Erwin Panofsky 1892-1968

Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (1960)

Instead of a sense of continuity in the medieval period, people, at least cultural elites, in Renaissance thought of themselves as different and superior.

Renaissance, Renaitre ("to be reborn")

used by Giorgio Vasari in his history of painting.

Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) by Jacob Burckhardt

Renaissance

Humanism

1. A love and concern for human beings; Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
2. A preoccupation with this world and with its concerns; The Prince (1515) by Niccolo Machiavelli
3. A devotion to the humane disciplines, the litterae humaniores, the liberal arts
4. A particular fascination with the literary culture of classical antiquity
5. Civic humanism; the idea that human beings can live their life most fully in a free republic

Why it happened in Italy?

• A higher level of literacy and lay education
• Italians felt themselves more directly the heirs of Rome
• greater wealth in Italy, providing possibilities for patronage
• Italian society was less bound to feudal and chivalric values
• the development of printing made it possible for ideas to circulate much more quickly, cheaply and efficiently
• moved from urban setting to a royal, princely and court setting

Renaissance Chronology

• ca. 1300-1370, Individual geniuses
• 1370-1470s, The Florentine period
• 1440s-1500s The reception of the Renaissance