Spread of the Renaissance
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The Renaissance ideals first spread from Florence to the
neighbouring states of Tuscany such as Siena and Lucca. The Tuscan
culture soon became the model for all the states of Northern Italy,
and the Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the
region, especially in literature. In 1447 Francesco Sforza came to
power in Milan and rapidly transformed that still medieval city into
a major centre of art and learning. Venice, one of the wealthiest
cities due to its control of the Mediterranean Sea, also became a
centre for Renaissance culture, especially architecture.
In 1378 the Papacy returned to Rome, but that once imperial city
remained poor and largely in ruins through the first years of the
Renaissance. The great transformation began under Pope Nicholas V
who became pontiff in 1447. He launched a dramatic rebuilding effort
that would see much of the city renewed. |
As the papacy fell under the control of the wealthy families from
the north, such as the Medici and the Borgias the spirit of
Renaissance art and philosophy came to dominate the Vatican. Pope
Sixtus IV continued Nicholas' work, most famously ordering the
construction of the Sistine Chapel. The popes also became
increasingly secular rulers as the Papal States were forged into a
centralized power by a series of "warrior popes".
The nature of the Renaissance also changed in the late fifteenth
century. The Renaissance ideal was fully adopted by the ruling
classes and the aristocracy. In the early Renaissance artists were
seen as craftsmen with little prestige or recognition. By the later
Renaissance the top figures wielded great influence and could charge
great fees. A flourishing trade in Renaissance art developed. While
in the early Renaissance many of the leading artists were of lower-
or middle-class origins, increasingly they became aristocrats.
As a cultural movement, the Italian Renaissance affected only a
small part of the population. Northern Italy was the most urbanized
region of Europe, but three quarters of the people were still rural
peasants. For this section of the population life was essentially
unchanged from the Middle Ages. Classic feudalism had never been
prominent in Northern Italy, with the peasants mostly working
private farms or as sharecroppers. Some scholars see a trend towards
refeudalization in the later Renaissance as the urban elites turned
themselves into landed aristocrats.
In the cities the situation was quite different. They were dominated
by a commercial elite, which was just as exclusive as the
aristocracy of any Medieval kingdom. It was this group that was the
main patron of and audience for Renaissance culture. Below them
there was a large class of artisans and guild members who lived
comfortable lives and had significant power in the republican
governments. This was in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe where
artisans were firmly in the lower class. Literate and educated, this
group did participate in the Renaissance culture. The largest
section of the urban population was the urban poor of semi-skilled
workers and the unemployed. Like the peasants the Renaissance had
little effect on them. One debate among historians is on how easy it
was to move between these groups during the Italian Renaissance.
There are a number of examples of individuals who rose from humble
beginnings to the elite, but Burke notes that there have been two
major studies in this area and both have found that the data do not
clearly demonstrate an increase in social mobility. Most historians
feel that early in the Renaissance social mobility was quite high,
but that it faded over the course of the fifteenth century.
Inequality in society was very high. An upper class figure would
earn hundreds of times more than a servant or laborer. Some
historians feel that this unequal distribution of wealth was
important to the Renaissance, as art patronage relies on the very
wealthy.
The Renaissance was not a period of great social or economic change,
only of cultural and ideological development. It only touched a
small fraction of the population, and in modern times this has led
many historians, such as any that follow historical materialism, to
reduce the importance of the Renaissance in human history.End of the Italian RenaissanceThe end of the Renaissance is as imprecisely marked as its starting
point. For many, the rise to power in Florence of Girolamo
Savonarola in 1497 marks the end of the city's flourishing. This
austere monk rode to power on a widespread backlash over the
secularism and indulgence of the Renaissance – his brief rule saw
many works of art destroyed in the "Bonfire of the Vanities" in the
centre of Florence. While Savonarola's rule quickly collapsed and
the Medici returned to power, the counter movement in the church
continued. In 1542 the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition was
formed and a few years later the Index Librorum Prohibitorum banned
a wide array of Renaissance works.
Just as important was the end of stability with a series of foreign
invasions of Italy known as the Italian Wars that would continue for
several decades. These began with the 1494 invasion by France that
wreaked widespread devastation on Northern Italy and ended the
independence of many of the city-states. Most damaging was the May
6, 1527, Spanish and German troops sacking Rome that all but ended
the role of the Papacy as the largest patron of Renaissance art and
architecture. Due to the instability and the contact with foreign
rulers a number of Italy's greatest artists chose to emigrate. The
most notable example was Leonardo da Vinci who left for France in
1516. This spread north was also representative of a larger trend.
No longer was the Mediterranean the 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
Iberia, France and England. These areas quickly far surpassed Italy
in wealth and power. However, while the Italian Renaissance was
fading, the Northern Renaissance in these other lands adopted many
of its ideals and styles. |
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