RENAISSANCE 



6557 



RENAISSANCE 



patrons of learning, ecclesiastical 

 and lay by popes like Nicholas V, 

 secular rulers like Alfonso the 

 Magnanimous of Naples, and 

 wealthy merchant princes like 

 Cosimo de' 'Medici (1389-1464) of 

 Florence, and his grandson, Lor- 

 enzo the Magnificent (1448-92). 

 Florence was long the centre of the 

 new culture, but under Lorenzo's 

 son, Pope Leo X, Rome became 

 the intellectual capital of the 

 world. During his pontificate 

 (1513-21) learning and art nour- 

 ished in marvellous luxuriance, 

 but corruption and profligacy were 

 now rife, and it was a luxuriance 

 which suggested decay. His death 

 marks the end of the Golden Age 

 of the Italian Renaissance, the 

 history of which closes with the 

 sack of Rome, 1527, and the fall of 

 Florence, 1530. 



Influence in Germany 



Meanwhile the movement thus 

 initiated by Italy spread to other 

 countries. Roelof Huysmann, 

 better known by his Latin name 

 Agricola, was the first to carry into 

 Germany " out of Italy a breath 

 of the higher culture," but his 

 fame was soon overshadowed by 

 that of Johann Reuchlin, Melanch- 

 thon, and the wandering Dutch 

 scholar Erasmus, who may be 

 described as the great leader of the 

 Renaissance north of the Alps. 

 In Germany, however, the in- 

 terests of humanism were quickly 

 swamped by those of theology, and 

 the progress of the revival of learn- 

 ing was definitely arrested when 

 Luther plunged the country into 

 the fierce struggle with Rome. 



France on the contrary provided 

 a favourable soil for the Italian 

 seed. As early as 1458 Gregorio 

 Tifernas, a pupil of Chrysoloras, 

 had lectured on Greek at the Uni- 

 versity of Paris, and though little 

 came of it at the time his teaching 

 gave a first impulse to the Hellenist 

 revival. Then came Charles 

 VIIFs invasion of Naples, 1495, 

 which led to what Michelet called 

 the French " discovery of Italy," 

 and from the intellectual inter- 

 course between the two countries 

 thus opened up we may date the 

 real French Renaissance which 

 culminated under Francis I (1515- 

 47). During the 16th century 

 French scholars like Bud6 and the 

 younger Scaliger were well to the 

 fore among European humanists, 

 while the poet Ronsard and his 

 disciples of the Pleiade sought in- 

 spiration in the works of Greco- 

 Latin antiquity, thus inaugurating 

 the classic movement in French 

 literature. 



In England, too, the revival of 

 learning was the product of Italian 

 influence. From the middle of the 



15th century English scholars 

 began to cross the Alps to study in 

 the great Italian universities, and 

 what they learned at Padua, 

 Bologna, and Florence they taught 

 in turn at Oxford and Cambridge. 

 The pioneers of English humanism 

 were Thomas Linacre and William 

 Grocyn, who numbered among 

 their pupils at Oxford Sir Thomas 

 More and his friend John Colet, the 

 first important connecting link in 

 England between the Renaissance 

 and the Reformation. Henry 

 VIII's favour helped the progress 

 of the new learning among the 

 aristocracy. At the same time in 

 England, as in Italy, there was a 

 great general educational revival, 

 and many schools expressly de- 

 voted to such new learning were 

 established throughout the coun- 

 try, which diffused classical scholar- 

 ship in the rising generation and 

 greatly contributed to that splendid 

 outburst of literary activity which 

 gave glory to the Elizabethan Age. 

 Effects of the Movement 

 In its larger aspects the revival 

 of learning may be regarded from 

 two points of view : as providing 

 through the renewed study of the 

 classics fresh models of literary art, 

 and as bringing the mind of man 

 into living touch with the mind of 

 antiquity. On the one side it thus 

 led to a re-birth of literature in all 

 the great European nations ; on 

 the other, it broadened the intel- 

 lectual horizon, and generated a 

 liberal and progressive spirit. 



Bibliography. Skeptics of the R., 

 J. Owen, 1893 ; An Introduction 

 to the Study of -the R., L. F. Field, 

 1898 ; The Civilisation of the R. in 

 Italy, J. Burckhardt, Eng. trans. 

 4th ed. 1898; The Later R., D. 

 Hannay, 1898; The R. in Italy, 

 7 vols. J. A. Symonds, new ed. 

 1900 ; The Earlier R., G. Saints- 

 bury, 1901 ; The Italian R. in Eng- 

 land, L. Einstein, 1902 ; Cambridge 

 Modern History, vol. 1, The R., 

 1 903 ; History of Literary Criticism 

 in the R., J. E. Spingarn, 1908 ; 

 The R. and the Reformation, E. M. 

 Tanner, 1908; The French R. in 

 England, S. Lee, 1910; The R., 

 W. Pater, 1910 ; The R. in Italy, 

 France, & England, F. M. Simpson, 

 1912; Story of the R., W. H. Hudson, 

 1912 ; The R., E. Sichel, 1914. 



VI. H. Hudson 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE. 

 Name given to the style of building 

 practised in Italy and Western 

 Europe during the age of the re- 

 vival of classical learning. Some- 

 times the word is restricted to the 

 earlier phases of the process. In 

 modern England an alternative for 

 the term Renaissance architecture 

 was Italian style, but further study 

 has brought a knowledge of French, 

 German, Spanish, and other Re- 

 naissance styles. The English 



Renaissance style now applies 

 sometimes to the earlier works 

 only ; sometimes to the later and 

 more scholarly ones as well. The 

 phases are distinguished also by 

 separate names, as Elizabethan, 

 Jacobean, Stuart, Georgian, etc. 

 As examples of the Italian Re- 

 naissance style in England, S. 

 Paul's Cathedral and Somerset 

 House may be mentioned as known 

 to everyone. 



The art of N. Italy up to the 

 turning point towards the Renais- 

 sance had been Germanic, and its 

 centres were at Milan and Como. 

 We now name this art Lombardic ; 

 the old Italians themselves called it 

 the work of the Tedeschi or Goths. 

 During the 12th century a new 

 school of architectural workers was 

 formed in Rome ; they worked in 

 marble, and, refusing the barbaric 

 elements of Lombardic art, studied 

 the great buildings of antiquity 

 and learnt mosaic working from 

 the East. That this was a move- 

 ment consciously entered on by a 

 group or guild of artists inanational 

 spirit in opposition to the intrusive 

 Tedeschi is shown by the inscrip- 

 tions on a series of monuments, on 

 each of which the chief craftsman 

 signed his name, adding the proud 

 and significant words Civis Ro- 

 manus, definitely recalling the 

 ancient Civis Romanus sum. We 

 have in Westminster Abbey several 

 works of this kind executed be- 

 tween 1268 and 1280 ; one is 

 signed Petrus civis Romanus. 

 Growth of Scholarship 



As the study of antiquity pro- 

 gressed and Renaissance art spread 

 and gained strength, its character 

 changed, and free learning and the 

 borrowing from the old monuments 

 gave place to an accurate scholar- 

 ship which was imposed as a dog- 

 ma of true art. This stage was 

 reached in Italy in the 15th cen- 

 tury. Bramante was the great 

 Italian architect of the culminating 

 period, but a still more accurate 

 scholarship was attained by Pal- 

 ladio. Michelangelo played with 

 his precedents, and Leonardo da 

 Vinci reached emancipation by 

 experiment. 



Renaissance architecture was 

 thus in its essence an Italian art, 

 the product of a great movement, 

 nationalist and political as well as 

 artistic. Looking back to the great 

 ancient ruins which strewed their 

 land, it was natural enough that 

 the Italians should worship the 

 forms of classical art, and that all 

 others should be scorned as bar- 

 baric. Thus the free art of experi- 

 mental building became subject 

 to grammars of correct taste ; and 

 schemes of proportions were drawn 

 out from the accurate study of the 



