246] Their fleets, which touched
at the port of Lisbon, aroused the commercial enterprise of the
Portuguese, who soon began to undertake extended maritime expeditions.
By the middle of the fourteenth century they had discovered the Canary
Islands, Madeira, and the Azores. Before this time no one had ventured
along the coast of Africa beyond the arid region of Sahara. The country
was forbidding, there were no ports, and mariners were, moreover,
hindered in their progress by the general belief that the torrid region
was uninhabitable. In 1445, however, some adventurous sailors came
within sight of a headland beyond the desert and, struck by its
luxuriant growth of tropical trees, they called it Cape Verde (the green
cape). Its discovery put an end once for all to the idea that there were
only parched deserts to the south.
For a generation longer the Portuguese continued to venture farther and
farther along the coast, in the hope of finding it coming to an end, so
that they might make their way by sea to India. At last, in 1486, Diaz
rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Twelve years later (1498) Vasco da Gama,
spurred on by Columbus' great discovery, after sailing around the Cape
of Good Hope and northward beyond Zanzibar, steered straight across the
Indian Ocean and reached Calicut, in Hindustan, by sea.
[Sidenote: The spice trade.]
These adventurers were looked upon with natural suspicion by the
Mohammedan spice merchants, who knew very well that their object was to
establish a direct trade between the spice islands and western Europe.
Hitherto the Mohammedans had had the monopoly of the spice trade between
the Moluccas and the eastern ports of the Mediterranean, where the
products were handed over to Italian merchants. The Mohammedans were
unable, however, to prevent the Portuguese from concluding treaties with
the Indian princes and establishing trading stations at Goa and
elsewhere. In 1512 a successor of Vasco da Gama reached Java and the
Moluccas, where the Portuguese speedily built a fortress. By 1515
Portugal had become the greatest among maritime powers; and spices
reached Lisbon regularly without the intervention of the Italian towns,
which were mortally afflicted by the change.
[Sidenote: Importance of spices in encouraging navigation.]
There is no doubt that the desire to obtain spices was the main reason
for the exploration of the globe. This motive led European navigators to
try in succession every possible way to reach the East--by going around
Africa, by sailing west in the hope of reaching the Indies, before they
knew of the existence of America; then, after America was discovered, by
sailing around it to the north or south, and even sailing around Europe
to the north. It is hard for us to understand this enthusiasm for
spices, for which we care much less nowadays. One former use of spices
was to preserve food, which could not then as now be carried rapidly,
while still fresh, from place to place; nor did our conveniences then
exist for keeping it by the use of ice. Moreover, spice served to make
even spoiled food more palatable than it would otherwise have been.
[Illustration: The Voyages of Discovery]
[Sidenote: Idea of reaching the spice islands by sailing westward.]
It inevitably occurred to thoughtful men that the East Indies could be
reached by sailing westward. The chief authority upon the form and size
of the earth was still the ancient astronomer, Ptolemy, who lived about
A.D. 150. He had reckoned the earth to be about one sixth smaller than
it is; and as Marco Polo had given an exaggerated idea of the distance
which he and his companions had traveled eastward, it was supposed that
it could not be a very long journey from Europe across the Atlantic to
Japan.
[Sidenote: Columbus discovers America, 1492.]
The first plan for sailing west was, perhaps, submitted to the
Portuguese king in 1474, by Toscanelli, a Florentine physician. In 1492,
as we all know, a Genoese navigator, Columbus (b. 1451), who had had
much experience on the sea, got together three little ships and
undertook the journey westward to Zipangu, which he hoped to reach in
five weeks. After thirty-two days from the time he left the Canary
Islands he came upon land, the island of San Salvador, and believed
himself to be in the East Indies. Going on from there he discovered the
island of Cuba, which he believed to be the mainland of Asia, and then
Haiti, which he mistook for the longed-for Zipangu. Although he made
three later expeditions and sailed down the coast of South America as
far as the Orinoco, he died without realizing that he had not been
exploring the coast of Asia.[247]
[Sidenote: Magellan's expedition around the world.]
After the bold enterprises of Vasco da Gama and Columbus, an expedition
headed by Magellan succeeded in circumnavigating the globe. There was
now no reason why the new lands should not become more and more familiar
to the European nations. The coast of North America was explored
principally by English navigators, who for over a century pressed north,
still in the vain hope of finding a northwest passage to the spice
islands.
[Sidenote: The Spanish conquests in America.]
Cortez began the Spanish conquests in the western world by undertaking
the subjugation of the Aztec empire in Mexico in 1519. A few years later
Pizarro established the Spanish power in Peru. It is hardly necessary to
say that Europeans exhibited an utter disregard for the rights of the
people with whom they came in contact, and treated them with
contemptuous cruelty. Spain now superseded Portugal as a maritime power
and her importance in the sixteenth century is to be attributed largely
to the wealth which came to her from her possessions in the New World.
[Sidenote: The Spanish main.]
By the end of the century the Spanish main--i.e., the northern coast of
South America--was much frequented by adventurous seamen, who combined
in about equal parts the occupations of merchant, slaver, and pirate.
Many of these hailed from English ports, and it is to them that England
owes the beginning of her commercial greatness.[248]
[Sidenote: Copernicus (1473-1543) discovers that the earth is not the
center of the universe.]
128. While Columbus and the Portuguese navigators were bringing hitherto
unknown regions of the earth to the knowledge of Europe, a Polish
astronomer, Kopernik (commonly known by his Latinized name, Copernicus),
was reaching the conclusion that the ancient writers had been misled in
supposing that the earth was the center of the universe. He discovered
that, with the other planets, the earth revolved about the sun. This
opened the way to an entirely new conception of the heavenly bodies and
their motions, which has formed the basis of modern astronomy.
It was naturally a great shock to men to have it suggested that their
dwelling place, instead of being God's greatest work to which He had
subordinated everything, was but a tiny speck in comparison to the whole
universe, and its sun but one of an innumerable host of similar bodies,
each of which might have its particular family of planets revolving
about it. Theologians, both Protestant and Catholic, declared the
statements of Copernicus foolish and wicked and contrary to the
teachings of the Bible. He was prudent enough to defer the publication
of his great work until just before his death; he thus escaped any
persecution to which his discovery might have subjected him.
[Sidenote: Miscellaneous inventions.]
In addition to the various forms of progress of which we have spoken,
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the invention or wide
application of a considerable number of practical devices which were
unknown to the Greeks and Romans. Examples of these are, besides
printing, the compass, gunpowder, spectacles, and a method of not merely
softening but of thoroughly melting iron so that it could be cast.
[Sidenote: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries not merely a period of
revival.]
The period of which we have been speaking was, in short, by no means
merely distinguished for the revival of classical learning. It was not
simply a re-birth of the ancient knowledge and art, but a time during
which Europe laid the foundations for a development essentially
different from that of the ancient world and for achievements undreamed
of by Aristotle or Pliny.
General Reading.--The culture of Italy during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries is best treated by BURCKHARDT, _The
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy_ (The Macmillan Company,
$4.00). This is especially adapted for the rather advanced student.
The towns are interestingly described in SYMONDS, _Age of Despots_
(Scribner's Sons, $2.00). For Florence and the Medici, see
ARMSTRONG, _Lorenzo de' Medici and Florence in the Fifteenth
Century_ (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $1.50). MACHIAVELLI'S _Prince_ may be
had in translation (Clarendon Press, $1.10). The best prose
translation of DANTE'S _Divine Comedy_ is that of Charles Eliot
Norton (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 3 vols., $4.50). In ROBINSON and
ROLFE, _Petrarch the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters_ (G.P.
Putnam's Sons, $2.00), the reader will find much material to
illustrate the beginnings of humanism. The volume consists mainly
of Petrarch's own letters to his friends. The introduction gives a
much fuller account of his work than it was possible to include in
the present volume. For similar material from other writers of the
time, see WHITCOMB, _A Literary Source Book of the Italian
Renaissance_ (Philadelphia, $1.00). The autobiography of Benvenuto
Cellini is a very amusing and instructive book by one of the
well-known artists of the sixteenth century. Roscoe's translation
in the Bohn series (The Macmillan Company, $1.00) is to be
recommended for school libraries.
The greatest of the sources for the lives of the artists is VASARI,
_Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects_. This may be had in the Temple Classics (The Macmillan
Company, 8 vols., 50 cents each) or a selection of the more
important lives admirably edited in Blashfield and Hopkins'
carefully annotated edition (Scribner's Sons, 4 vols., $8.00).
Vasari was a contemporary of Michael Angelo and Cellini, and writes
in a simple and charming style. The outlines of the history of the
various branches of art, with ample bibliographies, are given in
the "College Histories of Art," edited by John C. Van Dyke; viz.,
VAN DYKE, _The History of Painting_, HAMLIN, _The History of
Architecture_, and MARQUAND and FROTHINGHAM, _The History of
Sculpture_ (Longmans, Green & Co., each $2.00). Larger works with
more illustrations, which might be found in any good town library
are: FERGUSSON, _History of Modern Architecture_, LÜBKE, _History
of Sculpture_, WOLTMANN and WOERMANN, _History of Painting_, and
FLETCHER, _A History of Architecture_. Two companies publish very
inexpensive reproductions of works of art: the so-called Perry
pictures at a cent apiece, and the still better Cosmos pictures
(Cosmos Picture Company, New York), costing somewhat more.
For the invention of printing see DE VINNE, _The Invention of
Printing_, unfortunately out of print, and BLADES, _Pentateuch of
Printing_ (London, $4.75). Also PUTNAM, _Books and their Makers
during the Middle Ages_, Vol. I (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $2.50).