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 GREAT AGES OF MAN
A History of the World's Cultures

RENAISSANCE
by

JOHN R. HALE
and

The Editors of TIME-LIFE Books

TIME INCORPORATED, NEW YORK

THE AUTHOR: John R. Hale is chairman of the Department of History at the
University of Warwick in England. Formerly a Fellow and Tutor at Jesus College,
Oxford, he has taught at Cornell University. He is widely regarded as one of
Britain's leading Renaissance scholars. His publications include England and the
Italian Renaissance, Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy, The Evolution of British
Historiography, and a volume of translations of Machiavelli's letters and plays.

THE CONSULTING EDITOR: Leonard Krieger, formerly Professor of History

at Yale, now holds the post of University Professor at the University of Chicago.
He is the author of The German Idea of Freedom and Politics of Discretion.

THE COVER: A chalk drawing depicts a mercenary captain, one of the many con-
dottieri who served all of the Renaissance Italian states in their interminable wars.

TIME-LIFE BOOKS GREAT AGES OF MAN

SERIES editor: Harold C. Field

Editorial Staff for Renaissance:

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Assistant Editor: Betsy Frankel

Maitland A. Edey
Designer; Norman Snyder
Copy Editor: Paul Trachtman
Jerry Ko
Sfa/f Writers: Gerald S Edmund Whiee
Chief Researcher: Carlolta Ker'

Assistant Art Director: Arnold C. Holeywell Picture Research: Dori Watson

Assistant Chief oi Research MoWxaaO- Home Text Research: Terry Drucker

Carol Isenberg, Irene Ertugrul,

PUBLISHER Patricia Skinner, Linda Wolfe

Rhett Austell
General Manager: Joseph C. Hazen Jr. EDITORIAL PRODUCTION
Business Manager: JoJin D. McSweeney Color Director: Robert L. Young
Circulation Manager: Joan D. Manley Copy Staff: Marian Gordon Goldman.
Rosalind Stubenberg, Dolores A Littles

Art Assistants: Douglas B. Graham, Anne Landry,

Robert Pellegrini, Leonard Wolfe. David Wyland
Picture Bureau: Margaret K. Goldsmith. Patricia Ma

Valuable assistance in the preparation of this volume of the Great Ages of Man was
provided by Doris
O-Neil, Chief of the Life Picture Library: Content Peckham, Chief of the Time Inc
Bureau of Editorial
Reference; Richard M. Clurman, Chief of the Time-Life News Service; and
the following correspondents:
Ann Natanson, Erik Amfitheatrof (Rome), Katharine Sachs (London) and Maria Vincenza Aloisi (Paris).

Renaissance © 1965 Time Inc.

All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.

Library of Congress catalogue card number 65-28051.

School and library distribution by Silver Burdett Company.
 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

THE BREAK WITH THE MIDDLE AGES lo

1 Picture Essay: A PASSION FOR THE PAST 21

THE VARIETY OF ITALY 30

Picture Essay: A RENAISSANCE JOURNEY 39

MANNERS AND MORALS 52

3 Picture Essay: THE FERMENT OF FAITH 63

FLORENCE: INTELLECTUAL DYNAMO

4 Picture Essay: THE QUEST FOR FAME
74
85

THE TRIUMPH OF ART 96

Picture Essay: THE MASTERWORKS 107

A CREATIVE ELITE ns
6 Picture Essay: THE SCOPE OF GENIUS 129

WAR AND POLITICS i38

7 Picture Essay: THE CARNIVAL SPIRIT 149

RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH i6o

8 Picture Essay: A NEW VIEW OF MAN 171

APPENDIX 181
Chronologies, 181 ; Artists of the Renaissance, 184
Note: the present locations of all
WORKS OF ART REPRODUCED IN THIS BOOK, BIBLIOGRAPHY, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CREDITS 186
AND THE NAMES OF THEIR CREATORS, ARE
LISTED ON PAGES 186-187. INDEX 188
RENAISSANCE
 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays historians habitually break history into in scholarship, literature and especially in archi-

ages or periods— the Homeric Age; the Periclean tecture, sculpture and painting, that has ever since
Age; the Middle Ages; the Renaissance; the En- remained a wonder of the world. As his story
lightenment; and others. Among all these ages the gradually comes to a brilliant focus on the living
Renaissance in Italy holds a special place. First, it center of the Renaissance, the city of Florence in

is the subject of the most famous of histories of a the 15th Century, Professor Hale dispels the mi-

civilization, Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of asma of myth that for some has concealed rather
the Renaissance in Italy, written a century ago. than disclosed the age of the Renaissance— a spuri-
Because Burckhardt's book has been so long pre- ous compound of frivolity, swagger, unrestrained
eminent and because it focused on Italy in the 15th violence, uninhibited lechery and unlimited assas-
Century, it made the history of that place and sination. The creators of Renaissance Florence were

time the forum in which the general problems of sober men, mostly businessmen, family men, and
the history of civilization were earliest discussed in an unspectacular way religious men; and they
and have been most vigorously dealt with. Thus for built a soberly beautiful city whose great monu-
a long while the Renaissance was, and perhaps it ments are its magnificent religious buildings and its

still remains, the best laboratory for the study of great private houses and the paintings and sculp-

a historical period. tures with which its citizens adorned them.

Moreover, the Renaissance era in Italy is the Secondly, having engaged his readers with the
first age in the history of civilization to discover spirit of the Renaissance, Professor Hale stands
itself as an age. The Egyptians of the Old King- back from the spectacle and seeks the peculiar con-
dom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Empire, juncture of circumstances that fostered that ex-
and the Europeans of the Middle Ages did not traordinary flowering of genius, 500 years ago,
think of themselves as living in those particular which had as its center a city a good bit smaller
epochs. But many of the leading men of the age than Trenton, New Jersey. Employing the best and
of the Renaissance were acutely conscious of living newest historical investigations, he relates the geog-

in a new era of human history, an era marked pri- raphy of Italy, the economic and social character-

marily not by its political organization or its reli- istics of the life of its cities, its eccentric politi-
gion, but by its civilization. cal development, and the intellectual labors of its

In Renaissance, Professor John Hale has per- scholars to the achievements of the Renaissance.
formed a remarkable and admirable threefold feat Finally he adapts his prose style to his purpose;

of history writing. In the first place he has cap- for he writes like what he writes about. His style

tured and transmitted the sense of excitement with is clear, vigorous and sober, yet illuminated with
which Italians of the Renaissance greeted their two flashes of wit and sharpened by shrewd, hard-
great discoveries— their discovery of classical an- headed observations. In this he writes in a way
tiquity and their correlative discovery of them- that harmonizes elegantly with the way the Flor-
selves. These two produced a burst of achievement entines, who above all made the Renaissance, lived.

J. H. HEXTER
Yale Universitv
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 Human nature does not change much. Men have
always liked food and warmth, raised families,

felt happier when the sun shone than when it

rained, wanted peace and fought wars, created deli-

cate works of art and committed violent crimes.

Yet there have been periods in history when men
thought that the lives they lived and the ideas
they held made their age strikingly different from
the one before it. Of all such ages the Italian Ren-
aissance is perhaps the most famous. The men of

the Renaissance thought of their time as one in

1 which mankind changed fundamentally.

Later historians have sometimes agreed, some-
times disagreed with this point of view. Did the
THE BREAK Italian Renaissance represent a complete break with
the Middle Ages? Did Modern
WITH THE MIDDLE AGES Man? Would a 20th Century
it see the birth of

man feel at home if a

time machine could transport him back to Venice
or Florence or Rome in the age of Petrarch, Machia-
velli and Leonardo da Vinci? How different was
Renaissance man from his medieval predecessors?
How different was he from the man of today?

The important development that we call the Ren-

aissance actually began in Italy in the waning
years of the Middle Ages, about 1300 A.D. Giotto,
the most revolutionary painter of his day, was then
33; Dante, author of the Divine Comedy, 35. By
the middle of the 14th Century, the Renaissance
had become a distinct and recognizable cultural
movement. Over the course of the next 200 years—

until the sack of Rome by the soldiers of Charles

V, ruler of the Germanic empire beyond the Alps

—the world as Dante and Giotto saw it was trans-

formed. Men and nature were treated not as gen-

eralizations of themselves, but as individual beings

and things, interesting for their own sake.

In a typical painting of the late 13th Century the

human figures are flat and unreal— it is difficult to

imagine them speaking. Buildings are symbolic

objects, not places to live in; the landscape is dec-
orative but impossible to walk through. Near things
and far, big things and small are shown without
relation to each other; everything is confused. The
artist indicates trees and hills, but he does not open
a window onto a particular, believable piece of the
ENRAPTURED SINGERS, in a 15th Century relief, were carved for a choir loft

of Florence's cathedral. "People run into the churches as they were thea-
world.
if

ters," Erasmus observed, "for the sake of the sensuous charm of the ear." By the 15th Century, however, painters were

11
 ITALY DURING THE RENAISSANCE

A PATCHWORK OF STATES, studded with important cities, is re- Papal States— formed the Italian league, primarily to prevent any

vealed in this map of Renaissance Italy. The various state boun- member from gaining dominance. A shaky political balance was
daries (broken lines) became relatively stable in 1454, when the maintained until the French invasions began in 1494. During this

Peace of Lodi ended a long period of internecine wars. In 1455 40-year period of general peace, the city-states were bustling cen-

the five chief powers— Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples and the ters of art and culture, and the Renaissance neared its apogee.

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painting animated, three-dimensional people; it is of Latin," and observe that it was only 50 or 60

possible to look at Ghirlandaio's men and women years before his own time "that men's minds were
and imagine what they are thinking or are about sharpened and awakened."
to say. The rooms they walk through and the coun- The learning that Filarete was referring to was a

tryside beyond are a record of what these things secular learning. In contrast to the largely theologi-
really look like: the artist is looking at the world cal studies of the Middle Ages, it was based on an
with something like a photographer's eye. But how avid study of classical authors. To go forward it

far does this record of reality— as presented by the was necessary to go back; to advance from the
poets and statesmen of the period, as well as the Middle Ages it was necessary to return to antiquity

artists— correspond with modern notions of reality? and relearn the lessons which had enabled Rome
Were the men of the Renaissance truly as different to produce her great civilization. Medieval scholars
from medieval men as they seem? Or is the differ- had known about men like Vergil, Ovid and Cicero,
ence simply one of changing fashions in the way Aristotle and Plato; but not until the 14th Century,

men wrote and painted and sculpted? and then only in Italy, was an attempt made to

There is no doubt about the opinion of the peo- see the whole classical world as a culture in its own
ple of the time. It was Renaissance Italians who right. The study of this culture came to be called

invented the term "Dark Ages." They looked back humanism. And humanists were concerned not
on the barbarian invasion of Rome as the drawing only with discovering and editing Greek and Ro-
down of a coarse blind, and on the intervening 10 man books, but with sorting out those elements
centuries as a period of trance. It was, to them, in ancient thought which could help men live bet-

both a joy and a duty to force the blind up again, ter, more responsible lives. They turned to Rome
to breathe life into the literature, the monuments not only for instruction about law, politics and the
and the values that had made Rome great. arts, but even for moral guidance.
To this task they brought a growing spirit of The key to understanding this fascination with
confidence, strengthened by the existence of men antiquity lies in the economic and political life of

of genius in every branch of art and learning. the Italian states— "Italian states" rather than "Ita-
There were poets and scholars like Petrarch and ly "
because the dissolution of the Roman Empire
Boccaccio, sculptors like Donatello, architects like had also dissolved the peninsula's political unity.
Brunelleschi, painters like Masaccio— to pick out Northern Italy became part of the old Empire s

only a few. No wonder Matteo Palmieri, writing young successor, the German-centered, German-
in the mid-15th Century, could joyfully exhort his governed Holy Roman Empire. Central Italy was
fellow man to "thank God that it has been per- dominated by the political power of the papacy. A
mitted to him to be born in this new age, so full branch of the French dynastic house of Anjou ruled
of hope and promise, which already rejoices in a southern Italy as the Kingdom of Naples. But even
greater array of nobly-gifted souls than the world these divisions were not cohesive within them-
has seen in the thousand years that have preceded selves. In the north, the city-states of Venice and
it." No wonder the Renaissance architect Antonio Milan went their own way, independent of the
Filarete could characterize the Middle Ages as a Germanic emperors. In the center, important towns
crude era, one in which "learning was lacking in like Bologna were largely free from papal influence.
Italy, people became vulgar in speech and ignorant And from the late 13th Century onward there was

13
constant rivalry between the Kingdom of Naples location made it a hub for such traffic, or like

and various Sicilian cities and towns controlled by Milan, which became a way station for transalpine

the Spanish house of Aragon. export into the heart of Europe.

Until the beginning of the 14th Century, none This precocious economic development produced
of these individual political units was sufficiently a power structure that was peculiarly Italian. In-

autonomous or prosperous to produce a vigorous stead of being centered in the great landed estate,

culture of its own. Then, in the comparatively brief as elsewhere in Europe, power was centered in the

period of a few decades, autonomy was achieved in town. Beginning in the 12th Century, the feudal
a series of crises. lords of the Italian countryside had been forced
In 1305 the papacy left Rome, finding that brawls to become citizens of the nearest town. Only by
among the major Roman families made its con- doing so could they share in its prosperity and re-

tinued existence there intolerable. It went north tain some semblance of political influence over its

into France and settled, finally, at Avignon, where government. By the late 13th Century this urbani-
it stayed for 70 years. In its absence the former zation of power was complete. Florence had risen

papal territories were divided among leading local to such an impressive combination of wealth and
families and became independent city-states. Short- social coherence that it could challenge a Pope.

ly afterward, in 1313, northern Italy also gained When Boniface VIII demanded that the Florentine
independence. Henry VII, ruler of the Holy Roman government reverse a sentence that displeased him,

Empire, lost political control of the province of Florence replied that he had no business interfer-
Lombardy, leaving the northern Italian cities free ing in "the policies and decisions of the Florentine

to pursue their own interests without glancing con- commune."

stantly across the Alps for approval. At the same By the 14th Century, through the accumulating

time, Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, attempted profits of trade and industry, Italian cities had be-
and failed to dominate all of Italy, and in the proc- come lavish patrons of the arts. Florence, for ex-

ess weakened his hold over his own southern ter- ample, had begun to build its vast cathedral, Santa

ritories. Although never entirely free from the Maria del Fiore. Not even a period of depression,
threat of outside influence (France, Spain and Ger- aggravated by the Black Death— the terrible plague
many all continued to have ambitions on the penin- that devastated Europe in the middle of the 14th
sula), the cities and states of Italy were at last in a Century— failed to stem the flow of patronage.
position to think almost exclusively about them- When profits fell, Italian merchants and bankers
selves. learned to become more efficient in their business
By this time the larger Italian cities were thriv- methods. It was Italians who pioneered much of

ingly prosperous. Italy as a whole had the immense what later became standard capitalist practice:

advantage of being situated right in the heart of partnership agreements, holding companies, ma-
the greatest trading area in the medieval and Ren- rine insurance, credit transfers, double-entry book-
aissance world, the Mediterranean basin. Coastal keeping. And, as the depression deepened, Italian

towns like Genoa and Venice had unique opportu- businessmen invested in culture for its permanence
nities, and took them. In addition, many of the of value, much as anxious businessmen buy fash-
goods imported by sea were redistributed by land, ionable art today.
bringing prosperity to towns like Florence, whose Wealth, however, cannot buy culture, it can only
 buy its works. Culture is nourished by money, but
its nucleus is a wider exposure to learning. During
the Renaissance, to get rich and to stay rich re-

quired a relatively high standard of education. First

and foremost, this education was utilitarian: a man
could not be successful in commerce and industry
without knowing how to read and write and being
skillful at figures. But the ways of the Renaissance
world required something further. More business
meant more partnership agreements, more com-
plicated wills, more conveyancing— in shdrt, more
law. Legal studies boomed steadily throughout the

Renaissance, attracting the largest enrollment at

universities, and causing professors of law to be

paid among the highest of academic salaries. And

as the city-states grew, the business of government
became more complicated, creating a demand for a

well-educated secretariat at home and for diplomats

who could speak with persuasion and eloquence
abroad.
There was, then, a steadily increasing pressure

for a more practical kind of education than the one

provided by the theological studies of the Middle
Ages. Professional skills were needed— also worldly
attitudes. The humanistic program of studies took

DISPUTING WITH THE DOCTORS in the temple at Jerusalem, a youthful shape to provide them. This program involved the
Christ IS pictured at the center of this glazed Renaissance plate. The reading of ancient authors and the study of such
border of the plate, dettsely decorated with a variety of musical in-
subjects as grammar, rhetoric, history and moral
struments, tradesmen's tools and implements of war, reflects the
spirit of an age that did not separate religious and secular interests.
philosophy. By the 15th Century such a course
was known as stuiiia humanitatis, or "hu-
officially

men who pursued this knowledge

manities," and the
came to be known as humanists.
Humanism means something different today, but
in the Renaissance it stood for a view of life that,

while devoutly accepting the existence of God, shared

many of the intellectual attitudes of the ancient

pagan world. It was interested in esthetics, saw

the usefulness of a knowledge of history, and was
convinced that man's chief duty was to enjoy his
life soberly and serve his community actively. Thus
humanism restored to balance the scales which the pioneers intent upon carrying out humanist reform.
Middle Ages had tilted with a concern for eternity. By the end of the 13th Century, lawyers in the

It stressed earthly fulfillment rather than prepara- northern Italian cities, especially in Padua and Ve-
tion for paradise. It had its spiritual side, but it rona, were displaying a lively interest in the poetry,

reflected a society that was more interested in world- as well as the history and law, of ancient Rome.
ly matters— a society that was practical, canny, self- They were searching in libraries for forgotten manu-
conscious and ambitious. scripts and reading them with scholarly zest. Like

But humanism could not become a real move- their humanist successors, they were concerned with
ment, involving a whole society, until that society establishing the correct words of a text and attribut-

had a positive need to learn about the classical past ing them to the right author. This desire to rub the

—until it saw in the wisdom of Rome an answer patina from medieval glosses, and bring up the

to its own problems. The classical revival was pre- original, bright and clear, gave the Renaissance a

ceded not only by modifications in the small world firsthand knowledge of what the ancients had ac-

of medieval university curricula, but by an irra- tually said, and enabled it to speak with them di-

tional yearning for change that spread through the rectly, across the centuries.

whole medieval world. The Middle Ages may look It is difficult to imagine the excitement that at-

static, but in fact they were characterized by con- tended this unearthing of new and purer texts,

siderable dissatisfaction. Men sensed that things this tuning in on voices that spoke with such joy
were not going as they should— in either church or and conviction about the noblest, most triumphant
state— and longed for some sort of regeneration, age that Italy has ever known. Above all, since

some sort of revival. Rome, once the secular as well most of the ancient writers studied were Roman,
as the spiritual capital of the world, became the it was an intensely personal excitement. The Italian

focus of these aspirations. Men yearned for the re- humanists were discovering their own ancestors,

birth, the renaissance, of Rome's past glories. finding buried treasure in their own house. To
Paradoxically, the first activists in this move- Petrarch, Cicero was not just a dusty sage, but a

ment arose within a profession that normally op- real person to whom he could write a letter— and
poses change: the law. To meet the demands did. To Machiavelli, banished from political life,

of a more complex society and a more involved living in squalor and inactivity on a small farm

economy, lawyers began to re-examine the great outside Florence, nothing was sweeter than to lock
codes of ancient Roman law, the Digest and the himself away in his study; there he could forget the
Codex. Instead of simply relying on abstracts pre- humiliating present and "converse" with the great
pared by medieval commentators, they began to Roman figures of the past, learning how they coped
pay attention to what had been in the minds of with the crises of their world, applying their solu-
the actual compilers of these great legacies. And in tions to the crises of his own.
the course of relating their problems to decisions This desire to imitate and learn from the long-
handed down in antiquity, they had to imagine the dead Romans led men of the Renaissance to study

conditions of life in ancient Rome. This led them principally the historians, men like Livy and Taci-
to other classical works and, inevitably, from read- tus. But the writings of such men as Quintilian
ing for business to reading for pleasure. Thus a and Cicero were almost as important. Their theo-

highly conservative profession became a hotbed of ries on education, on the qualities of character and
 a

mind that best suited a man to meet the challenges rect her. But sometimes she merges with Occasio to
of the Roman world, were thought to be equally become a hurrying woman, long hair waving for-
applicable to the world of the 14th and 15th Cen- ward from the front of her head, entirely bald in
turies. One Roman quality particularly stressed was the back. All was well if a man moved swiftly
that of all-round competence, which became the enough to seize her forelock; all was lost if he
hallmark of Renaissance man. It was from these grabbed too late. Chance was no longer something
Roman theorists also that the Renaissance adopted to dread, but something to take advantage of. Pru-
the belief that a man's learning should be put at dence and skill— active qualities that allowed a man
the disposal of others, that he should live an active to manipulate his destiny— became more popular
civic life rather than revel privately in the delights than wise saws that put man's fate in the hands
of scholarship. of Cod. The dolphin-and-anchor emblem of the
Consequently, while many medieval scholars had famous Renaissance publishing house, the Aldine
been recluses, concerned with solitary meditations press, summed up the ideal of the age: activity
on metaphysical matters, the Renaissance scholar tempered by restraint— the dolphin's speed, the
was much more likely to be a public figure— anchor's drag.
teacher, a propagandist, a diplomat, a secretary of Although it is true that Renaissance Italy was
state. Even a Pope could subscribe to this view. In publicly violent and given to grandiloquent dis-
his treatise on education, written in the middle of plays, the most singular element in the private life

the 15th Century, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, then of the times may have been moderation. Men were
a bishop but later to become Pius II, deprecated an able to accept opposing points of view. They did
overabsorption in studies like dialectic and geom- not challenge Christian doctrine, but neither did
etry because they diverted a boy's attention from they think it the only source of guidance for an
real life. Teachers turned their backs on the medie- honorable and useful life. Thinkers like Pico della

val idealization of poverty, celibacy and seclusion, Mirandola drew upon Plato, upon the religious
and instead praised family life and the wise use of teaching of Persia, upon Arabic philosophy, upon
riches. A monastery cell and unwashed feet were the Jewish cabala. Writers like Petrarch and Leon
no longer felt to be prerequisites for the develop- Battista Alberti saw no conflict between the moral
ment of the mind; learning was best pursued in teaching of Cicero and the Christian ethic. While
some degree of material comfort. Man's role in medieval theology was still taken for granted, men
history was no longer a passive one in which he turned their attention to elaborating a philosophy
waited fatalistically for death or the Second Com- of man.
ing of Christ. Physical adversity was regarded not In the Middle Ages to praise man was to praise

as the inevitable punishment for sin but as the God, for man was a creation of God. But Renais-
aimless working of chance, a whim of the goddess sance writers praised man himself as a creator.
Fortuna. And Fortuna could be countered by sharp- They played down the sinfulness he was born with
eyed resourcefulness. and emphasized his ability to think and act for

In fact, Fortuna was one of the two most popu- himself, to produce works of art, to guide the des-
lar emblems of the Renaissance; the other was Oc- tiny of others. They freed man from his pegged
casio, opportunity. Fortuna is often shown in a place in the medieval hierarchy, halfway between
boat, with a rudder and sail so that a man can di- matter and spirit, and allowed him to roam at will.
through all the levels of being, sometimes identify- ple, language. A man can best explain himself and
ing himself with the brutes, sometimes with the his world in his own language, the vernacular.

angels. He was seen as the ruler of nature— the lord, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio were all intensely

although not the Lord, of creation. and successfully personal writers in the common
This new vision of man sprang from a height- tongue of their day— but they were prestigious ex-
ened awareness of self. Medieval men had been ceptions. Almost everyone else was influenced by
preoccupied with searching their souls, but Renais- Rome; it became fashionable to write in Latin. Not
sance men were much more intrigued with explor- until late in the 15th Century, when the powerful

ing, and indeed parading, their own personalities. Lorenzo de' Medici chose to compose poems in the

Petrarch is a perfect example. Although his serious dialect of the Tuscan common man, did the vernac-
interests centered on his work in discovering and ular begin to gain respectability. Then, through
editing ancient texts, Petrarch was also interested the works of men like Machiavelli and Castiglione,
in himself. In his letters, designed for posterity as literature assumed its primary function of helping
well as his friends, he left a record of his reactions a society to understand itself.

to love affairs and friendship, to mountains and the The intluence of the past was strengthened by
flowers in his garden. They are an intellectual and the fact that the Renaissance had no conception of
emotional self-portrait, the first since antiquity. evolutionary progress. Men did not believe, as

It was in this same spirit of self-interest that modern men do (with misgivings), that society
men began to call attention to themselves as unique can steadily improve itself by inventing new ways
and individual beings. Composers began to sign to exploit natural resources and organize economies
their music. Around 1340 a self-confident Floren- and governments. Their impulse was to rediscover,

tine banker had the audacity to have his portrait not invent. They sought to improve man's condi-
painted for his tomb, and in 1453 Piero de' Medici tion not by looking forward to the frontiers of
commissioned a portrait bust of himself. One of knowledge, but by looking back to its reservoirs.

Michelangelo's greatest sculptures, the Julius mon- It seemed to the Renaissance that the ancients had
ument for St. Peter's in Rome, celebrated a single done nearly everything about as well as it could be
Pope— on the Pope's orders. Another of Michelan- done. Change was possible; indeed, each new gen-
gelo's designs, the chapel for the Church of San eration of painters was praised because it was
"

Lorenzo in Florence, was commissioned by the "more modern "

than the last. But "more modern,
Medici to memorialize two members of their fam- to the Renaissance, really meant closer to the pre-
ily. And an interest in one man as an individual cepts laid down by Rome.
prompted Boccaccio, in his life of Dante, to attempt It is never altogether healthy for a society to

to describe a man's personality instead of merely model itself on the past— men's attitudes and the
rattling off a string of edifying anecdotes about his circumstances of their lives change too much. To
accomplishments. "think like a Roman was "
helpful in some spheres,
But humanism was not an unmixed blessing. like politics or law; irrelevant in others, like busi-

While the rediscovery of the culture of ancient ness; disruptive in still others, like religion. If the
Rome speeded Renaissance man in the direction he Renaissance had its dark side, its pessimism and
wanted to go, it also imposed its own itinerary. In discontent, some of the uneasiness was surely due
some ways it was not a good one. Take, for exam- to this fact. Renaissance intellectuals were trying
 to travel in shoes that had been borrowed from
other men, and the shoes did not always fit.

But there was another source of this discontent.

This was the demand made upon the individual by

the new attitude toward knowledge. In the Middle
Ages the painter, the philosopher, the writer had
used their talents for a single purpose— to praise
God and make His purposes plain. But in the Ren-
aissance each branch of intellectual activity became
distinct from other branches, and each was justi-

fied in terms of its means rather than its end. That

is, a painting succeeded in terms of its excellence as
a painting, quite apart from the purpose for which
it was painted.
For art and science to evolve, this disassociation
from a common purpose was essential. A painter
must study art for art's sake before painting can
advance technically. A politician must study the
science of governing to deal effectively with politi-
cal crises. But as the branches of the tree of knowl-
edge grow outward, the shade beneath it ceases to
be so snug and sheltering. When a painter becomes
conscious of technique, a certain harmony between
him and his object is destroyed. When a politician

has to choose between morality and expediency, it

places a burden on his conscience. Renaissance men

struggled with these problems, and the pain they ex-
perienced in the struggle is familiar. In our day,

too, knowledge has outstripped our ability to come

•-MA ATIONIN PORTRAiTL'Rh Mino da Fiesc •..,-•:. study of Piero to terms with it. But would the problems themselves
de' Medici, done in 1453, was the first portrait bust made since the
seem familiar to us? Some would, and some would
fall of ancient Rome. Piero's composure is all the more remarkable be-
not.
cause chronic illness plagued him throughout his life. The Florentines
called him "il Gottoso," or "the Gouty." According to Machiavelli, he Certainly we would recognize the general con-
was often so wracked that "he could use no faculty but that of speech." cern for political and constitutional issues. Al-
though the Renaissance had no mass media to keep
public opinion informed, the smallness of the Ital-
ian states made it possible for their citizens to

know what was going on. And the ephemeral na-

ture of most of the governments produced a steady

stream of domestic crises and scandals to whet pub-

19
lie interest. Furthermore, until the 16th Century, and justice is the path of the highest virtue, the
"

when foreign monarchs dominated some parts of highest honor, the highest reward.

Italy and princely dynasties ruled others, power But there is one element in Renaissance intellec-
was in theory in the hands of the people. tual life that would seem strange to us: despite

We would also recognize the attitudes of the outward appearances, its scientific outlook had al-

Renaissance businessman and lawyer, and the feel- most nothing in common with our own. Leonardo
ing of the Renaissance artist that he was a genius, da Vinci could say, "It seems to me that those sci-

not just a craftsman. We could echo— with perhaps ences are vain and full of error which do not spring
a few reservations— the confident assertion made by from experiment, the source of all certainty," but

Gianozzo Manetti in 1452 that God may have cre- Leonardo was talking about the construction of
ated the world but that thereafter man transformed locks and canals and the building of machines, not
and improved it: "For everything that surrounds us investigations of the physical universe for the dis-
is our own work, the work, of man: all dwellings, covery of general laws.
all castles, all cities, all the edifices throughout the For a knowledge of such matters the Renaissance,
whole world, which are so numerous and of such once again, went back to the classics— to Aristotle
quality that they resemble the works of angels for physics, to Galen for medicine. Scientific curi-

rather than men. Ours are the paintings, the sculp- osity was mostly devoted to fact-finding, and the
tures; ours are the trades, sciences and philosophi- inspiration for this was provided not by science it-

cal systems. Ours are all inventions and all kinds self, but by art. It was art that pioneered the study
of languages and literary works, and when we think of anatomy and the construction of systems of
about their necessary employment, we are com- mathematical perspective. The experiments the
pelled so much the more to admiration and aston- Renaissance conducted were, by and large, experi-
ishment." ments to find out how a thing worked. And the
Finally we would recognize the intellectual con- purpose of the experiment often seems trivial: Le-
cerns of the Renaissance scholar, his search for onardo's famed "flying machine "
was designed to

truth and his willingness to attack long-held beliefs make a chariot-drawn model of an angel flap its

when they seemed false. The activities of Lorenzo wings as it was pulled through the streets of Milan
Valla, for instance, would not seem strange to us. during one of the city's numerous carnivals.

In 1440 Valla wrote a treatise proving that the Do- The revolution in ideas about the physical nature
nation of Constantine was a forgery. Since the Do- of man and the universe did not get under way un-
nation, a document allegedly written in the Fourth til the Renaissance was nearly over— not until 1543
Century, formed the basis of the papacy's claim to did Copernicus publish his work on the solar sys-
territorial power in Italy, Valla's attack was shock- tem and Vesalius, in the same year, publish his
ing. But his methods were those that scholars still work on human anatomy. But the Renaissance col-
use today: through critical study of word usage lected a good part of the material that sparked the
and historical references, he showed that the docu- revolution and, more important, it initiated the
ment could not have been written until the Eighth intellectual attitudes that made the revolution pos-
Century. And his philosophical position was stated sible. Renaissance man may not have been the
in terms that might have been used by a modern in- "first modern man," but he was surely his imme-
tellectual: "To give one's life in defense of truth diate precursor.
AN AVID ANTIQUARIAN, the rich Venetian Andrea Odoni admires his famous collection of ancient art in this portrait by Lorenzo Lotto.

A PASSION FOR THE PAST

In mid-14th Century Italy, humanism was an idea whose hour had come. Its ap-
peal—to revive and share in the glories of classical antiquity— proved irresistible

to an urbane elite jaded with the faith-oriented culture of the Middle Ages. Men
of learning, genius and wealth embraced the new movement with missionary
zeal. They eulogized Latin as "the sweetest, richest and most cultured" of all

languages. Latin literature and Greek ideals became the basis of an elaborate
program of classical education. With boundless energy humanists excavated
ruins, created libraries and filled their homes with a splendid bric-a-brac of an-
cient coins, vases and statuary. Just as their cause gave the age its name (Renais-
sance means "rebirth"), their zest and self-confidence set the temper of the time.

21
FOUNTAINHEAD OF
A NEW AGE
In seeking knowledge and inspiration, the
Italian humanists turned first to their cul-
tural fountainhead, the city of Rome. One
of their greatest scholars, Poggio Braccio-
lini, spoke for them all when, viewing the
results of centuries of callous neglect, he
lamented that the ancient capital "now lies

prostrate like a giant corpse, decayed and

everywhere eaten away." The noble Forum,
seen at right in a painting by the Flemish
sojourner Paul Brill, had become a slum for
squatters (left) and a pasture for livestock
(right). It was popularly called the "Campo
Vaccina," or the "Cowfield."
From the ruined city the humanists
wrung a bountiful harvest. In the 1440s
the papal secretary Flavio Biondo, who has
been called the father of modern archeol-
ogy, systematically catalogued the surviv-
ing monuments. In his two encyclopedic
works, Rome Triumphant and Rome Re-
stored, he used relics, inscriptions and
early chronicles to give the Renaissance its

first real look at the manners and customs,

the forums and arenas of imperial Rome.
Thereafter excavators working under a
succession of antiquarian popes made
many momentous finds, unearthing such
celebrated works of ancient sculpture as
the Apollo Belvedere, the Vatican Venus
and, amid the rubble of the Baths of Titus,
the powerful Laocoon.
By the early 1500s a century of excava-
tion had transformed Rome into a vast
museum. In 1519 Pope Leo X solemnized
the humanists' wedding of the present and
past by appointing the painter Raphael,
one of the finest artists of the Renaissance,

as superintendent of Rome's antiquities.

^
5
A DUTIFUL SCHOOLBOY Studies Cicero as a guide to a successful
life. Many elite youths had humanist tutors; others— including
some who were poor but gifted— attended schools run by humanists.

SPREADING A NEW GOSPEL

The humanist credo enjoined its followers to trans-
mit as well as to accumulate knowledge. Honoring
this ideal, the classicists developed a rich curricu-

lum and a cadre of dedicated educators. Clerics

and noblemen spent fortunes to find and copy great
works and to make them available to the public.
The Duke of Urbino, creating what an aide called
"the finest library since ancient times," kept 40
scribes busy for 14 years. One monk went into
debt collecting classics; after his election as Pope
Nicholas V, he acquired several thousand volumes
which became the foundation of the Vatican li-

brary. Nicholas claimed no greater distinction than

that he was generous "in the purchase of books,
in the constant transcription of Greek and Latin
manuscripts and in the rewarding of learned men." A MODEl HUMANIST, Cardinal Bessarion studies classical literature in a
» "i
 - ~ i ^ i
prrrmytt rcu cry .yuan •An.p"mmui«,m ,

^mmitt y,.l .lui rcplctccT^

S
.

f^V^V

ANCIENT HANDMAIDENS, ffjf Three Graces— Verdure, CTl.i,/)us- dud SylcuAor—do a MEDIEVAL FIGURES in a Tuscan manuscript, the Graces
sinuous dance in a robust Greco-Roman fresco painted in the First Century A.D. retreat behind a blanket inscribed with verses in Latin.

AN ART IN PRAISE OF HUMAN BEAUTY

Humanism's debt to the classical past, and its re- and bodiless. Humanists denounced such works
jection of medieval culture, are clearly revealed in as "A caricature of . . . human delineation."
the three works of art shown on these pages. All The 15th Century painter Sandro Botticelli was
depict the Three Graces, attendants of the goddess no doctrinaire humanist, but his art radiates the
of love. In the classical version, above at left, the spirit of the classical revival. His famous version
Graces are full-bodied dancers, painted to idealize of the Three Graces (opposite) restores them to

human beauty. In the Middle Ages, however, the joyful movement and once again revels in their
human form was no longer admired for its own beauty. To the ancient theme, Botticelli added the
sake, and the Graces, above at right, became flat elegance, grace and new sophistication of his age.

RENAISSANCE GRACES, a detail from Botticelli's "Primavera,"

display a rhythm and vitality stressed by their swirling veils.
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS, a fresco by Raphael, sums up
' classical knowledge and glorifies its Renaissance devotees by depicting great men from both
ages ,n the same scene. A, center Anstotle debates with a
wh.te-hearded Plato-whon, Rarhar! .

res of Leonardo da Vine

 ;ij

J, .1 It? (f jf
 Much of the vitaUty of the arts and political insti-

tutions of Renaissance Italy arose from the penin-

sula's physical diversity. At first glance it may seem
as if Italy— surrounded on three sides by the sea,
and guarded in the north by the towering arc of the
Alps— ought to have something of the unity of an
island. Instead, it is a land of fragments. It is di-

vided, first of all, by its sheer length. Starting near

the Teutonic heart of Europe, it runs some 700 miles
south, to end only 100 miles from the Moslem coast

2 of
axis,
North Africa.

neighbor
northwest
at
It is

to southeast,

one pole and taking

also divided

it
by the
making Provence
to within
tilt of

50 miles
its

its

of Albania at the other. Finally, divided by the

THE VARIETY OF ITALY Apennines, the mountains that run
it is

like an arthritic

backbone from Liguria in the northwest to Calabria

in the south. Invading peoples washing down from
the north and in from the sea drained away into

scattered pools among the mountains' spurs.

Not surprisingly the early Italians turned their
backs on the hostile and unprofitable mountains
and looked outward, absorbing influences from
abroad that made them still more unlike one an-
other. The sea, which washed the varied flotsam
of Mediterranean culture— Spanish, Arab, Greek—
onto the peninsula's long coastline, also took Ital-

ian traders outward, to set up colonies in England,

Spain and on the shores of the Black Sea. The Al-
pine passes, which had brought wave after wave of
invasion into Italy, also carried Italian merchants
north to the markets of Germany, France and the
Low Countries. From all these places they brought
back alien cultural influences. Milan, near the ter-

minus of an Alpine pass to the north, has a German

Gothic cathedral; Venice's splendid San Marco,
many-domed, sheathed in marble and lined with
mosaic, is like the Byzantine churches of Istanbul.
Geography and trade made Italians more cosmo-
politan than homogeneous, and singularly local in
their political outlook. Not until the 15th Century,

responding to the innovations of Florentine art,

did the rest of Italy look inward for an indigenous
style in which to paint and carve and build. Not
until the second half of the 19th Century did all

Italians rally round a common flag.

THE MARBLE BAPTISTERY of Pisa, a Romanesque and Gothic structure, was
completed in the 14th Century. It stands in striking contrast to the medi- The history of Renaissance Italy has then to be
eval city walls in the distance and the baroque fountain in the foreground. written in parallel columns— one for the monarchy
31
of Naples, one each for the republics of Florence permitted— through war, a lucky purchase, a for-

and Venice, one for the dukedom of Milan, one each tunate marriage. The most sensational bid for wider

for the petty despots who controlled— or tried to authority during the Renaissance was made by one
control— the political fates of cities like Rimini, ruler of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Late in the

Faenza, Imola, Forli. To understand the Renaissance 14th Century Visconti, a Milanese aristocrat, gained
it is not necessary to follow the fate of all of them, control of nearly all Lombardy, the greater part of
but it is essential to grasp this fact: that Italy, in Tuscany and a number of cities in the Papal States.

its variety, offered unique opportunities in art and He was on the point of crushing Florence when
politics and business. suddenly he died. Yet Visconti did not think of this

Geography, of course, was not the only factor domain as a state so much as a collection of per-

that prevented political union. Ever since the Mid- sonal properties: in his will, he divided it among
dle Ages Italy had been divided in its loyalties be- his children.

tween Guelph and Ghibelline— between the forces Nevertheless the Italian people had not forgot-
that supported the authority of the papacy and ten that once upon a time their whole country had
those that supported the authority of the secular been unified. Their regional dialects might look dif-

rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. Cities, and fac- ferent in print, but they were all versions of one
tions within cities, supported first one side and language. During the 14th Century, when the Ital-
then the other, depending upon which offered great- ians' interest in antiquity quickened, this conscious-
er advantages. This pattern of shifting loyalties ness increased. They became aware not only of a
persisted even when the original rivalry ceased— as former unity, but of a common heritage of political
it did by the end of the 13th Century— to have any greatness and cultural achievement. Cities took
real force. It persisted in a system of flexible alli- pride in their origin as Roman colonies or military
ances, a sort of rudimentary balance-of-power camps. And however fierce the antagonisms be-
arrangement, that prevented any one city from ac- tween their governments, all Italians believed that

cumulating' too much authority. the civilization they had in common was far supe-

Not that any state ever really thought of con- rior to most others. Like their ancestors they looked
trolling the whole of Italy: the Renaissance had no upon most non-Italians as barbari, barbarians.
conception of the larger political unit called a na- For the most part, however, these links with an-
tion. Although city-states constantly tried to ex- cient Rome were seen as a cause for pride, not as a
pand, pushing and rubbing against one another's call to action. Only once did a Renaissance ruler
borders in a constant friction of small wars, the attempt to bring the Roman Empire back to life.
reasons were always limited and local— prestige, In 1347 Cola di Rienzo, a young Roman notary,
greed, security. Ultimately the most successful cities seized the Roman government and resurrected for
became territorial states, but none possessed the himself the old Roman title of Tribune of the Peo-
bureaucratic equipment, the military strength or ple. Calling himself Champion of Italy and Friend
the psychological predisposition to go farther afield of the World, he invited the rest of Italy to join
than this. him in a federation of states. But the peninsula was
And even territorial expansion was still seen too faction-ridden to subscribe to a central govern-
largely in terms of personal aggrandizement. A des- ment, and Rienzo was too hectic a visionary to be
pot extended his political influence as his situation taken seriously. The Florentine historian Giovanni
 rar

,^V^'»^J^

X'illani, recording that "Rienzo wanted to bring all

^^^' .

Italy under the obedience of Rome in the way of

E (XVA SI
long ago, "
added a significant comment: "The en-
'

terprise was fantastic and could not endure.

The Italians are not an idealistic people. Their

strongest feelings are reserved for the world they

can see— for their families, for the town where they
were born and its surrounding countryside. Even
today, to be a native of Milan or Venice or Bologna
means more to the average Italian than to be a

native of Italy. To Renaissance Italians, "Italy"

meant even less. It was a word that stood for some-

thing in battle, a rallying concept to use against
French and Spanish enemies. But it did not conjure

up a picture of Italian lions and lambs lying down

together when peace was resumed. Alliances were
formed to preserve the status quo, not transform
it. To a friend who once wrote suggesting that the
Italian states form a union to guard themselves
against the ambitions of France and Spain, Machia-
velli penned a tart reply: "Don't make me laugh."
The only common policy among the Italian states

was an agreement to differ, and during the course

of the Renaissance their differences became very
marked. Earlier, in the Middle Ages, the most com-
mon form of government had been the republican
A FAMOUS POLITICAL MEETING between Pope Paul II and the Holy Roman Em-
commune, a voluntary organization of the mer-
peror Frederick III is memorialized in this intricate allegory. Each element
had meaning to 15th Century Italians; though no one can be certain today, chants who had actually created the city— as a clus-
the symbols were probably read this way: The Pope has a snake around his ter of shops within or near the protecting shadow
neck to symbolize the hostility of Milan, but he is supported by his author-
of a cathedral or monastery or some feudal lord s
ity as Patriarch of Rome, represented by the wheel on which his foot rests.

The Emperor stands on a lion, symbol of his ally. Burgundy. Both have a foot
castle. In those days the offices of government were
on the ship of state (the Empire), the Emperor for obvious reasons, the Pope held by responsible men elected by their fellow citi-
because he had power over parts of it. The steps by which Paul consolidated zens, members of the city's merchant class.
his position as Pope are noted on the rungs of the ladder. The moneybag
But with rising prosperity society became more
dangling from the Emperor's neck is a reminder of his ambition and avarice.
complex, subdividing into many more economic
and social groups. Tension developed between these
groups, which led to conflict, which in turn led to
deadlocks that could be resolved only by turning
over the power of state to one man. Thus arose the
despots, the signori, men who were called in— or
who stepped in— to deal with an emergency and
found it convenient not to leave. By the middle of
the 15th Century this practice was so general that
there were few genuine republics left. And in only
one of these did republican government survive
without diminution or interruption.
Venice, isolated by its lagoons and untroubled
by any political or territorial commitments on the
mainland until the 14th Century, had concentrated
all its attention on its overseas trade. Venetian
ships handled much of the pilgrim traffic to the

Holy Land; Venetian agents bought up Indian

spices, carpets, damasks and jewels in Alexandria
and Beirut, wood and furs from Scandinavia, wool
from England, cloth from Flanders, and wine from
France. With an empire of trading posts in the
Aegean and the Levant, it had become the richest
and at the same time the least Italian of the Italian

city-states. Its bazaars were a cosmopolitan bustle

to which all nationalities were welcome: few places
had less prejudice against Jews, and even Moslem
infidels were free to buy and sell there.

This open-minded pursuit of the ducat made

Venice rich and aroused the envy of the rest of
Christendom, for the riches were not concealed.
The piles on which the city was built groaned
under the weight of the palaces of its merchant
princes. In 1495 a French ambassador, Philippe de

Commines, reported: "the houses are very large

and lofty, and built of stone; the old ones are all

painted, those of about a hundred years standing

THE ARSENAL IN VENICE is depicted in this animated print. The
are faced with white marble from Istria . . . and Italian legend explains that beyond this gate "galleys and other
inlaid with porphyry and serpentine. Within they war vessels aremade continually, and these people whom you see
are the workmen." The second caption reads: "Here the workmen
have, most of them . . . rich marble chimney-pieces,
are paid." This state-run shipyard became the largest industrial
bedsteads of gold color, their portals of the same,
complex of the Renaissance, employing thousands of workers and
and most gloriously furnished. In short, it is the using production methods that presaged the modern assembly line.

most triumphant city that I have ever seen, the

most respectful to all ambassadors and strangers,
governed with the greatest wisdom, and serving
God with the most solemnity."
 This solemnity was displayed in a specifically lative body, and also, directly or indirectly, the
Venetian manner. The city's religious processions members of the much smaller executive body, the

were as much civic as ecclesiastical ceremonies; Collegio (or cabinet) as well as the doge and his

officers of state paced, soberly gorgeous, among six councillors.

the representatives of religious orders. And the The symmetry of this pyramid was complicated
most splendid of Venetian churches, San Marco, by one additional organ of government, the Council
was not its cathedral, but the private chapel of the of Ten, elected annually by the Great Council to

doge, the head of the Venetian state. handle emergencies involving the safety of the

The state, in fact, played a unique role in the state. The Ten provided the speed, and the lifetime

whole life of Venice. It not only dominated the dogeship the continuity, that enabled Venice to

Church, but it owned the largest industrial enter- meet external crises without becoming involved in

prise, the Arsenal, an enormous dockyard. It leased internal crises as well. Other states reacted to the

the Arsenal's galleys to individual merchants. And shock of wars and financial disaster by firing their

although each merchant's business was a matter of leaders or tinkering with their forms of govern-
his own private initiative, Venetian trade as a ment. But the Venetian government continued to
whole was subject to state planning. It was the function in even the most calamitous times. It

state that distributed licenses for overseas trade, could not have done so, however, without the exist-
the state that determined the routes and times of ence of still another factor: the strong sense of
sailing for the six trade convoys which left Venice unity that bound together the entire population.
annually— one to Greece and Constantinople; one Unlike other Italian cities, Venice had no old
to the Black Sea; one each to Syria, Egypt, the landed aristocracy to absorb into its new merchant
north coast of Africa; and one to England and class. Although the members of the Great Council
Flanders. Regulations were designed to prevent any thought of themselves proudly as nobility, they
licensee from becoming too rich and to save any had for generations engaged in trade and saw noth-
who were in danger of going bankrupt. ing demeaning in it. As merchants they understood
The Venetian capitalist accepted these measures the artisans and craftsmen with whom they had
because he had come to think of his personal inter- business dealings, and were shrewd enough to in-

ests as bound up with those of the state. The clude them in the religious and patriotic festivals
state's navy patrolled the sea lanes along which his that were a feature of Venetian life. There were no
cargoes moved; its diplomats negotiated the treaties political assassinations in Venice, no proletarian
through which he obtained goods from distant, revolts, and comparatively little of the group rival-

sometimes hostile, lands. The taxes imposed on ry that plagued the decision-making procedures
him were imposed by men whose concerns were of other republican cities.

identical to his own, for the government was com- Ironically, however, Venice's successful republi-
posed of men like himself. canism had less influence on the founders of later

Citizenship in the Venetian republic was restrict- constitutional governments than the Renaissance
ed to the men of some 200 patrician families. To- republics that failed. It was the sense of failure,

gether these men formed the Great Council, the and the attendant heart-searching, that provided
base of the governmental pyramid. The Council the beginnings of modern political thought. It was
elected the members of the Senate, the chief legis- not Venice in its greatness, but Florence in its de-

35
 ^

cline that produced Machiavelli, the most original

poHtical thinker of the Renaissance. MachiavelH
was concerned not with celebrating victory, but
with analyzing the causes of defeat. His city, un-
like Venice, was not of one economic mind, and
antagonism between its classes was much sharper.
In Florence, banking and industry, as well as
trade, were strongly developed businesses and Flor- IDENONTIE Sf-XRETE COMTRO
entine businessmen at times pulled against each ^vr^. GONTK aT»>ANDIEKI .
;''":

other. They were also prey to internal strains. Manu- E"I TKASCK£5'SQPvl^-' o,-;
facturers were exposed to the threat of foreign com- IN OCNI SQIVTHDI OCX^ ^-

petition and the vagaries in price and availability

MOUTHS OF TRUTH" decorated the facades of government
of raw materials, especially of wool for the textile
buildings in Venice. The mouths of the masks were slots
industry. Bankers loaned money to foreign princes into which Venetians dropped denunciations of suspected
on such uncertain collateral as next year's taxes, criminals. The head above was for "secret denunciations

of smugglers"; the one below for unmasking bribers and

subjecting the stability of their firms to forces out-
grafters— "anyone who conceals gifts or remunerations."
side their control. To these problems were added
an accusation proved false, the informer was fined.
If

the unexpected strains of disasters such as the

Black Death, which in the mid-14th Century wiped
out half the labor force vital to Florentine industry.
(Venice, too, was affected but, relying less on labor,

was left comparatively better off.)

But the factor which toppled most of the com-

mune-republics and produced periodic convulsions
in those that survived was the combat between dif-
ferent classes. All of them were trying to make the
most of the economic advantages of urban life, and
some, in addition, were trying to maintain the pres-
tige earned through dignified birth. The latter were DKNONTIE SFCRETR
descendants of the old feudal nobility, men whose
i::oN'rKo ciii occ
taste for fighting and scorn of mere citizens had
(iRATlK I'f Oi
not been entirely dulled by long residence in towns.
In the second half of the 15th Century the caste-
COLLVDKRA PER
consciousness of this group was intensified. This
'
N/\S(:0N]1E]^
was partly because rulers like the kings of Naples
and the Sforza despots of Milan were increasingly
satisfying their military leaders with grants of land

and using men of the noble class, rather than middle-

class professionals, to administer their outlying pos-

sessions. In the republics it was the affluent and

leisured middle class that intensified class-con- most governments relied not on citizen soldiers but

sciousness—by admiring the chivalrous aristocracy on hired professionals. Any attempt to combine
whose tastes and manners did not smack of the in protest against working conditions was quick-
countinghouse. ly detected by the merchant and shopkeeper guilds,

Then there was the commercial class, itself di- and punished.
vided by rivalry between family groups and by an- Except by serving as a mercenary, it was virtual-

tagonism between established families and the "new ly impossible for a poor man to better his condi-

men. "
The former had built up the economic for- tion. He might be favored by a commander for

tunes of the state and formed a patrician group; bravery in battle, but in industry he was ignored.
the latter continually broke into their charmed cir- Patrician merchants spoke of having their sons
cle through business enterprise or wealthy marriage. learn the business from the bottom up, but the
Members of this employer class were known as bottom was the front of the shop, not the fac-

popolo grasso, the "fat men." Below them were the tory floor. The presence of the proletariat can be

"little people," the popolo minuto, composed of felt in literary references to the wit and ingenui-
shopkeepers, craftsmen, notaries and merchants ty of the common man, and its pressure upon events
with small family businesses. Lowest of all, and larg- can be sensed from the references to politicians
est in number, were the unskilled or semiskilled wooing the people in moments of crisis. But it can-
workers— largely illiterate— who storm into the pages not be seen as a calculable force.
of history only in moments of revolt. The same cannot be said for the other three
We know least about this largest class. We have groups— the nobility, the popolo grasso and the
no letter from a Renaissance workingman, no diary, popolo minuto. Their efforts to affect the course of
no monument to his memory. From baptismal rec- public affairs reduced the governments of most
ords we may find his name; from marriage registers, republics to political confusion. In Siena, for in-
whom he married; from hospital records, what he stance, by 1355, the nobles had been excluded from
died of. But the man himself remains silent. Many, public affairs and the city was governed by a group
perhaps most, of his number lived very near the of rich bankers and merchant-industrialists, the
subsistence level. Except for a brief period between upper middle class. Then, in that same year, fol-

1378 and 1382, when the Florentine woolworkers lowing a number of bank failures, this group was
revolted and won a voice in the government, he replaced by a government of midd/e-middle-class
had no official organization and no political force. citizens: judges, notaries and physicians. By 1369,
He was not allowed to form guilds to protect him- through a series of revolts, power had passed to

self against his masters. He was a beast of burden the lower middle class— small merchants and thriv-
driven by a society which at every level was inter- ing artisans. In 1371 another revolt, aimed at mov-
ested only in making a profit out of his labors. ing power still lower in the social scale, failed. It

Apart from the decades of underpopulation that was followed by 14 years of minor crises until

followed the Black Death in 1348, the continual finally, in 1385, the administration was more or

immigration of peasants into the city meant that less stabilized through an uneasy coalition of all

there was always unemployment. Workers could three middle classes.

not afford to strike. They could not even exert In Genoa a similar pattern of internal confusion
pressure by refusing to serve in the army, since was complicated still more by outside interference.

37
Genoa was coveted by Milan as a sea outlet for its these governments had offered unrivaled opportu-
commerce, and by France as a port of entry to the nities. The average Italian was more likely to play

Italian peninsula in time of war; at various periods a part in guiding the fortunes of his state than his
during the Renaissance, Genoa was forced to accept contemporaries elsewhere. And the state, because
the suzerainty of one or another of the two powers. of its smallness, gave him a unique introduction
Beginning in 1499 the city was ruled for nearly into public affairs. Bombarded with a constant
a decade by a French governor, with the support of stream of political crises and constitutional experi-
the Genoese aristocracy. The popolo grasso, whose ments, he was, for his time, the best-trained politi-

loss of political power should logically have forced cal animal in Europe.
them into an alliance with the popolo minuto, hesi- Similarly, Italy's head start into capitalism— into

tated, partly out of distaste for the lower middle an economy based on money-wealth rather than the
class, partly out of sympathy with the aristocratic ownership of land— enabled its merchants and bank-
way of life. In hesitating, they lost the chance to ers to survive the economic depressions and epidem-
regain a dominant role in the government. Instead ics of plague that swept Europe in the 14th and
the popolo minuto and the workers took the initia- 15th Centuries. Capitalistic practices, with their
tive and attempted a revolt that failed bloodily in greater complexity, made Italian businessmen at

1507. Thereafter Genoa was ruled by its aristocracy first more vulnerable to these catastrophes. But
and was only nominally a republic. in the end their broadly based economic skills

All over Italy by the middle of the 16th Century, equipped them to recover. They invented better
the merchant commune had all but disappeared. bookkeeping methods, learned to use the cushion
Tradesmen no longer put up their shutters for the of diversification, arranged more flexible credit fa-

afternoon to go and sit in some council of state. cilities, streamlined and subdivided work processes
The great bell of Florence no longer summoned to cut down costs and raise production.

Florentine citizens to give their assent to a change But Italians were not only more astute politically

in government. States were ruled by princes and and economically than their European fellow men;
dominated by aristocratic courts whose members they were also better educated. From the public
were occasionally of ancient noble birth, but more interest shown in art to the scorn heaped in popu-
often were "aristocratized" merchants. It seemed lar literature upon stupid country yokels, it is ap-
almost as though the feudal lord of the Middle Ages parent that the Italians as a people cared about
had, as it were, bided his time, ridden out the "dem- learning, and were interested in many matters be-
ocratic" storms and returned in triumph, armed yond those immediately involved in earning a living.
with a balance sheet rather than a lance. Artisans paid attention to the changing political
In leaving behind their age of rowdy experiment, and financial fortunes of their vigorous, gossiping

the Italians also left behind one of history's great cities; intellectuals, observing the whole peninsula,
testing periods of government of and by the people. were acutely conscious of its varying governments
The republics had their flaws: their ruling bodies, and methods of doing business. The endless shades
with membership terms of usually no more than of difference in Italian civic life powerfully affected

six months, lacked continuity; their appointments, all its citizens, stimulating each man to bring his

made by election and lot, often put unqualified men talents, whether for art or business, into the open
into important positions. But for all their faults —to be sharpened by competition.
A CITY OF SHIPS, Venice was a center of travel during the Renaissance. It was a startinj^ point for many pilgrimages, by sea and over land.

A RENAISSANCE JOURNEY
Any journey was a hazardous venture in Renaissance Italy. Travelers often car-
ried their own luggage, took potluck at the public inns, risked run-ins with the
armed brigands who loitered along the roads. A long trip, one wayfarer said,

required "the back of an ass, the belly of a hog and a conscience as broad as
the king's highway." Nevertheless, merchants regularly traveled throughout
Italy, while pilgrims from the far corners of Europe flocked to Rome, the capital
of Christendom. The pictures that follow retrace a trip from Venice to Rome,
with all the wonders and pitfalls characteristic of the time and the place.

39
 MOORED GONDOLAS, flf the entrance of Venice's Grand Canal, bob
behind a stone lantern. During the Renaissance, the city was
filled with some 10,000 gondolas— more than serve Venice now.

THE SUMPTUOUS, FLOATING

WORLD OF VENICE
Venice was a natural place to begin a long journey,
for the Venetians were among Italy's most travel-
minded people, and Renaissance tourists besieged
the city. For the host of visiting pilgrims, mer-
chants, artists and adventurers, special guides were
available to point out the sights and see that inno-
cents were not fleeced in the shops. From canopied
gondolas (right), travelers gaped at the hundreds
of Byzantine palaces shimmering above the water,
at the great market square, the huge arsenal and
glassworks— and at the women with their painted
faces, low-cut gowns and high-heeled shoes.
Leaving this gilded, opulent city, travelers set-
ting out on the long overland journey toward Rome
outfitted themselves for the rigors of the road with

broad hats, boots, breeches, gloves— and extra pairs

of overalls for nights spent in dirty public inns.

VENETIAN BOATERS take gondolas along the Grand Canal, as pe-

destrians use sidewalks on its banks. This 15th Century work by
Vittore Carpaccio shows the old Rialto drawbridge over the canal.

40
 ^v,. :

f}'

1*1 V-:
 THE PASTORAL BEAUTY
OF THE PO VALLEY
Outside Venice, the way to Rome took travelers
through the broad, flat Po River Valley. Crossing
this fertile terrain of farmlands, meadows, orchards,
vineyards and woods, wayfarers could glance back
at the distant ridges of the Alps. Ahead lay the

Apennines, and then Florence. This luxuriant val-

ley, called the garden of Italy, seemed like a cornu-
copia: it poured forth fruits, flowers and vegetables
in such abundance that one weary pilgrim said a

first view "did . . . tickle my senses with inward joy."

UMBRELLA PINES etch delicate shapes against the sky. These trees, celebrat-

ed by Renaissance poets, are still landmarks of the Italian countryside.

/--:
-^
<- r^

M
 A ROADSIDE VENDOR offers fruits to wayfar-
ers in a painting by Vincenzo Campi. Ven-
dors set up stands outside towns to avoid
paying tolls on their produce at the town gate.

A LABORIOUS ASCENT faced travelers as they

left the Po Valley for the foothills of the Ap-
ennines. The trip from Venice to Florence,
about 150 miles, took as long as two weeks.

^•3S^;*i^ "^^.i^M
A SKYLINE IN STONE, the profile of Florence featured the central Duomo, Giotto's marble belltower to its left and a medieval city hall, at right.

A DOMED SHOWPIECE, the Duomo dominated Florence. Michelangelo said

that he could construct a dome "bigger, yes, but not more beautiful."
FLORENCE: NOBLE HOME
FOR A VITAL PEOPLE
Seeing Florence from the surrounding sandstone
hills, a 15th Century traveler from Venice sensed
a great difference in the two cities. In contrast to
the watery splendor and gaiety of Venice, Florence
revealed itself in severe towers and austere build-
ings. Most imposing was the great cathedral (left).

A traveler who lingered in Florence found the

people an enigmatic breed. On the streets of the
city, illiterate workmen went about singing verses
from Dante's Divine Comedy. High culture was a

part of everyday life, yet Florence was also a city of

down-to-earth, fast-talking merchants— gifted, as

people said, with "sharp eyes and pointed tongues."

CLOAKED TRAVELERS stand On a streetcorner in Florence, looking

for a night's lodging. All of the city's public inns were located
on a single street, and their management was strictly regulated.
A LONELY VILLA, built during the Renaissance,

occupies a rocky precipice above the Tessino

Valley, outside Spoleto. A road on top of a
Roman aqueduct took travelers across the
ravine to the villa, which is now inaccessible.

MARAUDING BRIGANDS, a band of mercenary soldiers, stage a surprise attack upon two defenseless travelers outside a fortified town in a painting

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 THE HAZARDS OF TRAVEL

Leaving Florence, Rome-bound travelers faced the cenaries who infested many hilltop towns and cas-
most difficult and menacing leg of their journey. tles along the way. Although travelers hired armed
The ancient Roman roads that wound through the escorts, the guards were seldom a match for the
mountains were compounded of dust, loose stones brigands. Those who were only robbed were fortu-
and ruts; in wet weather they were so muddy that nate. Many travelers were slaughtered or held for
all progress was often halted. ransom. To avoid planned ambushes, merchants
But travelers preferred any physical hardship to would loudly announce they were going one way
an encounter with the notorious bandits and mer- and then quietly head in the opposite direction.

attributed to Giovanni Bellini. In the background woodcutters calmly continue about their jobs, accustomed to assaults and robberies along the road.

r^ "^^ %tA - •
 ^
THE MIXED BLESSINGS
OF A PUBLIC INN

After a day on the Italian roads, tired travelers

counted on stopping overnight at monasteries or

private homes. But if no such lodgings were avail-

able, the wayfarer took his chances at a public inn.

Innkeepers often posted men along the highways,

up to 20 miles away, to vie with competitors, praise
their hostelries and even to carry the travelers' lug-

gage. At the inns, mimes and fiddlers amused the

guests. The lodgings were frequently dirty— and

there was as much danger of robbery as on the
roads. Yet travelers had to settle themselves before
dark or fare as in a proverb of the time— "He who
comes late has a poor supper and a worse bed."

A COUNTRY CASTLE, Casale Marco Simorie is located 15 miles

from Rome. Pilgrims often stopped overnight at such estates.

REQUESTING ROOMS at a public inn, two road-weary pilgrims are introduced by a manservant to the innkeeper (far right) and his assistant.

[1
,3 *^'^

-^:

POOR W.VP.RERS rece,.e a free meal .a monastery ..,.. Monks offered skelter to all tra.elers^ those of rrrea.s u^erl
e.pecte, to rr^ake a ,or,at.o„.
IN HOLY DRESS, pilgrims gather in the .^^.../;.. .i^.ua^n^, jor
pious travelers: a staff, a knapsack and a cap with scallop shells.

ROME: THE PILGRIM'S

ULTIMATE GOAL

Reaching Rome, travelers found a city of decaying

buildings and rubble-filled streets. Sheep and goats
grazed on the seven hills where emperors and sen-
ators once built temples and villas. Men with shov-
elsand pickaxes were demolishing what was left of
Rome's crumbling monuments to get marble for
the manufacture of lime. In the shadow of ruined

aqueducts, people drank the water of the Tiber.

Yet to the arriving pilgrims, the poet Petrarch
said, Rome was a city "full of sacred bones and
relics of the martyrs." Carrying religious guide-
books and a map (opposite) of the city's seven
great churches, pilgrims followed a tour prescribed

for the penitent. Each church offered some special

grace. For example, entering one brought a pilgrim

48,000 years remittance of punishment for his sins.

THE SEVEN CHURCHES of Rome are pictured on a map like those that
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Renaissance pilgrims carried with them. A long line of penitents winds past St. Peter's, in the foreground, the last stop on the customary tour.
 It was Renaissance Italy that worked out the art
of living in towns for the rest of Europe and for
an increasingly urbanized posterity. The Italian

town was more than a market or an administrative

center; it was a place in which a man could pass
his whole life, a place which provided a full round
of employment and entertainment not only for a
bourgeoisie with rising standards of comfort and
culture, but for a nobility which elsewhere in Eu-

3 rope preferred to spend

clusion

place to
on
The countryside,
its

visit.
country estates.

Many
to
its

the
time in aristocratic se-

Italian citizen,

merchants and shopkeepers

was a

MANNERS AND MORALS owned vineyards and

to live
olive groves,

near them during the weeks of harvest;

and left the city

among the rich and powerful it became fashionable

to have a country villa. It satisfied the growing
taste for aristocratic pursuits such as hawking and
hunting, and set the cachet of expensive leisure on
a successful business or political career. The villas

of the Medici at Cafaggiolo and Careggi, the re-

treat of the Sforzas at Vigevano, the Schifanoia

estate of the dukes of Ferrara, were all holiday
places. Real life, satisfactory life, lay in the towns.

Princes, bankers and shopkeepers returned with

pleasure from fields and woods that were certainly
beautiful, and often profitable, but which they could
not help regarding as a cultural wilderness popu-
lated by rustic barbarians.

It was for town dwellers that writers like Leon

Battista Alberti and Matteo Palmieri, in the first

half of the 15th Century, set down elaborate philos-

ophies on the conduct of family life. These writers
held that the home was the training ground for the

virtues which made for a healthy state: thrift,

moderation, a sense of public duty. The ideal fam-

ily atmosphere should not direct children toward
a life of scholarly seclusion or wealthy exclusive-
ness, but toward a responsible commitment to the

state. Dignity and restraint in the home, public

service outside it: this was the new bourgeois ide-

ology. It took its place beside the only two codes

of behavior the Middle Ages had known, the feu-
dal knight's adherence to chivalry, the priest's or

monk's life based on the discipline of religion.

A GIFT OF THE GUILDS. Verrocchio's "Christ and St. Thomas" stands outside
a 14th Century Florentine church—a building which had once been a grain This bourgeois ideal grew from the circumstances
market. The statue was presented in 1483 by the governor of the city's guilds. of making a living: a merchant had to appear trust-

53
worthy, but at the same time be canny. It was saved stories and conversation about its content. Al-
from being an ideology of crass acquisitiveness by though there was some teaching from religious texts

two things. One was the genuineness of the feel- in the early grades, as the boys moved into the

ing that involvement in the life of the state was higher grades the literature of Rome, and to a less-
a necessity, since without state protection business er extent, of Greece, became the staples. For mor-
would be impossible. The second was the propa- al instruction Roman texts were frequently pre-
ganda of writers like Petrarch and Leonardo Bruni, ferred over more modern works— because the Latin

who made bourgeois virtues respectable by associ- of pagan writers like Cicero and Seneca was pur-
ating them with the political and economic devel- er than the Latin of some Christian scholars. Cicero
opments of ancient Rome. was perhaps most important for his writings on
Petrarch believed that the ideal man combined rhetoric; persuasive speech was seen to be espe-
the opposing virtues of self-containment and pub- cially useful for boys who would become involved
lic-spiritedness, but he never presented this view in public affairs. And to supplement these read-
as more than a philosophical idea. It remained for ings from ancient orators, pupils were often taken
Pier Paolo Vergerio, in 1404, to codify it into an to hear contemporary political speeches or to listen
educational system. In his treatise, De ingenuis to some famous lawyer pleading in the courts. The
moribus (On Good Manners), Vergerio insisted acquisition of learning, it was constantly stressed,

that the purpose of education was not merely to was not only for ornament but for use.

produce scholars, but to develop character and pre- The Renaissance belief that a study of Greek
pare children for a busy and competitive life in and Roman classics was the best training for the

the world of men and affairs. These goals were intelligence had a profound effect on later educa-
quite unlike those of medieval teaching, which had tors. In this respect, and in others, Vittorino's in-

concentrated on memorizing and acquiring specific stitution was the forerunner of the British public
kinds of knowledge. (and American private) school. Something of a

The new educational aim was put into effect by stoic, he believed in a spartan environment. He
the Renaissance's two most influential schoolmas- thought that reading aloud was a better antidote
ters, Vittorino da Feltre and Guarino da Verona. to cold than a cozy fire. He saw the playing field
Their schools— Vittorino's at Mantua and Guarino's as a catch basin for surplus energy and as a train-

at Ferrara— were originally opened for the children ing ground for courage, discipline and cooperation.
of the princely rulers of these cities, the Gonzaga In addition to team games, Vittorino and Guarino
and the Este. But Vittorino and Guarino subse- encouraged riding and swimming. In one instance,
quently accepted gifted poorer boys as well. Fam- Guarino urged on waverers by characteristically
ilies from all over Italy competed to get their sons referring back to antiquity: "It is more important
enrolled in the two schools, and thus the ideas of to remember how many illustrious persons have
their founders affected other academies throughout been good swimmers. Let it be enough to mention
the peninsula. Horatius Codes, Alexander and Caesar." Through-
Vittorino believed in making learning attractive. out history the knightly class had always been
He taught spelling and reading by using movable trained for war. But when Renaissance educators
letters, and simple arithmetic by games. He also became aware that certain Roman military writers
introduced his pupils to classical literature through had emphasized the importance of the fitness of
 1
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MATHEMATICS FOR MERCHANTS, fill's copiously decorated hook of basic arithmetic

aided Renaissance tradesmen in making their everyday business calculations. At
the left are multiplication tables; at right, a table of conversion for Florentine coins.

ordinary soldiers, and when they learned of the played a large part in Renaissance social gather-
emphasis put on athletics in the Greek states, they ings, both formal and informal. And it did. The
began to feel that physical training was important great number of books in dialogue form makes this

for their schools too. Muscular Christianity has a clear— not so much classical literary models like the

heritage of more than five hundred years. Dialogues of Plato, but a whole spate of Renais-
Renaissance educators believed that the purpose sance dialogues. By and large, Italians liked to talk
of education was to turn out men equipped to fit and they were good at it.

knowledgeably, and with charm, into any walk of From the lively and uninhibited role given to

life. The emphasis on charm was again a product women in these dialogues, it might seem that the
of urban environment: men had to move with ease position of women improved appreciably during
and effectiveness through a richly varied society. the Renaissance. In point of fact, with rare excep-

This led to a special preoccupation with the art tions, it did not. The accident of inheritance or
of conversation, and to a conviction that one of marriage threw into the limelight such intelligent
the cardinal social sins was to be boring. A 16th and forthright women as Isabella d'Este and Ca-
Century book on social behavior denounces as "un- terina Sforza, the former to become one of the

pardonable . . . those people who can never talk of Renaissance's most passionate patrons of the arts,
anything but their children, their wives, and their the latter to defend her city, Forli, against Cesare

nursemaids," and "who take every opportunity to Borgia with the vigor and ingenuity of a born sol-

tell us of their dreams." Such scruples about boring dier. But ordinary women were still expected to

conversation suggest that discussion must have keep quiet and not display their learning or inde-

55
pendence of mind. In the 14th Century a Florentine guests to invite to a banquet— even the type of plate

merchant could write: "Woman is a light thing and (not too much silver or gold) on which the banquet
vain. ... If you have women in your house, keep (not too many courses) could be served. The pur-
them shut up as much as possible and return home pose of this sumptuary legislation was partly spir-
very often and keep them in fear and trembling." itual; it reflected a lingering strain of medieval
At the end of the 15th Century the Florentine book- austerity. However it was also economic, to check
seller Vespasiano da Bisticci, following two main the consumption of imported luxuries and thus fos-

rules for women enunciated by St. Paul, could say ter home industries, and even political, to check
essentially the same thing: "The first is that they ostentation and thus minimize class jealousies.

bring up their children in the fear of God, and the Perhaps the most influential of all the behavior

second that they keep quiet in church, and I would books produced in the Italian Renaissance was Bal-
add that they stop talking in other places as well." dassare Castiglione's The Courtier: a record of a se-

Vespasiano's comments were part of a huge lit- ries of conversations which supposedly took place
erature devoted to good manners. Much of this was in 1507 at the court of Urbino. Its recommended at-

written to instruct newly rich people how to be- titudes and attainments were followed all over Eu-
have in order to enter the class above them; in rope. Castiglione took the humanist ideal of the

other cases it defined an ideal upper-class person- worldly, broadly educated man and infused it with
ality and behavior, and was designed not so much chivalric attitudes of loyalty to princes and courtesy
to ease the entry of outsiders as to keep them out. to women. His book has the charm of mood and
The first behavior books, dating from the thriving language that give it the universal passport of great

commercial communes of the 13th Century, dealt literature.

with such basic matters as personal cleanliness and But The Courtier, for all the glamorous portrait

table manners. In about 1290, Fra Bonvincino da of its central character— the man of gracefully var-

Riva's The Fifty Courtesies for the Table, points ied accomplishments— has its less attractive side.

out that "he who gets mad drunk offends in three It is a class document, written by a gentleman for

ways: he harms his body and soul, and he loses gentlemen, and particularly for those gentlemen
the wine which he consumes." who attend the court of a prince. Castiglione warns
But as time went on, and the social structure the courtier against cheapening himself by mixing
hardened, there were fewer books dealing with such too freely with inferiors. He should not wrestle with
matters as spitting and scratching during meals, a peasant, for example, "unless he is assured of
and more books on the general deportment of getting the upper hand." Mix with other classes
a whole class, especially the middle class. These he will have to do on occasion, but he should do
books reflect a fear of those antagonisms which it sparingly lest familiarity breed contempt; "for
we have already noted as plaguing the political there is nothing so excellent in the world that the
fortunes of the Italian cities, by stressing the need ignorant people have not their fill of, and smally
to be respectful to superiors and gracious to in- regard it in often beholding it." He insists on no-
feriors. They fitted into a carefully patterned civic bility of birth as a prerequisite for a courtier: good
life in which edicts regulated all sorts of matters: men come from good families. The fact that the civ-

the goods of which clothes could be made, the value ilization of Italy had thrived on the mixed blood in

of ornaments women could wear, the number of its veins was a lesson Castiglione, in the stratified
 RULES FOR GOOD CONDUCT
"GALATEO, "or "The Book of Manners," extracts
from which appear below, was published in 1558
and soon won international acceptance. The au-
thor, Giovanni della Casa, named the work "Ga-
society of the early 16th Century— and in a little au-
lateo" after a fellow cleric famed for his probity.
tocratic state— could not afford to observe.

He spoke then for a small claes at the top, ignor-

Everyone should dress well, according to his age
ing the fact that one cannot speak for a class and
and his position in society. If he does not, it

for an unrestricted individualism at the same time. will be taken as a mark of contempt for other
In contrast to the behavior books of the 15th Centu- people.

ry, which took the family as the center from which

a man looks outward to service with the state. The Anyone whose legs are too thin, or exceptionally

Courtier took the court as the center and looked fat, or perhaps crooked, should not wear vivid
or parti-colored hose, in order not to attract at-
upward to a prince. Its ideal man made himself de-
tention to his defects.
pendent on the court and its ruler. In fact, Casti-

glione was not describing the ideal man but the

Refrain as far as possible from making noises
ideal courtier, and sometimes the two came in con-
which grate upon the ear, such as grinding or
flict. For the courtier it was important not only sucking your teeth.

to know his own worth, but to proclaim it by dis-

creet advertisement. He should be careful to ride

A man . . . will take care not to get his fingers
near the front in processions, else people would be- so greasy as to dirty his napkin with them, be-
come too bored to notice him. In battle he should cause the sight of it would be unsavory to oth-

try to bring off his most daring feats of arms under ers. Nor is it polite to wipe them on the bread.

the eye of the prince, regardless of their effect upon

the battle plan as a whole. Wit should be like the nibble of a sheep rather
than the bite of a dog, for if it were to bite like
Castiglione's courtier was also open to the charge
a dog it would not be witty but insulting.
of insincerity. He was expected to adjust himself to
any company, always to show himself to the best
You should beware of coarseness in any form,
advantage, to know himself, but to exploit that
because however amusing such things may seem
knowledge to impress people. When offered a fa- to be, honorable people should only use honor-
vor or honor, he should pretend to refuse— but in able means of pleasing others.

such a way that he would be offered it again, more

pressingly. He should conceal some of his special A man should never boast of his birth, his hon-
talents so that, when the moment came to display ors or his wealth, and still less of his brains . . .

them, their effect would have the added charm of as many people do.

surprise. There is a very strong element of games-

manship in The Courtier. You must talk neither too slowly, as though
you had lost your taste for speech, nor too avid-
Fundamental to the book is the notion of sprezza-
ly, as though you were ravenous for it, but com-
tura, an easy nonchalance. Nothing should be done posedly as a sober man should.
doggedly, with strain. The cult of accomplished am-
ateurism, which influenced well-bred behavior for
A man must . . . not be content to do things
centuries, began with Castiglione's celebration of well, but must also aim to do them gracefully.
it. Into a world of political disaster and economic
decline, a world which needed an increased profes-

57
sionalism, needed dour single-minded experts in mock fights that were popular diversions in city

government or finance, he introduced the ideal of squares, and even death was not unusual. It was a

the dilettante— and the dilettante not just as orna- time of savage torture, of public manglings of crim-
ment to the court but as adviser to the prince. For inals; more than one chronicler describes pickup
The Courtier is not merely a book about refined be- football games played with the heads of execut-
havior; it is also an attempt to correct the defects ed prisoners of war. Combats between wild beasts

in the conduct of state affairs. Castiglione shared were a popular spectacle, and so were less brutal

the general concern about Italy's problems— espe- but more lascivious displays. When on one such
cially the endemic ones of war and diplomacy— with occasion in Florence, a stallion was loosed in a

other thoughtful men of his generation. He believed group of mares, some of the tens of thousands of
in the idea of princely governments, but recognized spectators were indignant, but one diarist wrote
that some princes lacked ability. His courtier was a that "this was the most marvelous entertainment
man whose rounded personality, self-possession for girls."

and charm would make the prince turn to him for It is impossible today to stage certain Renaissance
advice. It is a persuasive notion until put against comedies— like Machiavelli's Mandragola, for in-

the trenchant common sense of Machiavelli, who stance—with the frankness of the original. Lorenzo
wrote in The Prince: "It is an infallible rule that a de' Medici himself wrote obscene carnival songs,
prince who is not wise himself cannot be well ad- and fresco painters decorated the palaces of great

vised." patrons with scenes that would raise most modern

As a contribution to political thought, Castiglio- eyebrows.
ne's work was naive. And so, perhaps, was its at- From this climate of violence and refinement, of
tempt to improve society. The Courtier— and for coarseness and reserve, two literary strains emerged.
that matter all the behavior books— was written One was a worldly, secular literature urging men to

against a background of violence and insecurity, of heed the restraining counsels of the Church; the
lawlessness in ill-lit streets, of murder, bloody ri- other was a satirical literature of protest against the
ots and open prostitution. Castiglione sought to bri- courtly way of life, which was thought to be minc-
dle this lawlessness by advocating a calm demeanor ing and hypocritical. An example of the latter was
and good manners. Other writers attacked the prob- a work called The Courtesan, by Pietro Aretino, the
lem frontally. In the Book of Good Examples and most energetic pornographer of the day, and de-
Good Manners, the 14th Century Florentine Paolo signed as a satire on The Courtier. The Courtesan
di Pace da Certaldo warns his readers: "Beware of is a play about a foolish Sienese gentleman, Messer
going out of your house at night, but if you are Maco, who goes to Rome to become a cardinal and
obliged to go, then take a trusty companion with win a fine mistress. He falls in love almost immedi-
you, and a large and good light. If you go to any ately with a girl at a window, and reflects that if

dangerous place, go without telling anyone where only he were a courtier he could win her. Up comes
you are going. In like manner, if you are going to a charlatan who says he is a master of courtiership
Siena, say you are going to Lucca and you will be and proceeds to give Messer Maco a lesson out of
safe from evil people." his textbook, a work on courtly behavior. The les-

The very entertainments were violent. Broken sons—on how to deceive, how to flatter and how to

limbs were a commonplace in the tournaments and employ hours in front of the looking glass— are, of
 tino, for all his pagan enjoyment of the senses, was
also the author of some moving and obviously sin-

cere devotional works. The fact was that men could

be both pious and dissolute at the same time, could
admire both the sensual teaching of antiquity and
the ascetic message of the Christian cloister.
For these and other reasons there was a conflict
between humanism and Christianity, but it was
not dramatic or critical. Men recognized that pagan
learning and philosophy might undermine Chris-
tian faith, but the danger was not an alternative, or

EXTRAVAGANT STi LEb ^.Uf'-'c-J :.•: .'.:^'iJ.'.-^ 15:.. _,.;.._. ^•. ;.;..„; rival, faith. Rather, it was the possibility of the

in this sketch of elegant menswear and a feminine coiffure. The substitution of worldly for spiritual values. Reli-
woman's hair is plucked to produce a fashionable high forehead.
gion, in fact, possibly played a larger part in every-

day life than before. Between 1200 and 1550 Italy

course, a gross mockery of the advice of Castiglione. produced over 200 saints. No doubt this was more
At the opposite pole is Giovanni della Casa's Ga- the result of effective lobbying at the \'atican than

latea, written in the 1550s, which comes out for the an increase in piety. Nevertheless, it did help to

euphemism rather than the frank word: "It is more keep the Christian drama compelling by admitting
fitting to speak of a lady's favorite than of her to its cast a swelling list of local actors. There were
lover .... Again, when you are speaking to a wom- also more bishoprics in Italy than in the rest of West-
an or even to a man of gentle breeding, it is more ern Christendom put together. And the clergy made
polite to . . . speak of prostitutes as women of the up a greater proportion of the population.
world' than call them by their proper name. Tak- Monasteries might be in a state of decay, and
ing exception to a long tradition of scurrilous anti- their membership in decline, but this was due, in
clerical stories, Della Casa holds that "nothing must part at least, to a concentration on extramonastic
ever be said against God or the saints, either seri- activities, on preaching and missionary work. The
ously or in jest, however witty and amusing it may religious revivalism that flourished in Florence be-

be." Then, as a final stroke of compromise between tween 1494 and 1497 under the leadership of the
what the individual feels to be right, and what the fiery Dominican friar, Savonarola, was not an iso-
world expects of him, Della Casa observes, "We lated phenomenon. Preachers up and down the pen-
must subscribe not necessarily to the best customs, insula had launched campaigns like his during the
but to those which prevail in our day, just as we previous two centuries, attracting huge congrega-
obey laws which may be far from good until the gov- tions and encouraging the burning of "vanities"—
ernment, or whoever has the power to do so, has cosmetics, jewelry, false hair, indecent songs and
changed them. pictures.
"

But it is not entirely fair to contrast the "good In the universities and convent schools the study
Delia Casa with the "bad "
Aretino. In his youth of theology and canon law continued to prosper
Della Casa wrote licentious verse that barred him alongside the humanist education program. But
from obtaining high office in the Church; and Are- now the teaching of the church was not necessar-
BONIFACE IX
 PIUS IV

CLEMENT VII PAUL III Giovanni

Ciulio Alessandro Angelo
de- Mediti Fdrn.se de MeJi.i
i.-:.< I ..' 1 i.-ii 1 -1 1
'<-

p
I

w.
la's holier-than-thou attitude, trumped up charges demonstrating that all civilizations and all philos-
of heresy against him, "proved" them, and had ophy had been irradiated by the Christian God-
him hanged and burned. some consciously, and some unconsciously— before
The charges were false. Savonarola was not a the revelation of the birth of Christ. It is true
heretic— he opposed the Pope and his co-religionists that humanism did pave the way for the Reforma-
for the tepidness of their belief, not for its dog- tion, did help divide Christendom into two. But it

matic content. In fact, his passion for reform was did not do it intentionally. The humanist practice
no more than an angry footnote to the story of of tracing ideas back to their source in classical

Renaissance religious orthodoxy. For all the great literature destroyed much of the authority of me-
changes in the arts and in business life that char- dieval documents— including the theological treatises
acterized the period, no one thought seriously of of medieval monks. Thus the claim of Rome to be
changing the Church— not even Savonarola. He had the interpreter of Christian doctrine, as well as
fulminated against moral laxness, but not against Christ's representative on earth, was thrown open
the basic tenets of Renaissance morality— against to question. Then, too, humanist thought, with
the use of the arts to arouse desire or to nourish its element of mysticism, especially in the writings
personal vainglory, but not against the study of of the Neoplatonists, prepared men for the idea
nature and even of the nude. No great works of of direct communication with God— an idea that
art are known to have been destroyed on the vanity was one of the cornerstones of Protestantism. But
bonfires, and the whitewashing of certain frescoed neither of these two trends in humanism was rec-

nudes at a villa in the town of Arcetri was prob- ognized as a serious threat by Renaissance eccle-
ably an isolated act of scruple on the part of the siastics.

family in residence. In fact the Church remained What did seem a threat to them was humanism's
the chief patron of sculptors and painters through- concentration on ethics, its attempt to show that
out the Renaissance. the good life could be lived on ethical terms, on a
Neither did church doctrine, with its laws against man's relations with other men, rather than his

such things as the taking of interest on a loan, relations with God. Some humanists tended to put
affect the progress of economic life toward capi- Christ in a pantheon, among other wise men; some
talism. Either by subterfuge, or quite openly— de- were dubious about the survival of a personal soul,

pending on his own conscience or the attitude of as opposed to a generalized human soul; some be-
the local bishop— the Renaissance banker and mer- lieved that a man's fate was governed less by the
chant made his pile without feeling that he was will of God than by the orderly planets and con-
cutting himself off from his church. He kept a stellations which patrolled His heavens. They never
conscience-account, il conto di Messer Domeneddio, saw themselves as opponents of orthodox religion,

for contributions to charity in the same spirit that but they did emphasize the importance of learn-
his present-day successors give large sums for phil- ing how to live rather than how to die. When the
anthropic purposes. Church's Fifth Lateran council, in 1513, condemned
There were humanists, like Pico della Mirandola, doubts about personal immortality and reliance on
who were particularly concerned with spiritual mat- heathen philosophers, it was trying to stanch that

ters. Though they drew upon spiritual streams far unstemmable stream of thought that flowed from
from Christian theology, they were interested in Renaissance humanism into the 20th Century.
THE FIRST SACRAMENT, baptism, is administered by St. Peter in this fresco by Masaccio. The sacraments bound
all men-the fervent reformers and purists along with the worldly priests and popes-to a common faith.

THE FERMENT OF FAITH

The Renaissance Church was concerned with man's life in this world as much

as the next. Its servants were everywhere-staffing hospitals; teaching in schools;

running loan offices, orphan asylums and almshouses. Some of the clergy, semi-
literate parish priests and greedy bishops, tarnished the image of their Church.
At the same time, there were large numbers of wandering friars and reform-
minded preachers whose fiery sermons stirred whole cities to renewed faith. If
popes were often politicians who used Church offices as patronage, they did so
in defense of a papal state at war with its neighbors. In an age of great ferment,
a worldly spirit and a vitality of faith were essential ingredients of the Church.

63
d
 SPLENDORS AND SIMPLE SHRINES

In an Italian city of the Renaissance, it was never a showpiece of worldly splendor encrusted with
far to a place of worship. Shrines were everywhere, fine paintings and sculpture. Built by city govern-
on street corners and in courtyards— wherever peo- ments, princes and popes, they reflected the earthly
ple were wont to pass. In these shrines, a worshiper power of the Church and its patrons. The churches
left a candle, or some flowers, and asked a favor of erected by Cosimo de' Medici, wrote a 16th Century
the Virgin. Increasingly, Mary was depicted as a biographer, "were intended to be permanent and al-

humble woman, far more human than the gilded ways witness to his fame." When services were held

Madonnas of medieval art. in these cathedrals, the seats were reserved for the
Every city had its magnificent cathedral, too— rich; the poor were required to stand at the rear.

WORK-WORN HANDS identify this serene Madon-

na with the poor. In this work by the Sicilian
Antonello da Messina, the Virgin is seen as Holy
Mother, instead of the exalted Queen of Heaven.

RADIANT FIGURES of the Queen of Sheba and

Constantine the Great decorate a church at
Arezzo. The paintings by Piero della Frances-
co reflect the pomp and power of the Church.
A PANELED PULPIT, sculptured by Donatella in the Tuscan town
of Prato, enabled preachers to address great throngs out of doors.

THE FIERY PREACHERS

OF REPENTANCE

For all its worldliness, 15th Century Italy was con-

stantly being called upon to repent. In Siena a
hermit sent a child through the streets bearing a
skull on a stick, warning of damnation. In Milan
another prophet seized the pulpit of the great ca-
thedral and from it delivered sermons of doom for
many months. Everywhere wandering Preachers of
Repentance drew great crowds to hear them de-

nounce the abuses of the clergy and the pope,

often speaking from outdoor pulpits or courtyards.
After a sermon, there would commonly be a "bon-
fire of vanities," as the aroused populace burned
their worldly books, paintings and false hairpieces.

AROUSING THE FAITHFUL, St. Vincent Ferrer, a Preacher of Repentance,

 <W^p^

^^^B "^
'

delivers a sermon in l- i of a Verot he ivcl, he led .?r,-,i( revivab ni Fr.une. Flcnuicr^ and Spui
rwwiiMii^iirn»iiii»iW>|w>(MaMBMW^

A FIERY DEATH IS provided for Savonarola

outside the town hall of Florence, as por-
trayed in this 15th Century painting. Of the
small band of the friar's followers in the
square, only a few dare to look at the pyre.

A FOLLOWERS GRIEF IS evoked in this paint-

ing by Botticelli. The was himself con-

artist

verted by Savonarola, whose sermons were

so moving that his disciples were popularly

referred to as the "Piagnoni," the Weepers.

lamBi^
 SAVONAROLA - THE SCOURGE OF FLORENCE

The Preachers of Repentance were frequently crit- from a monastery. But his zeal for reform made
ics of the political, as well as the spiritual, order. powerful enemies. Finally, his tirades against the
In Florence, the Dominican friar Savonarola de- Pope led to his excommunication and arrest— a fa-

nounced Lorenzo de' Medici as a tyrant. After the tal blow to him and to his movement. He was
Florentines deposed the governing Medicis and burned at the stake, and only a few of his followers

turned to Savonarola, he virtually ruled the city were bold enough to gather around him at the end.
 A SAINTLY FIGURE, m one of Fra Angelica's
paintings (opposite), sits in meditation. De-
spite his unworldliness, the artist's fame be-
came so great that the Pope summoned him
to Rome to decorate his own sacred chapel

AN AUSTERE CELL in San Marco (left) is deco-

rated with one of Fra Angelica's frescoes,
portraying the Crucifixion. It was said that
Fra Angelica never painted without first pray-
ing, and wept whenever he painted Christ.

THE QUIET FAITH OF THE FRIARS

while many monks of the time were ministering the abiding faith of the friars in scores of frescoes.
to the world, others retired to monasteries. Uphold- He filled his paintings with serene saints and sim-
ing the precept of St. Jerome that a monk ought ple monks (opposffe)— although in one fresco he
to mourn rather than teach, some monasteries re- could not resist showing monks of the rival Fran-
tained elements of religious fervor. In the mon- ciscan order roasting in Hell. As Fra Angelico's
astery of San Marco in Florence, from which Sa- fame spread, the Pope offered to make him Arch-

vonarola crusaded against the "ribald Church," bishop of Florence. The artist declined— preferring
a Dominican monk named Fra Angelico depicted the monk's simple cowl to the Archbishop's miter.
^I / I
y

I-

'%,

^N.

"
V "" m mmmmmmtttm
A MONUMENT OF FAITH "^^^ magnificent St. Peter's basilica (above), built

a 1200-year-old church that stood over

to replace
St. Peter's grave, was
the final great statement of the faith and the worldliness
embodied in the Renaissance Church. The popes of
the age
were avid patrons of the arts-and the Renaissance artists
did much of their greatest work in the service of the Church.
St.Peter's basilica was their most ambitious collaboration. and a succession of lesser artists, were making repeated and
The work was begun in 1506, after several architects had often drastic changes. When the Cathedral was finished in
submitted rival plans to Pope Julius II. Donato Bramante's 1626, only the great dome— which Michelangelo designed-
winning design aroused stormy opposition— as did the taxes bore a resemblance to the original plan. Overlooking the piaz-
which Julius and later popes levied in order to pay for the za stand huge, baroque statues of the saints on a colonnade
work. Soon great masters like Raphael and Michelangelo, of pillars, both designed decades later by Lorenzo Bernini.
 Despite the wealth of Venice and the power of
Rome, to think of Renaissance Italy is to think,
first and foremost, of Florence, the city that led
all other Italian cities in both daring and achieve-
ment. Florence not only produced a series of great

men; it supported an atmosphere of inquiry and

experiment that made it a great laboratory. It was
the testing ground for most of the Renaissance's
political and artistic ideas. From the early 14th

4 to the

the
mid-16th Century no other city
indeed in Europe, kept up such a steady pressure
of intellectual attainment.

roll call

sance: In poetry,
of great names
Look for a

of the Italian Renais-

Dante and Poliziano;

moment
in Italy,

at

FLORENCE: Boccaccio and Machiavelli; in painting,

in prose,

Giotto,

INTELLECTUAL DYNAMO Masaccio, Uccello, Verrocchio, Fra Angelico, Fra

Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Pon-
tormo; in sculpture, Donatello, Luca delta Robbia,
Ghiberti, Michelangelo, Cellini; in architecture,
Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Michelozzo, the
Sangallo brothers. All were Florentines. In philos-
ophy the most memorable name is that of Marsilio
Ficino; in the writing of history, the names of
Leonardo Bruni, Guicciardini, Jacopo Nardi. All are
Florentine names. The best-known banks in Eu-
rope in the 14th Century were those of the Bardi
and the Peruzzi; in the 15th Century, that of the
Medici. All of these were Florentine banks. In fact
one Florentine family, more than any other, is iden-
tified with both the culture and the politics of the
Renaissance: the family of the Medici.
True, Florence was not always the pioneer. The
foundations of modern business methods were laid

in 13th Century Genoa. Humanism was born in

Verona and Padua at the turn of the 13th Century.

Pisa gave her name to two trail blazers of Renais-
sance sculpture, the brothers Nicola and Giovanni
Pisano. The techniques of modern diplomacy were
worked out first of all by Venetian trading consuls.
But what Florence did not originate, it refined.
Many of the greatest non-Florentine artists came,

like Piero della Francesca and Raphael, to "dip their

clothes in the Arno" and had their styles crucially

changed there. And Savonarola, a friar from Fer-

rara, reached his height as a perfervid preacher
MASKED SINGERS, led by Lorenzo de' SAedici (at left), serenade the women
of Florence during the spring carnival season. Lorenzo often wrote bawdy car-
in the environment of what he called "the cleverest
nival songs for such diverse groups as shoemakers, bakers and even beggars. people in Italy."

75
 PHYSICIANS AND APOTHECARIES MASONS AND CARPENTERS

What made it possible for Florence to set the ing toward the commercial importance that still

tone for almost every aspect of Renaissance life? lay in the future, the town extended its southern
The answer is much easier to describe than explain. limit past the Roman baths in a triangle that

Genius cannot be accounted for; the best we can reached further toward the river. By 1172 the sub-

do is to examine the atmosphere that encourages urbs had increased to such an extent that it was
it to flourish. decided to enclose them in another circuit of walls.
Geography comes first. No great city has ever North of the Arno this new wall ran in a square,

been built far from the water— either ocean or river with its base on the river. It can still be traced
—and the fortunes of Florence began when the by going up Via de' Benci in the east, turning
Etruscan hill town of Fiesole was refounded by left at Via Santo Egidio, and back to Piazza Gol-
the Romans on the flat land beside the River doni down Via del Giglio. Via de' Fossi, just before
Arno. The city was now more vulnerable, but it had Piazza Goldoni, is named for the ditches that

easy access to an important trade route. It had fronted this second circuit of walls. Florence now
good communications by river to the west, and straddled the Arno, enclosing a shallow arc of the
practicable passes through the mountains in other Oltr' Arno, the district south of the river.

directions. And, as the extension of the city's As traffic rose between the north and south
boundaries show, Florence quietly boomed. banks, three bridges were added to the original
Florentia, as the Roman town was called, was a one, the Ponte Vecchio, which dated back to Ro-
rectangle enclosed by streets that are still there: man times but had been rebuilt after its collapse

Via Tornabuoni, Via de' Cerretani, Via del Procon- in 1178. By this time Florence had about 30,000
solo. Via Porta Rossa. The grid of streets has a inhabitants. And still it grew. Suburbs once more
military regularity which marks it off from the sprang up outside the walls and in 1284 a third

erratic sprawl that characterized the city's medie- and vaster barricade was begun, catching the two
val expansion. Except for these, nothing of the old preceding ones behind its armor. Its line, a rough
Roman town is left. There was, however, a Roman semicircle, can be followed along the great boule-

amphitheater which stood outside the town's east- vards built in^ the 19th Century from Piazza Bec-
ern walls; the curve of the present-day Via Torta caria to Piazza della Liberia and down to Piazza

and Via dei Bentaccordi define it. And Via delle Vittorio Veneto. Long sections of this 13th Century
Terme records the site of the baths which stood wall can still be seen south of the river; it climbs

outside the walls on the south. up Via di Belvedere, runs along the top of the

At some time in the Dark Ages, as though reach- Boboli Gardens, descends to meet the river beyond
 GUILD EMBLEMS, these terra-cotta plaques set into the outer walls of

Or San Michele, Florence's church of tradesmen and artisans, were

made by two local artists, Luca della Robhia and his nephew Andrea.
Wealthy commercial institutions, the ^miWs spent huge sums in

piatronizing the city's arts— and in dominatinji, its government.

Saponai is named for the soap makers; Via dei

Speziali for the druggists; Via dell'Ariento for the

silversmiths. And Via delle Belle Donne— street of

the lovely ladies— may or may not commemorate
the oldest trade of all.

The street names are also reminders of the 15th

SILK MANUFACTURERS
Century's conspiracies and assassinations. Borgo
degli Albizzi is named for the family who were the
chief rivals of the Medici. In 1433, Rinaldo degli
the Porta San Frediano. Soon after it was finished, Albizzi had Cosimo de' Medici banished from
in 1328, the city's population had risen to 120,000, Florence; a year later Cosimo returned and it was
and if the wave of plagues that began with the Rinaldo's turn to be banished. Piazza dei Pazzi
Black Death in 1348 had not reduced this popula- (behind the Palazzo Pazzi) memorializes the Pazzi
tion by about one half, still another circuit of family, who plotted to kill Lorenzo de' Medici at

walls might have become necessary. As it was, High Mass in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del

when this third circuit was inspected in 1526, dur- Fiore, in 1478. Lorenzo fought his way to safety in

ing a period of almost constant warfare, there were the sacristy, but his brother Giuliano was stabbed
houses stretching far beyond it into the country. to death, suffering 19 dagger wounds.
The Florentine government had them pulled down, It was a city of crimes, violence and revolutions.

to provide a clear field for cannon fire from the But there was also a fundamental continuity to
walls. Florentine life that enabled men to go about their

Florence, by the time of the Renaissance, was business with reasonable confidence. The republic
large, rich, and by the standards of those days, increased its territories and grew in prestige and
stable. The organs of government somehow kept self-esteem— the latter was a quality the Floren-
functioning, even if from time to time they were tines possessed in abundant measure. This continu-
emptied of one faction and filled with the sup- ity, especially of republican forms of government,

porters of another. The city's street names are gives the lie to the view that the great cultural
reminders: Via della Condotta (behind the Palazzo flowering of the Renaissance sprang from the tin-
Ugoccioni) is named for the government committee gling excitement of living in violent and insecure

that paid the republic's soldiers; Vicolo dell'Ones- times. There was another influence, equally strong,
ta (near the Via dei Speziali) for the magistrates which may also have helped to produce an atmos-
in charge of public decency who licensed Renais- phere in which culture could flourish. This was the
sance prostitutes; Piazza della Signoria for the existence, in Florence, of a kaleidoscopic society

Signoria (or priorate), the chief executive officers made up of many social and economic parts, each

of state, who continued to guide the city's politi- group wanting works of art and literature to suit

cal and economic fortunes no matter how rapidly its own tastes, and all of them sharing a civic pride

they went in and out of office. based on the assumption that all literate men shared
Significantly, too, one of the most familiar in forming the city's destiny.

groups of street names records the Renaissance If there was any one industry in Florence which
city's thriving day-to-day commercial life. Via dei tended to divide the merchants and the proletariat,
WOOL AND FLORENTINE PROSPERITY

SHIPS carried raw wool from England and SORTING, a team of graders separated the wool DYEING was done after the wool had been
Spain to Italy. In Florence, a city as well into three groups of fine, medium and coarse beaten, cleaned and soaked in oil (cheap
known for its weavers as for its artists, the strands. Sorting was only one of some 30 wools were dyed later, after weaving). Flor-
wool industry set thousands to work, in the separate steps in processing wool; each step entine cloth was prized in Europe, Persia-
efficient production process detailed here. involved a large team of specialized workers. even in China— mainly for its brilliant colors.

it was the wool business, which together with ironworkers; girdlemakers; woodworkers; bakers.

banking was the basis of Florentine wealth. The Between the two groups of guilds— rich mer-
Florentine merchant class was a large one, and chants and craftsmen— there was a sort of grudg-
comprised many income groups. Its membership ing respect; neither could disregard the other. And
was fluid, and its edges blurred— for several rea- although Florence was under the control of the rich
sons. Fluctuations in the wool trade and a contin- merchants throughout most of her life as a repub-
uous influx of new families from the countryside lic, internal convulsions and political compromise
kept the economic ladder a busy thoroughfare of did give the poorer man an occasional voice in city
comings and goings. Personal fortunes prospered affairs. The result of this was to preserve Flor-

and waned. Then, too, marriage partnerships and ence's turbulent republicanism far longer than was
business alliances gave most merchant families con- possible among most of the other Italian states,

nections at different income levels. which fell early and permanently into despotism.
There were, by the time of the Renaissance, 21 Florence's mercantile republic also had little to

important guilds, all of which had grown from vol- fear from the extremes of its population— the no-
untary associations of men with common business bility and the proletariat. There was no direct con-
interests to large corporations. Especially was this flict of interest between merchant and lord, be-
true of the seven great guilds, whose members tween industrial-based and agrarian-based wealth.
were the city's richest and most influential busi- The late-13th Century Ordinances of Justice had
nessmen—the judges and notaries; cloth importers debarred the nobility from high government office,

and refinishers; cloth manufacturers; leading re- but the lords had contracted family and business
tailers and silk merchants; moneychangers; furri- links with members of the greater guilds which gave
ers; and physicians and apothecaries. But the 14 them considerable influence on civic affairs. And
lesser guilds were also something of a force, politi- with nobles entering business (like merchants) and
cally, if not financially. They were articulate and merchants investing in land in the country (like
well organized, and their members— artisans and nobles), there was a mutual interest based on com-
shopkeepers— stabilized Florentine commercial life. mon concerns. Thus, although the noble element
These lesser guilds, usually called the craft guilds, certainly complicated the rivalry between families
included butchers; shoemakers; blacksmiths; build- of the popolo grasso, there was no danger that the

ers; secondhand dealers; wine-dealers; innkeepers; nobles as a class could take over power. Similarly
sellers of salt, oil and cheese; tanners; armorers; the merchants did not worry unduly about the
COMBING the wool separated the long strands CARDING was a scraping process applied to SPINNING was usually done in the country,

from the short tufts of fuzz. Then the long lower-grade wool. Spreading the wool on where peasant women worked in their own
strands, wound on wooden blocks, went di- wicker frames, workers untangled it with homes, converting wool into yarn. They were
rectly to the spinners. The tufts were used wire scrapers— tools so efficient Florence constantly busy, since at its height Florence
too, but first had to be prepared by carders. forbade anyone to take them out of the city. produced some 80,000 bolts of wool a year.

lower classes. Although the Florentine proletariat

was large, exploited and bitterly dissatisfied, it only
revolted successfully once, in 1378. The Ciompi
uprising, as it was called, was an attempt by the
woolworkers to get a voice in the city government.
Although their revolt failed after a few weeks,
largely because of a lack of leadership, nonethe-
less some concessions were made and, for the first

time in Florentine history, the lowest class was

represented. But even this political innovation last- WARPING was the process of looping strands

of wool (center) over the pegs of a frame,

ed less than four years. It was put down by the
preparatory to weaving. Workers stretched
whole employer class in panic-stricken reaction,
the wool on this frame and stiffened it with
and the proletarian guilds were forever dissolved. a gum. It was now ready for the loom.

Florence's experience with despotism— unlike that

of Italy generally— was also brief. There were three
episodes of dictatorship, in 1313-1322, in 1325-1330
and in 1342-1343. Each one involved a foreigner,
called in time of crisis to deal with a political or

military emergency. And each one was thrown out

by a wave of general revulsion that swung the pen-
dulum back to republicanism. Thereafter, except
in one instance, Florence remained under the con-
trol of the upper-class merchants. The one case in
which it did not followed the despotism of Walter
of Brienne, a French soldier of fortune who had
been called in in 1342 to resolve one of the city s

periodic military crises. Brienne's invitation came WEAVING was the last step, transforming
yarn into cloth that Florentine merchants
from certain elements in the upper classes, and he
would sell to the world. A handful of wealthy
was given lifelong despotic powers. However, he merchants ran the whole industry, whose
quickly antagonized his rich supporters over a mat- peak employment was some 30,000 workers.
 ter of taxes. Soon he had succeeded in so outraging ships of depressions, Florence's spirit was hopeful.

all elements of Florentine society that they got to- It met the challenge of bad times by improving its

gether and expelled him after only a year's rule. In business techniques and industrial organization, so
the aftermath of his expulsion the popolo grasso was as to cut corners and lower costs. The Florentines
prevented from reassuming power and the popolo believed in human ingenuity. Only when faced by
minuto took over the majority of government of- forces beyond their control, like drought or contin-
fices for the next 40 years. Then, however, after ual rain, did they turn to miracle-working devices

the Ciompi uprising, the popolo grasso once again for help. There is a superb palace in the Piaz-

reasserted their power. za Santa Trinita that is a monument to this spirit

From its successful weathering of crises— politi- of enterprise. It was built just before 1520 by the
cal, military, economic— Florence came to believe youngest of three brothers, Bartolini Salimbene.
that its form of government represented all that was According to legend news came to the brothers one
finest in Italy's tradition. This belief crystallized morning that one of their ships had docked in Pisa

into an idea when, at the turn of the 14th Cen- with a rich freight from the east. To sell the cargo,
tury, the republic triumphed over the efforts of the it was necessary to fix prices— but the elder brothers

Milanese despot to terrify it into surrender. There- would not forgo their midday siesta. Bartolini,

after, and throughout most of the 15th Century, however, galloped to Pisa and bargained himself
this idealization of the republic was so potent that into a fortune— with which he built his palace. Over
few of the Florentines realized that only the facade the window pediments he carved the motto Per

of republicanism was being preserved. It was not nan dormire: "It does not pay to sleep."
until shortly before the death of Lorenzo de' Medici Wakefulness paid off for many Florentine busi-
that Florence suddenly woke up to the fact that nessmen, none more handsomely than the Medici
the state, for all its republican forms, had drifted bankers. Their bank, while not so large as the 14th
into the control of one family. Then, after Lorenzo's Century banks of the Peruzzi and Bardi families,

death in 1492 and a brief but disastrous period of was politically the most important in all of Flor-
control by his arrogant son, the city— as if to rid entine history. Its connections outside Florence,
itself of a charming dream— expelled the Medici particularly with the French court and the papacy,
and redrafted its constitution, giving it a much influenced Florence's outside political alignments.
broader democratic base. Thus, for most of the And within the city it became so powerful politi-

Renaissance, Florence either was, or believed itself cally that Lorenzo de' Medici on at least one occa-
to be, a government of the people. sion could, with impunity, dip into public funds
In a commercial city economic and political life to restore its credit. The bank was founded in 1397
cannot be separated; political figures are business by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici and steadily ex-
figures. In Florence, the political prestige of the panded up to the death of Cosimo de' Medici in

Medici family was bolstered by the international 1464. By Cosimo's time it had branches in Rome,
fame of their bank, and the economic strength of Venice, Milan and Pisa, as well as Florence. Out-
the guilds inevitably played a part in politics. The side Italy there were branches in Geneva, Lyons,
city's atmosphere was the atmosphere of com- Avignon, Bruges and London. Each branch was a

merce: pragmatic and competitive. In spite of the self-contained unit, dealing with other branches
crash of personal fortunes and the shared hard- exactly as it did with customers. Thus, the branch

80
managers were free to make decisions on their own, a claim to exploit it. When the citizens, fired by
and to take advantage of local fluctuations in prices this as well as by other grievances, revolted from
and the value of money. But the arrangement meant Florentine rule, the rising was crushed and the city

that control from the parent bank was weak, and sacked. Ironically, Volterra's alum deposit proved
that the bank's fortunes as a whole depended large- to be a small one, never commercially successful.
ly on a wise choice of managers. This vigorous pursuit of alum holdings was not,
Like modern banks, its activities were varied. however, typical of the bank's conduct under Lo-
Most of the profits came from conventional bank- renzo. After the death of Cosimo its fortunes de-
ing services; it accepted deposits from its custom- clined, and by 1494 it was in virtual bankruptcy.
ers, made transfers for them, extended loans and In part this was due to external forces— the taking
collected revenues. But since a number of its cus- over of interests in the Levant by the Turks and a
tomers were institutions— most notably, the Medici trade recession that brought bank after bank to its

were bankers to the Church— the extent of these knees all over Europe. But part of the responsibility
activities was wide indeed. In addition the Medici for the Medici bankruptcy was Lorenzo's. He had
branches dabbled in trade, buying and selling wool, not received the stern business education that was
cloth, oil, spices and citrus fruit on their own, and needed for survival in an age where profit was in-

sometimes entering into temporary partnership creasingly hard to come by; his tastes were those
with other merchants. Through such arrangements of a statesman and a dilettante rather than those
they bought brocades, jewels and silver plate for of a banker. Furthermore he lacked Cosimo's flair

their aristocratic clients. At one time their invest- for making shrewd appointments to branch offices.

ments even blossomed into a virtual monopoly of Staffed by hesitant men who needed but did not
the mining and sale of an essential ingredient in get forceful guidance from above, the bank capitu-
the textile industry: alum. This chemical was used lated to circumstances. Per non dorrnire can stand
to clean the fiber and fix the dye in woolen cloth. as a motto for Lorenzo's attitude to politics, love
Before 1462 most of Europe's best-quality alum and the arts, but not to banking.
had come from Asia Minor but in that year de- It is hazardous to say what direct influence the

posits at Tolfa in the Papal States were recognized Florentine political atmosphere had upon the city's
as an acceptable substitute and in 1466 the Medici culture, but it seems more than pure coincidence
bank was called in to manage them. Pope Paul II that there are parallels between the two:
helped his bankers to help themselves by forbidding ^ Florence was expedient about government; it

Christians to import alum from Moslem countries. looked at political situations realistically and de-
And when a smaller rival deposit in Ischia threat- veloped solutions for them. It also pioneered in

ened to provide a possible Christian competitor, realism in the arts.

the Medici hastily concluded a cartel agreement ^ It saw itself as following in the political spirit
with its proprietor to preserve their monopoly by of republican Rome— and followed
it the theories

establishing a quota system which limited both and practices of ancient Roman art.

Ischian and Tolfan production. Big business took ^ It was enormously conscious of its political dig-

a further step toward modernity when discovery nity and destiny. At the same time it produced a

of yet another deposit near Volterra, in Tuscany literature laden with self-eulogy, and the funds for

itself, prompted Lorenzo de' Medici to force through many of its buildings and works of art were raised
by appealing to the people's desire to enhance the that his prolific church-building was an act of pen-

city's beauty and fame. ance. But it was also an act of pride. Through their

H Its citizens were intensely interested in political dealings with the aristocratic French courts in the

developments— and got involved in passionate dis- north, the Medici and other wealthy bankers and

cussions over the commissioning of public art. merchants had acquired a taste for pomp and dis-

But if art and politics can be linked only cir- play. In bourgeois Florence, however, they had to be
cumstantially, there is no such problem with art cautious. The Medici rejected plans for a sump-
and commerce. The influence of Florentine mer- tuous palace and commissioned a far less ostenta-

chants on culture was direct: they bought it. They tious one, now the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. But on
bought it in prosperity to salve their consciences hallowed ground a certain flaunting of wealth and
and in adversity as a consolation and an invest- influence seemed reasonably safe; the Medici arms
ment. To be very rich in republican Florence was appear on all the churches that Cosimo built. His
to run two risks. Affluence aroused the jealousy son Piero, however, displayed a little more delicacy.

of other citizens, and also their suspicions— too Realizing that the family arms— the six red balls-

much money earned in banking made it clear that might well be offensive to others, he limited him-
the Church's injunction against taking interest self to a display of his personal arms only when
had been flouted on a large scale. The religious he paid for a tabernacle in San Miniato. But Piero's
censure could be bought off by building and dec- restraint could not last. The opportunity offered by

orating churches, the jealousy assuaged by liberal a marble temple built by him for one of the holiest
spending that purported to be for the greater glory objects in Florence— the miraculous painting of the
of the state. In a note to his children Lorenzo de' Annunciation in thechurch of Santissima Annun-
Medici wrote: "I find we have spent a large sum ziata— was too much for him. On it he had carved
of money from 1434 up to 1471, as appears from an Costo fior. 4 mila el marmo solo: "the marble alone
account book covering that period. It shows an cost 4,000 florins."
incredible sum, for it amounts to 663,755 florins Since churches were safe outlets for display,

spent on buildings, charities and taxes, not count- wealth fostered the art objects most appropriate
ing other expenses; nor would I complain about to them— paintings, sculptures, painted glass— rath-
this, for though many a man would like to have er than objects for domestic consumption. And
even part of that sum in his purse I think it gave since paintings and sculpture were thus open to

great luster to the state and this money seems to public praise and criticism, a healthy rivalry grew
"

be well spent. up among artists. But Florentine painters and

The sum, mainly spent in Cosimo's time, was a sculptors were also stimulated by their patrons.
formidable one: a painter with the reputation of Through their humanist education and their con-

Botticelli would have gotten between 50 and 100 tinued interest in humanist learning, these wealthy
florins for a picture. That Cosimo's account book Florentines developed a lively interest in the proc-

lumps buildings and charities together supports ess of creation, as well as the finished work of art.

the remark by his contemporary biographer, Ves- They wished increasingly to be judged for their

pasiano da Bisticci, who wrote that Cosimo had taste as well as their munificence, and this led them
"prickings of conscience that certain portions of to encourage artists like Botticelli to work in "ad-
his wealth had not been righteously gained," and vanced" and idiosyncratic styles.
 The influence of those top-dlrawer taste-makers
was widely felt. For one thing, it was copied by
some of their lesser business associates. Francesco

Sassetti and Giovanni Tomabuoni were Medici

managers, and though otherwise rtot especially in-

terested in the intellectual movements of the day,

they both commissioned Ghirlandaio to paint fres-
coes. Sassetti'^s was in the family chapel in Santa
Trinita, and Tomabuoni's was in the chai«cel of

Santa Maria Novella.

At a still lower level of penetration, rich mer-
chants influenced the selection of works of art

ALT^-A^ commissioned by guilds or civic groups which

were uncertain of their own judgment. The statue
erf St. Cecwge by DonateUo probably represents, in

its refinement, the tastes of only a small miiumty

(rf the weapoiunakers whose guild paid for it. The
guild sought advice among those who were more
knowledgeable. Without the existence of this Flor-
entine wealthy educated class the impulse of artists
themselves to evaive from medieval styles might
have been far weaker.

The taste (rf the rich, then, set the tone for art.
But the mercantile atmosphere of Florervi^ as a

whole may also have provided encouragement. Art

follows its own iruier laws of growth and the spe-
cial talents of individual artists, but it can also be
affected by the tempo of a society. Working in the

midst of financial realists, the Florentine artist

may have been stimulated to move toward realism

faster than he would have elsewhere. The average
Florentine businessman knew what things were
for and what they cost—houses, fields, vineyards.

The thought of profit was close to the surface of

his mind. This consciousness of real value, as

opposed to symbolic value, carried over into other

areas of his life. He was aware of his own worth
.^•timtC A OKAFH.** uminutnf of dke Eg^fptimm StJtmm is ftoi Um^ed brrngmf
as a person. Other men might do great deeds on
--'. hemst ms m gift to Lormtzo de' Media. Loremzo dotidei the ;ina)fir to

.''mcrs fwnmd win mmgt t ii where, onh/ Imo Uocks fromi the PaLtzzo Vec- the battlefield for »vhich they would be remem-
z'oo. Fl mvUimes cetdd also see cmged bems. mm ekplmmt or m dem of fioRS. bered by poets and chroniclers, but he. too. was a
man of accomplishments: he had made money, painters: to Filippo Lippi in the cathedral at Spole-

paid his taxes, kept careful accounts. He wanted to, where he died; to Giotto in the cathedral in Flor-

to be remembered by posterity. So he had himself ence, with inscriptions composed by Lorenzo's own
painted into the pictures he ordered for his church chief literary adviser, Angelo Poliziano. And in no
—a supplicant kneeling in a corner, a bystander in other city were artists made more aware of the

a crowd. And since there is no point in being important role they played in the city's life. Time
painted unless you can be recognized, he asked to after time there are triumphant references in Flor-

be painted as he was: it is no coincidence that entine literature to the city's primacy in the arts.

Florence was first to stress realistic portraiture. In 1436 the architect-painter-writer Leon Battista
These merchantlike qualities did not actually Alberti wrote the first treatise on the theory of
bring about Giotto's unique way of recording the painting. In his prologue, addressed to the painter-

world, or the style of Masaccio, but they almost sculptor-architect Brunelleschi, he said: "When I

certainly sustained them and helped them to have compared the arts and letters of the ancients with
followers. The tendency in Florentine painting for those of modern times, I thought that nature, mis-
much of the 14th and 15th Centuries was in the tress of those arts, had grown worn out, and no
direction of a precise rendering of external real- longer produced the mighty and well contrived
ity. It may have been an art directed, as one Floren- works with which, in her glorious youth, she had
tine writer scornfully remarked, toward men who been so lavish. But since I have returned to this

"say it is enough to be able to sign your own country of ours from the long exile ... I have
name and be able to strike the balance in a ledger." perceived in many— first in you, Filippo, and then
But without this basis of mastered realism the in our dear friend Donato [Donatello], and in those
work of the giants of the late Renaissance could others, Nenci [Ghiberti], Luca [Luca della Robbia]

never have been so intensely personal. Raphael, and Masaccio, a talent for all praiseworthy arts

Michelangelo and Titian took the efficient record- which the most famous of ancient cities did not
ing of men and nature for granted, and went on excel."

from there to imbue reality with their own private To give but one example of the buoyant con-

vision. fidence which this sort of treatment must have

The arts also flourished in Florence through instilled in artists, the goldsmith Bernardo Cen-
their use as propaganda. The fact that Giotto was nini, without regular training as a printer, de-
employed in other cities— Padua, Assisi, Naples- signed, cut and cast the type of a superb edition
was a source of pride to later Florentines, and by of a commentary on Vergil, announcing at the end
the time of Lorenzo de' Medici, artists were being of the book: Florentinis ingeniis nihil ardui est—
used rather like cultural ambassadors. Lorenzo "nothing is beyond the powers of the Florentines."
recommended his favorite architect, Giuliano da His sentiments were echoed by all of Florence.
Sangallo, to the King of Naples, and proposed the Patriotic, educated in the classics but disciplined
painters Ghirlandaio and Botticelli to Pope Sixtus by the expediencies of business and politics, the
IV as fresco painters for the Sistine Chapel. And he city recognized the role of the individual. By add-
almost certainly supported Leonardo's application ing an informed self-consciousness to genius of ev-
to work for Lodovico Sforza in Milan. ery type, Florence gave genius a sense of direction
Florence even put up monuments to its famous that led from the Middle Ages to the modern world.
 LUCREZIA BORGIA CESARE BORGIA

ISABELLA DESTE LORENZO DE MEDICI ANDREAS \ ESALILS

ANDREA MANTECNA ALDUS MANUTIUS

THE QUEST FOR FAME

Renaissance Italy was a place in which men from all ranks of life dreamed of fame
"

—and often won it, by fair means or foul. In "the desire to perpetuate a name,
said Machiavelli, those "who could distinguish themselves by nothing praise-
worthy, strove to do so by infamous deeds." In 1537, for example, an obscure
cousin of Lorenzo de' Medici murdered a Florentine duke, simply to immortalize
his own name. It was an age of flamboyant figures, seven of whom are shown
above. Each was a virtuoso— a word that came into the Italian language during the
Renaissance to describe the towering personality who made an art of his every act.

85
m
ih-^^
 THE STUDY OF AWOMAN OF WIT
Isabella d'Este, whose apartment is shown oppo- last from Venice, the Marquis complained, "It is

site, was the most brilliant woman of her age, re- our fate to have as a wife a woman who is always
lated by birth or marriage to almost every ruler ruled by her head." She was, said a poet, "the
in Italy. When her husband, the Marquis of Man- prima donna of the world." At 60, when she sat

tua, was captured in a war with Venice, Isabella for a portrait by the great Titian, she thought it

ruled Mantua by her wit— even disarming enemies so unflattering that she ordered him to do another
her husband had previously made. Returning at —showing her as she had looked 40 years earlier.

A COURTLY CORRESPONDENCE kept Isabel-

la in touch with all events in Italy. Her

quill rests on a letter to her husband; be-
side it IS a polite note from Cesare Borgia,
Duke of Romagna, asking her to send
some more of her excellent hunting dogs.

A SUMPTUOUS RETREAT, Isabella d'Este's

study in the ducal palace of Milan con-
tained so many costly books and great
art works that it was called "il Paradiso."
The ceiling is carved with her name and ffi'u
realistic motto, "Neither hope nor fear."
THE MEDICI VILLA outside Florence was frequented by the most famous
city's artists, writers and musicians. The garderxs, laid out in ancient Roman
 A BANK LEDGER shows the accounts of the Milan branch of the
S4edici bank. The bank, which dominated European finance for
a century, had branches in 10 cities throughout the Continent.

HOME HAUNTS OF
THE MAGNIFICENT"

Lorenzode' Medici, known throughout Italy as "The

Magnificent, "
seemed to lead a dozen lives at once.

A Florentine prince, he was engaged in endless ne-

gotiations with neighboring states, maintaining a

precarious peace. His villa, at left, was a gathering

place for the greatest men of the age. As head of
the Medici bank, he masterminded extensive finan-
cial deals— transactions so large and so tricky that
they ultimately contributed to the bank's collapse.
His versatility and daring won him great renown.
When war broke out with Naples, Lorenzo sailed
to the Neapolitan court, appearing unarmed and
alone— and persuaded the king to withdraw his

troops from Tuscany. One pope excommunicated

him— yet he so completely won over the next that
an envoy to the Vatican commented: "The Pope
slept with the eyes of Lorenzo the Magnificent."
fashion, were planted with cypress and myrtle, the trees of antiquity.
89
 '?^^:^

'v^W

# »

t
iA I f^

!
1
 THE BIRTHPLACE
OF MODERN MEDICINE

A surgeon, teacher and brilliant anatomist, Andreas

Vesalius was the founder of modern medicine. Be-
fore his time. Renaissance doctors still slavishly
followed the precepts of the ancient Greeks, relying
chiefly on the works of Galen, a Greek physician of

the Second Century A.D. who had based many of

his conclusions about human anatomy on dissec-
tions of Barbary apes. As a student Vesalius devel-
oped his own ideas about anatomy, performing
dozens of dissections and collecting bones to study
from graveyards, public gallows and mortuaries. At
the University of Padua he was so outstanding a

student that he won his degree in medicine at the

age of 23— and a day later the university appointed

him Professor of Surgery. The amphitheater where
he lectured and dissected was always packed with
students and colleagues. Still in his twenties, he
published his findings in a voluminous treatise,
The Fabric of the Human Body, illustrated with
more than 270 detailed woodcuts. The book made
many new contentions— for example, that the gall

bladder did not open into the stomach; that there

was no bone in the heart. Some doctors were out-
raged, but within a year Vesalius had been so thor-

oughly vindicated that he was booked for lectures

at three universities. At the University of Pisa the

crowds struggled so hard to get a better view of
Vesalius at his dissecting table that the entire

operating theater, built for the occasion, collapsed.

A MEDICAL HANDBOOK, this 1491 text, used by Vesalius, lies on a balus-

trade at Padua beside a Renaissance cap and gown. Padua's medical school
THE LECTURE HALL at Padua is the oldest medical amphi-
was so famous that the sick came from all over Europe to be treated.
theater in existence. Here Vesalius' work was carried for-
ward; on the table are early medical texts and dissecting tools.
 THE BORGIAS' INFAMOUS DOMAIN

The notorious Borgias were envied for their ele- ther, as Pope, annulled the first marriage, and
gant castles and feared for their dismal dungeons. Cesare ended the second by having the groom mur-
The father, Rodrigo, used every form of skuldug- dered. But the family fortunes suddenly plunged.

gery to gain the papal throne. As Pope Alexander Alexander was fatally stricken with malaria. Soon
VI he and his son Cesare used the papal armies to after, Cesare died in battle. Distraught, Lucrezia
depose a host of petty despots. Lucrezia was mar- donned a hair shirt and engaged in extensive char-

ried off to three rulers before she was 22; her fa- ities—even pawning her jewels in order to give alms.

'*«*

,:, v\

i*i^fmmm
Q 4M m

*^^ai^f^
^-rssv^a'f^a
A DUNGEON STAIRWAY winds through the papal Castel Sant' Angela,
which Cesare Borgia used both as a home and a prison. Here, accord-
ing to rumor, he often did away with four or five enemies a day.

A STATELY FOUR-POSTER, (iropeti with a gown, adorns Lucrezia's bed-

room in her castle near Rome. Her huge wardrobe included 50 gowns,
20 hats, 33 pairs of shoes, 60 pairs of slippers and 20 mantles.
 WORKSHOPS OF TWO BOLD SPIRITS

Andrea Mantegna, a painter, and Aldus Manutius, Aldus Manutius was the foremost printer in

a printer, exemplified the boldness of the Renais- Italy. In the earliest days of printing, he published
sance. Mantegna, taken into the painters' guild of hundreds of compact and inexpensive volumes.
Padua at 10, mastered and exploited new techniques Many men of the time, like the Duke of Urbino,

of perspective; his foreshortened portrait of the would not let the new printed books into their

dead Christ, which made the Savior look almost like libraries. But Manutius, turning out everything
a cadaver, shocked and astounded all who saw it. from contemporary poetry to 2,000-year-old Greek
A daring experimenter in painting, Mantegna also classics, was not deterred. "Those who cultivate let-

turned to other media; in his studio (opposite), he ters must be supplied with . . . books," he declared,
helped perfect the new art of copper engraving. ". . . and until this supply is secure I shall not rest."

AN EARLY PRESS, like the one owned by Al-

dus Manutius, used primitive printing
techniques to produce magnificent books.
Pages were set in type by hand, inked,
and run off one at a time on the wooden
press. Copies were then hung up to dry.

A WORKSHOP OF GENIUS, Andrea Mante-

gna's studio in Mantua (opposite) is clut-

tered with his drawings and engraving

tools. The bronze bust at center was
done in classical style, reflecting Man-
tegna's love of the art of ancient Rome.
^ J

'S<''

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i*x

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v>^>-.

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 We have seen that Italy was the most variously
alert of European states, and that Florence, among
the Italian states, was the chief pioneer in intel-

lectual and cultural life. Now we come to the as-

pect of its leadership that has provided the most

lasting pleasure and inspiration to posterity— the
revolution in the fine arts which Florence began
and pushed through to a triumphant conclusion.
Between the careers of two great Florentines,

5
Giotto and Michelangelo, Italian artists moved from
the unrealistic and symbolic art of the Middle Ages
to a mastery of illusion— to an art which gave the
impression that it was an accurate representation
The movement began
THE TRIUMPH OF ART of the real world.

and enjoyed most of its development

in

there.
Florence
It was
given its momentum by three crucial generations.

The first, at the beginning of the 14th Century, was

dominated by Giotto. The chief names in the sec-

ond, in the early 15th Century, are those of the

painter Masaccio and the sculptor Donatello. The
third, which spanned the late 15th and early 16th
Centuries, was notable for Leonardo da Vinci and
Raphael, and culminated in Michelangelo, who, as
his fellow painter Vasari said, not only copied na-
ture to perfection, but went beyond nature to pro-

duce an ideal, intensely personal vision: "He used

to make figures nine, ten, even twelve heads high,
simply to increase their grace. He would say that
the artist must have his measuring tools in the

eye, rather than in the hand, as it is the eye that

judges."
Giotto, who took the first giant step in this de-
velopment, was a genuine revolutionary. There was
little in the work of any previous painter to help

him achieve space that looked like real space, or

human figures that expressed human emotions. The

medieval painter had looked at the world through

a window frosted by conventions; the warmth of

Giotto's outlook melted most of them away. To me-

dieval man a painting of a man was "real" in that

it reminded him of a real man, much as a child's

portrait of his father is "real" to him even if it is

only a stick figure. Both are allusions to reality.

Giotto turned away from this symbolic world to

paint in a manner that made direct statements
A BOLD SELF-PORTRAIT, adorning Chiberti's bronze doors in Florence's Bap-
tistery, suggesfs the lofty prestige of Renaissance artists. The doors were
about people and things. His men stand in lifelike

so favorably received that Ghiberti was made a magistrate of Florence. positions and groups, interrelated as real men are
 a

when they are conversing or watching some specta- the first painter after Giotto to approach him in

cle. His settings are rational attempts to portray talent, lived in the early 15th Century. With him,
real rooms and real space. What possessed Giotto painting entered a period of intense technical de-
to paint in this way, no one knows. Perhaps there velopment, most of which is foreshadowed in the

is some truth to the legend that he started life as a work of Masaccio himself. His figures are both
goatherd, living far from the influence of medieval more solid and more relaxed than Giotto's, and his

painters, and was therefore able to record what he settings are imbued with a sense of moving air. He
saw according to his own instincts— instincts simi- was the first Renaissance painter to master the use
lar to those of the prehistoric men who painted mov- of mechanical perspective, the first to indicate hu-

ing animals on the walls of their caves with the man anatomy under the folds of draperies and the
precision and skill of huntsmen who had to know first to experiment intensively with chiaroscuro—
their quarry. way of painting shadows so as to give definition to

Whatever the motivation, Giotto's art spoke to the forms they fall across. All three of these— but

some need in the society of his day. Those who especially perspective— were to occupy the attention
saw his work in Assisi, Rome, Padua, Naples and of painters and sculptors for the next 50 years.

Florence had to be for or against him; he could Mechanical perspective was probably invented
not be ignored. Dante, in his Purgatory, noted that by the architect Brunelleschi, who may have stum-
Giotto's predecessor Cimabue "thought that he held bled upon its principles in the course of his studies
the field in painting, but now Giotto is acclaimed." of the proportions of ancient Roman buildings. His
Giovanni Villani praised his fellow citizen as "the discovery enormously excited his fellow artists.

most sovereign master of painting in his time, who Some, like Masaccio, made masterful use of it, and
drew all his figures and their postures according to others became obsessed by it. Paolo Uccello, a con-
nature," and added that "he was given a salary by temporary of Masaccio's, became so intrigued with
the commune in virtue of his talent and his excel- its techniques that he stayed at his drawing table all

lence. "
Later Leonardo da Vinci made the same night, replying to his wife when she asked him to
point when he wrote that "the painter will produce come to bed, "Oh, what a delightful thing is this

pictures of small merit if he takes for his standard perspective!" And Piero della Francesca went back
the pictures of others, but if he will study from to the Greek mathematicians for theoretical sup-
natural objects he will bear good fruit." He instanced port, in order to write a treatise on perspective
Giotto, who "being born in the mountains and in a which helped even second-rate painters to draw
solitude inhabited only by goats and such beasts, the relative size of objects correctly.
and being guided by nature to his art, began by By the time of Leonardo, painters had become so
drawing on the rocks the movements of the goats of skilled in the use of perspective drawing that Leo-
which he was keeper." nardo could use two perspectives simultaneously-
Leonardo went on to say that "Afterwards this some of the Mona Lisa's air of mystery comes from
art declined again, because everyone imitated the the fact that the figure and her background are
pictures that were already done . . . until Masaccio constructed on two different vanishing points.
showed by his perfect works how those who take Stimulated by mechanical perspective, painters
for their standard anyone but nature— the mistress also investigated aerial perspective, using progres-

of all masters— weary themselves in vain." Masaccio, sively paler colors on receding objects to obtain a
 sense of distance. And from chiaroscuro the manip-
ulation of light and shade along the edges of a

form evolved into sfumato, a blurring or hazing of

the outline of an object to blend it into its surround-
ings. Leonardo, who pioneered in the use of sfu-
mato, also discovered that shadows are not gray,
but have color— that on snow, for example, they are
blue. Similarly, Masaccio's painterly interest in anat-

omy flowered into something a good deal more.

A preoccupation with the construction of the hu-
man body led painters to the study of anatomy.
One of them, Antonio PoUaiuolo, drew bodies with
such precise muscle structure that he is believed to
be the first artist actually to practice dissection

of corpses. His famous engraving. Battle of Nude

Men, probably had much to do with the establish-
ment later on of a vogue for painting the body in

violent, sometimes contorted action, with every sin-

ew and muscle showing. Not until the 19th Century

French Impressionists did any group of artists

make a greater contribution toward reproducing

nature on a flat surface.

And yet Renaissance art did not move toward

this goal unfalteringly. Despite the fact that many
of its patrons were laymen, most of the art re-

mained religious art— and men require different

PRINCIPLES OF PERSPECTIVE, a study that fascinated Renaissance artists, are
When
things of religion at different times. life is
demonstrated in these illustrations. The street scene at top, sketched by the
calm and prosperous they think of Christ and the
Sienese painter and architect Baldassare Peruzzi, shows how perspective con-
veys an illusion of depth on a flat surface. At bottom, in a simplified version saints as friends and want them portrayed as such
of the sketch, superimposed white lines follow Peruzzi's principal lines, con- —that is, as virtual mortals; they will even accept
verging at a single "vanishing point" (center). Artists of the Renaissance care-
idealized versions of a painter's wife or mistress as
fully plotted such converging lines as a guide before they executed a painting.
the Virgin. But when times are troubled, men think
of death and the Day of Judgment and want Christ
and the saints portrayed as intercessors, inscrutable
and divine.
Something of the sort happened in the middle of
the 14th Century, when the Black Death swept over
Italy. Giotto and his followers, with their emphasis
on the humanity of the Biblical characters and sto-

ries, were cast aside and a new kind of painting be-

came popular. It emphasized the miraculous and the
authoritarian: to save men from death a miracle was
needed; to nerve them for the ordeal of death they
needed the support of the Church. Suddenly the
differences between Christ and mortal men, be-
tween the Virgin and ordinary women, became
more important than their similarities.

In this new painting the Virgin no longer sits on

the ground, holding her Baby like any other mother,
but hovers supernaturally in the air. Christ is not
shown in humanity, but in majesty, dressed in

clothes of glittering splendor beyond the means of

mortal men; He stands not in a rational landscape

but in enigmatic space. Painters turn to new or rare-

ly used themes that have intimations of immor-

tality—the Trinity, the Pentecost. And Biblical sub-

jects which Giotto and his followers had treated

almost as genre paintings— such as the Virgin's

presentation at the temple— become rigid and hier-

atical. Instead of moving impulsively up the temple

steps, Mary is frozen into a symbol of the soul

seeking salvation and redemption; the priest await-
ing her does not turn to greet her, but instead stares
out at the spectator: "Without me," he seems to

intone, "you cannot be saved." Figures which at the

beginning of the century had been shown in the

attitudes of ordinary men now stand stiffly and

their faces, regressing to a medieval convention, are
shown frontally or in sharp profile.

But by 1380 the panic was over. Men plucked

up the courage to face life on earth again, and
painters picked up the thread of realism which
fear and mysticism had made them drop. Toward
the century's close an insipid but lifelike painter,
Spinello Aretino, brought human emotion and rep-

resentational accuracy back into painting, and in BRONZE CASTING, the art illustrated here as Benvenuto Cellmi used it in

doing so revived the movement which Giotto had making his statue of Perseus, was done by the "cire-perdue." or "lost wax"
process. (1) The sculptor modeled a figure of clay (shown in black), which
begun— and which was now to run unchecked for
he coated with wax (light section). Metal pins were used to hold everything
more than a hundred years. But the real turning in place. (2) The figure was encased in plaster. As heat was applied, the

point was not so much Spinello's pallid paintings wax melted and ran out through numerous vents at the bottom of the mold.
 as it was another event: the competition, in 1401,
for the selection of an artist to design a pair of
bronze doors for the Baptistery of Florence. In the
competition two of Florence's most respected sculp-
tors, Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti,
were rivals, and the closeness of the contest en-
gaged the interest of all of Florence.

The conditions set by the merchant guild which

had commissioned the doors plainly had only es-
thetic considerations in mind. It was determined,"
Vasari wrote in his life of the winner, Ghiberti,
"that the scene represented should be the sacrifice
of Isaac by Abraham, which was considered to be
a good subject in which the masters could grapple
with the difficulties of the art, because it comprises
a landscape, figures both nude and draped, and
animals, while the figures in the foreground might
be made in full relief, those in the middle distance
in half-relief, and those in the background in bas-

relief." Ghiberti's piece was chosen over Brunel-

leschi's because, says Vasari, "the whole scene was
well designed and the composition excellent, the
figures being slender and graceful, the pose admi-
rable and so beautifully finished that it did not
look as if it had been cast and polished, but rather
as if it had been created by a breath."
In short, apart from the superior unity of Ghi-
berti's mood, the judges gave the prize to the design

that showed, not the most spiritual intensity, but

the most attention to the classical nude.

As with Giotto, almost a century before, Ghi-

berti's artistic thinking coincided with public taste.

Humanism, which gave him and his fellow artists

an increasing body of esthetic theory to draw upon

for support, also gave them an increasingly culti-

MOLTEN METAL was poured into the plaster mold (3). The bronze filled up vated and sophisticated body of patrons. Not that
the space left empty when the melted wax had poured out (heavy line). Aft-
humanism was without rivals. There were still
er the metal had cooled and hardened, the sculptor chiseled away the plaster
The projecting pins were cut
painters like Gentile da Fabriano and Benozzo
(4). off and the inner core of clay was removed.
Finally, Cellini polished his completed statue of Perseus and added, as he Gozzoli, painting beautifully colored, medieval-
said, "some trifles of gold, varnish and various other little finishings." inspired scenes crowded with elegant attenuated

101
figures— looking much like exquisite miniatures the result of scientific tricks. No great realistic

blown up to fresco size. But this bright and intel- painting is ever great because it is an exact copy

lectually languid style was not truly Tuscan; it of something. The representation of reality is not

was an import from the aristocratic Burgundian art unless it is strongly infused with the changes

courts to the north. The true Tuscan style, the and choices made by the eye that looked upon
style that was by degrees to transform art not only nature's original. But the more convinced we are

in Italy but all over Europe, was the creation of that an artist could produce an exact copy of an
Florence. object if he chose, the more acutely we become
By about 1425 Masaccio had put the seal on this aware of how his vision differs from a coldly

new style with his magnificently controlled paint- photographic one.

ing of the Trinity in the church of Santa Maria So it was with the Renaissance artist's scien-

Novella, in which God the Father does not float in tific studies. While they helped him copy nature,
the empyrean but stands firmly beneath the vault, at the same time they tempted him away from
not of heaven, but of a splendidly drawn Roman what he actually saw. Perspective, for example,
arch. By the same year Brunelleschi, putting aside formidably rational and mathematical though it

his disappointment over the outcome of the Bap- was, was merely an artificial method of represent-

tistery door competition, had turned his attention ing space. It assumed a fixed viewpoint and a fixed

exclusively to architecture and designed the Inno- eye, and was therefore a device. And like every
centi Foundling Hospital, using classical propor- device in painting, it tempted the creative artist to

tions. And by the same year Ghiberti was at work play with it. Uccello, in his battle pieces, played

on the last pair of Baptistery doors, modeling his with it in the interest of decorative pattern-mak-
figures with such skill that Michelangelo is re- ing; Leonardo, in the Mona Lisa, played with it to

ported to have declared, some 50 years later, that evoke an atmosphere of mystery.
they were fit to be the doors to Paradise. Harmony, Similarly with anatomy. Signorelli repeatedly re-
gravity, logic were the order of the day, and the drew the limbs of his figures to make them look like

art theorist Alberti was able to despise those ig- real people (the successive versions are still vis-

norant painters— the painters of wedding chests ible in his drawings), but Michelangelo, in his

and others— who continued to use real gold in their nudes— especially in the Last Judgment— contorted
work to achieve a tricky and ostentatious glitter. reality to give his figures an inner expressiveness.
Yet despite this intense drive toward realism Even Alberti, a fervent propagandist for the imi-

Renaissance art did not, in one sense, actually copy tation of nature, sometimes wrote from an urge
nature. Reality is a word with many shades of that seemed directed more toward beauty than
meaning. The figures of Giotto are real compared truth: "We have set down the principal measure-
to the figures in earlier art, but seem less so when ments of a man," he noted in his book on sculp-
compared to those of Raphael, 200 years later. By ture. "We did not, however, choose this or that
Raphael's time scientific studies enabled artists to single body, but . . . have tried to note and set

copy nature with great verisimilitude— systems of down in writing the highest beauty scattered, as if
"

perspective had been worked out and the human in calculated portions, among many bodies.
body had been examined, dead and alive, at close It was in rebuttal to this use of nature to sur-

range. But the sense of a painting's reality is never pass nature that Leonardo remarked: "that painting
 A FIGURED CHALICE, affribufeti to the Florentine goldsmith Benve-
nuto Cellini, combines a scallop shell, a turtle, a dragon and a
sphinx. The gold-and-enamel cup was made purely for ornament.

is the most to be praised which agrees most ex- the simultaneous existence of reality and unreality
actly with the thing imitated." Leonardo thought in its paintings— lingered on.
that the painter should refer constantly to what Renaissance realism was also qualified by an-
was before his eyes— as the young Giotto had— and other medieval trait: the persistent use of sym-
not to his memory. He should not use the raw bols to comment on or explain the meaning of a

material of nature to extract the ideal from it. And painting. If anything. Renaissance painting, in

it was in rebuttal to this thesis that Michelangelo, spite of its realistic appearance, became even more
in turn, saw the artist's aim not as an imitation of mystical in its message than medieval art. The
nature, nor as an idealization based on a collec- ability to copy nature accurately enabled its paint-
tion of the best of this and that, but as an expres- ers to use symbols more precisely, and to use more
sion of an ideal present in his own mind. of them. Symbols lurk in the most naturalistic
Neither were the Renaissance artists concerned looking scenes. In fact. Renaissance art cannot be
with the kind of realism that strives to make understood— neither the aims of those who pro-
scenes real in the sense of being lifelike. No Ren- duced it, nor the reactions of those who looked at
aissance artist ever painted a landscape for its own it— without understanding this. The goldfinch in

sake, or a group of people engaged in informal St. John's hand in Raphael's Madonna of the Gold-
conversation. Painters were seldom troubled by finch is not just a pretty bird, it is a symbol of fer-

the anachronism of introducing contemporary fig- tility: the painting was done as a wedding gift

ures into Biblical scenes, seldom troubled by any from the artist to his friend Lorenzo Nasi. And the
notion of verismo, "truth to life." In this respect goldfinch could mean other things, too. It could
a medieval characteristic— the period's tolerance of symbolize the soul or— following the legend that
Christ as a child had brought clay birds to life— instance, illustrates the Church's position in a the-

the Resurrection. Sometimes it became a symbol ological argument that raged in Raphael's time.
for the Passion, alluding to another legend which Reformers like John Wyclif in England and Jan Hus
told how a little bird flew down and pulled a thorn in Bohemia had said that the wafer and wine of the
from Christ's brow while he was carrying the cross. Eucharist were not strictly speaking the body and
Indeed it was common for paintings of the Holy blood of Christ and did not have to be blessed by
Family to carry the onlooker's mind forward to a priest. But Raphael's painting, commissioned by
the Passion— and vice versa. In his Pieta in St. Pe- the Vatican, says otherwise. The sacrament sits on
ter's, Michelangelo accomplishes this by contrast- an altar in the center of the picture, flanked on one
ing the dead Christ with a youthful Mary; she is side by the illustrious Church Fathers whose writ-

of an age to dandle a baby rather than to hold a ings have concentrated on the Eucharist's meaning
man on her lap. Conversely, in Michelangelo's to men's daily lives, and on the other side by the
painting of the Holy Family, the gesture with theologians who understand its inner, mystical
which Joseph hands down the Christ Child to His meaning. Once more an upward-pointing finger—
mother is not merely a charming domestic touch, this time on a figure beside the altar— indicates the
but a reference to the lifting down of Christ from risen Christ and sums up what the argument is

the Cross. To emphasize this point, Michelangelo all about.

includes the figure of a youthful Bacchus, the pa- Only recently the same gesture has led to a new
gan god of wine, in the background. Henceforth, interpretation of the meaning of Leonardo's Last

the picture says, mystical ecstasy is not dependent Supper. In this painting the finger is that of St.

on the wine of pagan revels, but on the wine which Thomas, who sits directly next to Christ Himself.

represents the blood of Christ. The conventional explanation of his pointing ges-

Similarly, Leonardo's drawing of the Virgin and ture, along with the gestures and expressions of
St. Anne in the British Museum is a good deal more all the other apostles, was that they were reacting
than the relaxed family scene it appears to be on to Christ's statement, "One among you will betray

the surface. The Christ Child is shown blessing St. me. "
But their reactions are much more believable
John. And while Mary looks indulgently at the if we understand that Christ has just said, "Take,
two children, St. Anne, with her upward-pointing eat; this is my Body which is given for you," and
finger, forewarns that the Child will be crucified. "Drink . . . for this is my Blood of the New Testa-
Finally, by placing the Virgin on St. Anne's knee, ment. "
This does not rule out the previous inter-
Leonardo makes the point that the whole process pretation—the consciousness of betrayal— since with-
of redemption is contained within the Church, of out the betrayal there could have been no crucifixion.
which St. Anne is the symbol. Within this refer- In fact the similarity in gesture between Christ's
ence, St. Anne's warning and sympathetic glance and Judas' outstretched hands makes this very con-
are reminders that in spite of sadness, hope can nection. But the new interpretation subordinates
come to all mankind if it will accept the Church's this theme to that of the nature of the sacraments
teaching. —an idea much more profound and moving.
In fact, the Church's teaching is sometimes the It was a commonplace in the theological litera-

very heart of the symbolism. Raphael's painting of ture of the time that any text in the Bible could be

the Dispute on the Nature of the Sacrament, for interpreted in four ways: in its literal sense, as
 CULTURES AT FAR ENDS OF THE EARTH

During the samp centuries that saw the

unfolding of the Renaissance in Europe,
two great civilizations— the Aztec in Mexi-
co and the Ming Dynasty in China— rose
and flourished. Aztecs controlled the entire
valley of Mexico by the mid-15th Century.
Their capital, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico
City), was a city of about 100,000 people,
its streets ornamented with rich art like
the sculpture of Coatlicue, goddess of earth
and death, at left. Then in 1521, the Span-
iard Hernan Cortes captured Tenochtitlan,
and brought Aztec rule to an end.
In China, an uprising in 1368 had re-

placed Mongol overlords with a purely Chi-

nese government which favored the arts.

For nearly 300 years Peking was the cen-

ter of a magnificent culture still famed for

exquisitely thin porcelains and for beau-

tifully painted scrolls of landscapes. The
"Forbidden City' at Peking, with its cele-

brated pagodas, waterways and courtyards,

was erected by Ming Dynasty architects.

evidence of a moral law, as a mystical promise, and group of disciples appears to be dominated by one
as a key to salvation. Leonardo's grouping of the or another of these humors; only one figure, that

disciples follows this idea. He has divided them into of Christ, contains them all in perfect balance;

four groups of three men each. On the far right is only His body can be perfect spirit, and man can
a group whose hands are outstretched to accept the become perfect only in Him.
Eucharistic key; the enraptured group next to them Thus, the Last Supper made its impact not only
responds to the mystical promise; the group to the through its noble naturalism and its compositional
immediate left of Christ copes with the literal im- grace and energy, but as commentary on the central

plication of His words— that is, that He must die; doctrine of the Church. It is a superb painting as
and the group on the far left expresses anger and well as a piece of graphic theology. There are simi-

horror that the moral law makes this demand of lar theological lessons in many Renaissance paint-
their Master. A reasonably well-educated Renais- ings, even in those that seem to be wholly secular
sance viewer would also have connected the con- and sensuous. Titian s nude and clothed V'enuses
notations in this first Eucharist with a commonly in Sacred and Profane Love, for instance, represent
believed medical theory, derived from antiquity, not only the two poles of Platonic beauty (the nude
that a man's temperament is determined by the being the higher, because truth dares to be naked)
balance of four "humors": phlegm, associated with but the two kinds of Christian love, the love of God
quiet acceptance; blood, with optimism; melancholy, and the love of one's neighbor, which together
with thoughtfulness; and choler, with anger. Each constitute the highest Christian virtue. Charity.

105
 As the Renaissance wore on, the meaning behind they resemble the ancient Roman river gods— of the

the appearance of objects became increasingly elab- four rivers of Hades. These reclining figures have

orate. The more skillfully the artists represented slipped aside to let the dead men rise a little way to

reality, the more reluctant they were to stop there. their niches on the wall— beautiful, eternally young,
For centuries scholars have puzzled over the but waiting. Even time is slowed: Dawn wakes with
meaning behind the two tombs which Michelange- anguish; Day shields himself from the sun as from
lo designed for Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici an assassin. Lorenzo and Giuliano— and those of us
(not Lorenzo the Magnificent, but his grandson) in who watch them— are left to ponder the soul's fate,

the Medici Chapel in the church of San Lorenzo. midway in passage between death and eternal life.

About the symbolism of the chapel as a whole, Sometimes the symbolism of 16th Century artists

which Michelangelo also designed, there is little must have defeated even the most learned of their

disagreement. It represents the three zones of man's viewers. To understand the Medici Chapel fully,

existence: heaven, earth and Hades. The statues of Michelangelo's contemporaries would have to

the two princes are set in the middle zone of earth, have read Plato's dialogue on immortality, the Phae-
in niches above the tombs where their souls lie- do, as well as the Bible. And who could have known,
in Hades— awaiting God's decision whether to free without Vasari's own written commentary, that the
them or not. Both princes turn their heads to watch gleam on the armor in Vasari's painting of Alessan-

a statue of the Virgin and Child on the wall between dro de' Medici represented Alessandro's reflections
them, hoping for a sign that they will rise to heaven, on the interests of his subjects? Or that the ruined
which is suggested by a zone of light created by the house in the painting's background refers to the

chapel's windows just below the dome. Medici's exile? Or that Alessandro sits on a circular

The symbolism of the tombs themselves has al- seat because circles have no end— and neither would
most as many interpretations as interpreters. Ar- the rule of the Medici family? Or that the bit of

chitecturally they are similar to palace facades, a purple fabric on Alessandro's knee is a reference to

reference perhaps to the ancient idea of the tomb the murdered Giuliano de' Medici? No one. Sym-
as the house of the dead. Their decorations are the bolism had gone beyond teaching into the realm of
ancient Roman emblems associated with death and intellectual whimsy.
immortality— garlands, jars of oil, shells, dolphins, In the final analysis the urge to allegorize, to load
allegorical masks. But the princes are not dead; the simple with symbolic overtones, to make some-
they rest in the house of death— having left one life, thing stand for something else, was as strong in the

they await another. The statue of Giuliano holds 15th and 16th Centuries as it had been in the Mid-
in his hand several oboloi, the traditional coins of dle Ages. Realism, the unvarnished realism of the
Hades; Lorenzo leans his elbow on a box covered kitchen sink or the cluttered attic, was alien to

with a bat's head, the bird of Hades. The chapel Renaissance tastes. Their art only looks straight-
is ringed with blind doors, apparently the doors to forward to us because we cannot read the clues. In
Hades, through which, as Vergil wrote in the Aeneid, fact, it is a tribute to the strength of their natural-
it was easy to pass but difficult to return. Two fig- ism that it did not break down under the weight of
ures recline on each tomb. Evening and Dawn on symbolic overtones— that Leonardo and Michelange-
Lorenzo's, Night and Day on Giuliano's, symbols lo can still make us think we are seeing quite pos-
not only of the four times of day, but also— since sible people behaving in quite believable ways.
A NEW NATURALISM, preparing the way for the Renaissance, appears in Giotto's fresco "The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate."

THE MASTERWORKS
The deep interest in man which characterized the Renaissance found lasting
expression in the art of the age. No other epoch has brought together so many
great painters, sculptors and architects. From the moment when the 14th Century
painter Giotto broke with medieval tradition to emphasize man's natural instead
of his spiritual aspect (above), art was never again the same. To the artists them-

selves the Renaissance was an age of tremendous change, of radical advances in

technique. Each painting became a technical challenge, an adventure in perspec-

tive, a revolution in the use of color. A few artists worked alone; most ran busy
shops, full of assistants and apprentices, often crowded with prospective custom-
ers. Increasingly, all found the human figure the noblest subject for their art.

107
 A COMMANDING CHRIST liominflfes Masaccio's fresco "The Tribute Money." Molded by light and shadow, Masaccio's figures gain depth.

MASTERS OF THE NEW REALISM

The new realism heralded by Giotto was dramati- that appear fully "in the round." By the end of

cally advanced in the 15th Century by three great the century, painters were so enthralled with per-

Florentines, Brunelleschi, Masaccio and Donatello spective that, as Piero della Francesca observed,
—and brought to its height by the Umbrian Piero measurement had become as important to art as

della Francesca. Brunelleschi scientifically plotted drawing. Artists talked of points, lines and angles,

the laws of linear perspective for the first time- and described their subjects in terms of squares
applying mathematics he had learned from Tosca- and cubes and tetragons. Others pioneered in ana-

nelli, who also counseled Christopher Columbus. tomical studies: Donatello, for one, created the

Masaccio added effects of light and shadings of first nude sculptures since antiquity. The goal of

color to heighten perspective, portraying figures each artist was the same: the mastery of realism.

108
IMW
 EXPRESSIONS OF GREATER
ARTISTIC FREEDOM

One generation of Florentine masters showed how

the human figure could be naturalistically fixed in

space; the next made its figures move. At the

end of the 15th Century, Antonio del Pollaiuolo

(left, below) set athletic figures in violent mo-

tion, showing every muscle strained. In the

paintings of Luca Signorelli (left, above), which

Michelangelo studied before designing his own
frescoes for the Sistine Chapel, every posture of

the body in action is shown. In Mantegna's

THE LAST lUDGMENT, ' a virtuoso display of anatomy, was painted by
Renaissance even the demons are human.
Dead Christ (far right, below), unusual perspec-
Luca Signorelli. In this hell,

tive makes even repose seem restless.

Besides introducing movement to art, the later

generations of Renaissance masters expanded

its subject matter. Botticelli painted not only re-
ligious subjects but also ancient myths and alle-

gories (right). Piero di Cosimo filled his landscapes

(below) with Stone Age men and primitive beasts.

"HERCULES AND ANTEUS,' a bronze study of violent stress, is by

Arttonio del Pollaiuolo, one of the first artists to dissect a cadaver.
A SCATHING ALLEGORY by Botticelli portrays Calumny, flanked by Fraud, Treason and Envy, dragging a youthful victim before an ass-eared king.

A STONE ACE SCENE, s/iowing a hunter amid real and fanciful animals, "THE DEAD CHRIST," in startling perspective, wui pumtcd by Mau-
is one of six panels of prehistoric life executed by Piero di Cosimo. tegna partly as an exercise in the technique of foreshortening.
 _ . ^j A 4 t* 1"-'
('m- ,. i"t.

-titri '
^

iiiiiiii'
ffii iMffinnnni nm

THE CA DORO, fl I5f^ Century Venetian palace, blends Gothic •SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE," an allegorical painting of about 1515 by
and Saracen design. Gold leaf originally covered its marble facade. Titian, illustrates how, by applying the techniques of Venetian painting.

A PASTORAL SCENE, Giorgione's celebration of musicians and nudes was painted about 1508, two years before the young artist died of plague.
'^!^
 ST PETERS DOME, designed by Michelangelo, rises
above paired columns nearly 50 feet high to a
total height, stressed by vertical ribs, of 452 feet.

RAPHAELS MADONNA with Christ and St. John the Baptist, paint-
ed when the artist was in his early twenties, shows figures ar-
ranged in a pyramid— a design Raphael borrowed from Leonardo.

PREPARED FOR BATTLE, Michelangelo's "David" expresses vibrant

power harmoniously contained. Completed in 1504, it is the
crowning work of the great tradition initiated by Donatella.
THE LAST SUPPER by Leonardo da Vinci, from which this detail is taken, reveals— although ;}ocked and repainted— the artists mastery of design.

THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF TECHNIQUE

In a score of years, between 1500 and 1520, three dream of depicting ideal beauty, and the nearly
men of genius lifted Italian art to its summit. geometrical grace of his paintings brought this

Leonardo da Vinci opened the way. A master of ideal to perfection. Raphael embodied the rational
perspective, shading and color, he created lifelike poise of the High Renaissance. Michelangelo's co-
figures with mere half strokes, blurred outlines, lossal statues challenged this equilibrium with a
or shadowy features. Raphael shared Leonardos turbulent energy that gave life to the very stone.
 THE ERA OF MANNERISM

The aftermath of the High Renaissance was 16th carrying on the traditions of the past. A sign at his
Century Mannerism. Turning from nature and studio proclaimed: "The drawing of Michelangelo

classical ideals, Mannerist painters dramatized the and the color of Titian." Yet the paintings by Tin-
stress of their own emotions. Pontormo manipu- toretto (opposite) are utterly unlike any that had
lated anatomy and dissolved space; Parmigianino come before. Known to his contemporaries as il

elongated forms and turned perspective— once the furioso for his amazing speed, Tintoretto added to

artist's pride— into a jarring puzzle. art a fervor and a sweeping use of impasto all his

Tintoretto was an innovator who felt he was own. His was a new art, as brilliant as it was violent.

"THE MADONNA OF THE LONG NECK," by Parrmgianitw,

shows human forms pulled out of proportion to satisfy

the artist's fascination with a variety of geometrical

forms. Here, necks and legs stretch into long cylinders.

A SUPPLE PERSEUS holds Medusa's head in this bronze by

Benvenuto Cellini. Although Cellini remained closer to
MANNERED POSES and unnatural colors abound in Jacopo da Pontormo's "The nature than most Mannerists, the aging Michelangelo
Deposition," painted about 1528. figures are contorted to fit the oval design. dismissed his sculptures as "snuff-box ornaments."
A STUDY IN CONTRASTS. Tintoretto's "Abduction of the Body of Saint Mark" is eerily lit and plunged far back
in perspective. The tranquil f^eometry of pavement and arches makes the action seem doubly turbulent.
 #
/;.'
 One of the most extraordinary phenomena in the
history of art was the rebirth, after the Middle
Ages, of the desire
to reproduce the real world in
paint and marble and bronze. But
alongside this
phenomenon another appeared, almost equally ex-
traordinary: the change in social status
of the artist.
In the Middle Ages painters
and sculptors had
been craftsmen like other craftsmen, no different
in kind from carpenters or bakers. The
Renaissance

6 saw the rise of the

individual, a genius to be judged
ferent from those applied to ordinary

Humanism, a
modern

men.
idea of the artist as

devotion to classical
by standards

art and
an
dif-

litera-

A CREATIVE ELITE ture,

much
was largely responsible for this. However
it may have hampered the artist's instinctive
self-expression it changed him, by educating him,
from a craftsman into a man of learning. Some of
this learning was acquired from theoretical texts
on esthetics, but a great deal of it was acquired
through direct contact with ancient
statues and
buildings-and nowhere were these more in
evi-
dence than in Rome.
Many artists went to Rome. Two of the earliest
to make the pilgrimage were the Florentines
Dona-
telloand Brunelleschi. For the latter the trip was
partly an escape; he had just lost the
competition
for the design of the bronze doors of the Baptistery
of Florence. "Neither
was bothered by family cares
and worries," wrote the contemporary
chronicler
Manetti, "because neither had a wife or
children
there or elsewhere." Also, foreshadowing
the bo-
hemian behavior that later became the mark
of ar-
tistic genius, "Neither was much concerned with
how he ate, drank, lived or dressed himself, pro-
vided he could satisfy himself with these
things to
see and measure."
Donatello amassed a collection of ancient coins
and gems, but the most valuable thing
the two
brought back to Florence was enthusiasm
for the
culture they had unearthed. Other artists
followed
their lead in collecting art objects,
notably Lorenzo
Ghiberti, the winner of the Baptistery door
compe-
tition. So, too, did some of the foremost humanist
scholars and art patrons of the day. Niccolo
Niccoli
A PORTRAIT OF A YOUTH, attributed to Filippino Lippi, captures the boy's -who "patronized painters, sculptors and architects
ir.d,v,dual,ty but also idealizes h,s
features.
Renaissarxce artists ger^erally as well as men of letters, and had a thorough
sought to follow Aristotle's precept-Taint
people better than they are " knowledge of their crafts'-collected statuary.

119
coins and gems, as well as manuscripts. Leon Bat-
tista Alberti, infected by the Roman example,
designed the most meticulously "classical" build-
ing in Florence, the Palazzo Rucellai. But Alberti
did not stop there. So closely did he identify him-
self with the antique spirit that he was able to

write— and pass off as genuine— a comedy purported

to be by a Roman writer. In the same manner the
young Michelangelo fooled connoisseurs with an
"antique" marble cupid.
Of all the men affected by antiquity, however,
the ones who were influenced most were probably
the architects. Architecture, founded, in the words
of the scholar Marsilio Ficino, on "the eternal
truths" of geometry, was the least subjective of the
arts. An architect of the Renaissance could tap the

glory of Rome's pagan greatness, learn from the

proportions, engineering and details of its buildings,

without playing traitor to the Christian spirit of

his own time. Even so, he was seldom a direct

copyist. There were no Roman models for church

facades and palazzi, and he did not always choose
to use such models as there were. The Renaissance
preferred, for example, the dome of Byzantine
tall

architecture to the shallow dome of Rome's Pan-

theon. And although Brunelleschi and his contem-
poraries carefully measured such details as capitals
and pediments, they used these details with great
freedom. The churches of Brunelleschi are unique-
ly his own, despite their debt to the Roman basilica

and to such Roman details as arch, pillar, capital

and coffering.

As for Renaissance sculptors, they were influ-

enced as much by the experiments of contemporary

painters as they were by the statues of Rome. Al-

A RENAISSANCE NOTION OF ROME, this print of the Baths of Diocletian offers
though one sculptor working in Giotto's time, Ni- an imaginative— and highly inaccurate— return to classicism: the basic Roman
cola Pisano, derived his naturalistic style from the design is embellished with medieval columns and Renaissance frame windows.

influence of Roman sculpture, most of his succes-

sors took their naturalism from the paintings of

Giotto. For more than a hundred years, from An-

drea Pisano's first set of doors for the Florentine "How much of all this new Rome that we see to-

Baptistery in 1336 to Ghiberti's second set in 1452, day, "

the authors ask Leo X, "however great, how-
sculptors tried to give their reliefs the same sense ever beautiful, however adorned with palaces and
of real space and rational communication between churches and other buildings, has been built with
the figures that Giotto had given his paintings. lime made from ancient marbles? "
Interest in the

Even Donatello's fascination with Roman statues marbles, indeed in all Roman art and architecture,
was limited to using them for ideas about what had grown ever more intense. As if to protect them-
sculpture should do rather than how it should be selves from the limitations of realism, artists were
done. His famous statue of Gattamelata astride his seizing on an art that was spiritually larger than

horse, in Padua, owes something to the classical life— more ordered, more graceful, more heroic. At
statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback, in Rome, the same time a succession of truly magnificent
but the brooding inwardness of his Judith and finds emerged from the darkness to astonish and
Holofernes, in Florence, is far removed from the excite them.

classical temperament. So also is his Mary Magda- One of these was the statue of the Laocoon, a

len in the Florentine Baptistery. Although the stat- marvel of the Hellenistic Age. Another, the so-called
ue's mastery of form may have been learned from Belvedere Torso, influenced Michelangelo, whose
observing antiquity, all traces of Donatello's anti- ideal of physical beauty was powerfully affected by
quarian research have been obliterated by the Mag- it. Raphael borrowed from still another Roman
dalen's scorchingly personal style. statue, the Belvedere Apollo, at least three times,

In fact the ancient world was influencing men taking the head as the model for his head of St.
already inclined to turn their backs on the Middle Stephen in the Disputa, a leg for the study of

Ages— men whose fresh outlook had made it impos- Adam in the same painting, and the position of the

sible for them to go on reproducing medieval art, legs for his painting, the Sistine Madonna.
however glorious. The classical freestanding nude Late Renaissance painting is, in fact, full of such
helped sculptors already disposed to see the human borrowings. But the greatest painters and sculptors
figure in the round. Roman doors and windows ap- of the age were primarily interested in expressing
pealed to architects whose mathematical interests their own feelings about God, nature and the beau-
had already led them to reject the pointed Gothic ty of human form, not mimicking the feelings of

arch for the rational geometry of semicircles and the ancients. Donatello's sculpture became less clas-

squares. 'Apart from the weakness of a pointed sical, not more so, after his sojourn as a "treasure
arch, it lacks the grace of our style, which is pleas- hunter "
in Rome, and the figures in Michelangelo's
"

ing to the eye because of the perfection of a circle, Last Judgment defied rigid precepts of classical

says a report on the monuments of ancient Rome. form. The only truly "classical "
statues of the 16th

Its authors, who were probably Castiglione and Century were the figures turned out in the hun-

Raphael, add, with a nod to the other main influ- dreds by minor masters for use in gardens and
ence on Renaissance art, "It may be observed that grottoes.

Renaissance remained, overwhelm-

'

nature itself strives for no other form. The art of the

This same report also contains a bitter denuncia- ingly, religious art. Pagan Rome and Greece chal-
tion of the popes for allowing the monuments of lenged the plastic sense, not the spirituality, of the
ancient Rome to decay into fodder for lime kilns: later artists. And their patrons' love for classical
books and objects did not deflect them from a pref- courage to go beyond conventional art if they had
erence for art with Christian subject matter. In not also come to regard themselves less as crafts-

sculpture pagan subjects were mostly restricted to men for hire, and more as men of independent
small bronzes and medals, and in painting they genius. The artists of the 14th Century— even fa-
were transformed into allegory. Botticelli's painting mous artists like Giotto— had been members of
of Pallas Taming the Centaur— wisdom overcoming craft guilds. Working with others in a shop, they
a barbarian— symbolized, for 15th Century Florence, had been paid almost by the yard and, like any
the boldness with which their own Lorenzo de' Me- other craftsmen, were expected to follow directions
dici had bested his enemy, the King of Naples, and and deliver the goods. One day it might be a fresco;

the wisdom of his peace terms. Moreover, just as the next a painted shield; the day after a decorated
the Middle Ages had managed to put a good face chest. Some painting shops were more popular
on Ovid by allegorizing his message on physical than others, just as some jewelers were, but neither
love into the love of man for God, so the Renais- the idea nor the word "genius" had been connected
sance read into ancient religion and poetry a pre- with individual workers.
figuring of the truths of Christianity. Outside the world of the workshop, however,
One of the few Renaissance artists who, in addi- among scholars and educated men of means, the-
tion to his other work, did produce some paintings ories were developing about man that were relevant
without religious or allegorical significance was Pi- to the role of the artist. During the 15th Century
ero di Cosimo. These were scenes from primitive art began to emerge from the anonymity of the
life. But he was a solitary and eccentric man; Vasari workshop. The Renaissance artist was in somewhat
says that "he kept himself constantly shut up . . . the same position as an actor in the 19th Century
would not permit anyone to see him work, but lived theater: his profession amused gentlemen, but the
the life of a wild beast rather than that of a man. same gentlemen would have been outraged to see

He would never suffer his rooms to be swept, and their children enter it. Michelangelo's father, a city

would eat at such moments as he felt hungry ... he magistrate, tried to beat his son out of his disgrace-
would allow himself no better food than hard-boiled ful desire to become a sculptor. It took the personal
eggs, and to save firing . . . cooked these only when intervention of Lorenzo de' Medici to persuade the
he had prepared a fire to boil his glues, varnishes, old man that there was a difference in status be-

etc." tween the man who chiseled statues and one who
This portrait of the artist as a neurotic is rare chipped building stones.
for the 15th Century. Although there were a few The reaction of Michelangelo's father to his son's
like Piero— and like Uccello, whom Vasari described profession may have been more drastic than most,
as "solitary, strange, melancholy and poor"— artists, but it is not difficult to see why he was distressed.

generally speaking, did not inhabit private creative Alberti, it is true, came from an aristocratic family,

worlds. The revolution of Renaissance art could and Brunelleschi and Leonardo were the sons of
scarcely have taken place if painters, sculptors and respectable middle-class notaries. But Uccello's
architects had not been involved in the changing father was a barber, Filippo Lippi's a butcher,
culture of their day, and they could not have be- Andrea del Castagno's a farmer, and Botticelli's a

come involved if they had worked in solitude. tanner. The Pollaiuolo family were poultry dealers,
At the same time they could not have found the Fra Bartolommeo's father a muleteer, and Andrea
A CHEST FOR A BRIDE, decorated with painted panels, carved and
gilded wood, held a young girl's trousseau. Such marriage chests
were made to order in the busy art workshops of the Renaissance.

del Sarto, as his name suggests, was a tailor's son. if followed, can render your hand so light that it

Fine company! will float, even fly like a leaf in the wind, and that
Not until the 16th Century— when Raphael, Bra- is: not to enjoy too much the company of women.
"

mante and Titian lived like princes, and the aged About this time, too, the classical writings of
and honored Michelangelo could have done so had Pliny and Vitruvius were in circulation, and artists
he not preferred solitary squalor— did many of the could learn about the lives of their counterparts in
most successful painters make more than a thriving ancient Rome— how respected they had been, and
shopkeeper. Some of them lived on an artisan's what high standards of intellectual attainment had
wage, or less, and none of them had any profession- been expected of them. Vitruvius, for example, had
al freedom. An artist had to join his guild and ob- demanded as high a level of culture for the archi-

serve its rules. In 1434, when Brunelleschi refused tect as Cicero had demanded for the orator. Pat-
to pay his dues to the building workers, the guild terning themselves on these ideals. Renaissance
to which he belonged, he was arrested and thrown artists became thinkers as well as decorators. And
into prison. Only the efforts of the cathedral their patrons, whose own increasingly sophisticated
authorities, for whom he was then working, got needs caused them to single out intellectually gifted
him released. men for employment, came to look upon artists

By the 1430s one artist had already tried to lift as more than craftsmen.
himself above this menial position by elevating the "I have ever striven ... to examine the ways of

dignity of his calling. Cennino Cennini, in his Book nature, to discover how pictures are conceived, how
on Art, appealed to his fellow painters to seek so- the sense of sight works and in what manner the
cial advancement and respect, and detailed for canons of paintings and sculptures can be deter-
them the steps by which this change could be mined, '
wrote Ghiberti in his autobiography. From
accomplished: "Your life should always be reg- Cennini onward there was an attempt to associate

ulated as if you were studying theology, philosophy the practice of painting and sculpture and architec-

or other sciences, that is: eat and drink temperately ture with the practice of such skills as poetry and
at least twice a day, consuming light but sustaining mathematics— to represent them as liberal arts, as

food and light wines. There is one more rule which, well as manual ones. And since the disciplines of

123
poetry and mathematics proceeded from a basis did when he painted the Mona Lisa. Chafing under
of theory, so too should art: "Those who devote this inferiority, one sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini,

themselves to practice without science," wrote pointed out that just as Cicero's ideal orator had to
Leonardo, "are like sailors who put to sea with- be master of many skills to represent his clients
out rudder or compass and who can never be cer- adequately, so a sculptor had to know about war,
tain where they are going. Practice must always music and rhetoric in order to portray a soldier, a

be founded on sound theory." musician or a statesman. His contemporary and

By the turn of the 16th Century the battle for rival, Baccio Bandinelli, tried to disguise his second-
status had been won, but an internal war had be- class position by calling his sculpture workshop an
gun. Painters and sculptors argued over which of academy, after the gatherings of learned literary

them was the more socially acceptable. Leonardo men.

gave the palm to painters because they could work This rivalry within the arts, however much it

at ease, like gentlemen, while the sculptors, knock- demeaned individuals, actually advanced the status
ing away at the stone with sweat pouring down of the arts as a whole. The process reached a cul-

their faces, worked in conditions like those of a mination of sorts with the publication, in 1607, of

blacksmith. a treatise by the painter Federico Zuccari, placing

Also, the moment that painting, sculpture and disegno (drawing) just below theology in impor-
architecture came to be accepted as gentlemanly tance and claiming that disegno derived from the
professions, their practice became associated with phrase segno di Dio—a sign from God. Behind the
the notion of gentlemanly behavior so persuasively claim lay the idea of genius: the artist, in creating,

set forth by Castiglione. A gentleman, said Casti- duplicates one of God's own functions. Leonardo
glione in his Courtier, ought to carry his learning expressed the idea directly; "that divine power,
easily and lightly. This notion colors Vasari's opin- which lies in the knowledge of the painter," he

ions about the artists of his day; he placed special said, "transforms the mind of the painter into the
emphasis on their speed and dexterity. Indeed, said likeness of the divine mind, for with a free hand he
Vasari, one of the benefits of the technical experi- can produce different beings, animals, plants, fruits,

ments of the 14th and 15th Centuries was that the landscapes, open fields, abysses, terrifying and
skilled painter now had "a degree of perfection fearful places."

which renders it possible for him ... to produce But the creative element in art, which is nowa-
six pictures in one year, whereas formerly those days taken for granted, could not be achieved until
earlier masters of our art could produce one pic- painters had mastered the technique of reproducing
ture only in six years." Vasari commented on Leo- what they actually saw. That done, a good painter,

nardo's slow rate of production and was proud of wanting further challenge, sought to alter what
his own enormous turnover— he bragged of painting was before his eyes and in so doing created some-
the Great Hall in the Chancellor's Palace in Rome thing that, until that moment, had not existed. It

in 100 days flat. ("That's obvious!" sniffed Michel- was at this moment that the artist's similarity to

angelo.) God came to mind, and it is surely no accident

No sculptor, even with a host of assistants, could that Leonardo was one of the first to whom it oc-

work this fast. Nor, because of the amount of curred.More than any other artist of his time,

noise he made, could he work to music, as Leonardo Leonardo tried to pin down the actions that created
form— the beating of a bird's wing, the direction grandiose tomb that combined veneration for the
of the currents when a waterfall smashes down man with praise for the three arts which he had
into a pool. helped to make divine: architecture, painting and
Almost as soon as they became creators, artists sculpture. Architecture is represented by the sar-
saw themselves as creatures possessed of divine cophagus, sculpture by a bust, and painting by a

madness, marked out from other men, heroically frescoed canopy which crowns the whole edifice.
doomed to be social outcasts, eccentric and unique. The tomb is more than a monument to the sculptor

By the middle of the 16th Century there was very of the David, the painter of the Sistine Chapel
little left of the conception of the artist as a more ceiling, and the architect of Florence's Laurentian
or less anonymous Jack-of-all-crafts. Painters could Library; it is a memorial to the victory of art over
be given titles of nobility, as Vasari was, and a craft.

monarch could stoop to retrieve a fallen brush, as Although almost all the names mentioned so far

the Emperor Charles V did Titian's. And artists have been those of Florentines, Florence had no mo-
had acquired the prerogative of living beyond con- nopoly on talent. In Siena, painters like Duccio di
vention, a tradition that has ever since appealed to Buoninsegna and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio
small talents that require the protective coloring Lorenzetti were producing works that ranked in

of Bohemia. quality with those of their Florentine contemporary,

Early in the 1560s, when Cosimo de' Medici gave Giotto. But Florence was important in a special
his sanction to the formation of an academy of way. It had an unusually large number of artists

artists that would embrace all the arts, the old of genius, and the work of these artists created a

guild structure was as good as dead. Artists were theme upon which lesser painters could play varia-

no longer workmen. Fanned by the giant pinions of tions superior in range and intelligence to any they
Michelangelo, they were now an elite fraternity might have created on their own.
headed jointly by Michelangelo and Cosimo him- Only in one city, Venice, did Florentine paint-
self. The Academy included some of the most illus- ing fail to dominate the local style. Although a

trious artists of the day: Cellini, Titian, Tintoretto, number of Florentines worked there— among them
Salviati— the last of whom, according to Vasari, Ghiberti, Uccello, Alberti and Andrea del Castagno
loved "to mix with men of learning and great per- —they could not deflect the cautious Venetians
sons, and . . . always hated plebeian craftsmen. "
A from their own blend of Byzantine and Gothic
gentleman indeed. styles.

Apart from bolstering the status-consciousness In architecture, too, Venice remained conserva-
of its members— and this is no sneer, for a feeling tive. The intricate and richly encrusted Ca' d'Oro,

of proud independence enabled an artist to experi- a palazzo on the Grand Canal, was completed at

ment freely up to the limit of a patron's patience— around the same time that Alberti, in Florence,

the Academy achieved little. But it did represent was designing his severely classical Palazzo Ru-
an attitude toward art which encouraged treasuring cellai. Venice did not get a classical church until
even a master's preliminary sketches and un- Mauro Coducci built San Michele in Isola, be-
finished statues, like Michelangelo's Slaves, as con- tween 1469 and 1479, and the city's first classical

taining sparks of the creative fire. And in 1574 it palazzo, Vendramin, was not begun until about
commemorated Michelangelo's death by erecting a 1481. In Padua, Venice's near neighbor, Andrea
Mantegna was painting cycles of frescoes that begun his career by leaving his birthplace, Urbino,

showed a passionate concern for antiquity and the to paint with Perugino. He took on his master's
new perspective, but the canny Venetian patrons manner: gentle, unpretentious, but with a remark-
remained uninterested. Like true traders, they were ably shrewd grasp of perspective. Then a stay
unwilUng to buy until the product had proved its in Florence opened his eyes to the monumental
worth. strength of Masaccio, and the genius of his elders,
Consequently, even Venetian painters who were Leonardo and Michelangelo. Ultimately, he emerged
familiar with Tuscan work were careful to restrict as a portraitist of serene but incisive power and a

its influence. Jacopo Bellini experimented with it draftsman of astonishing virtuosity, with a line

in his drawings, but his paintings remained bright that could be a mere blandishment or as incisive

and pretty and made no new intellectual demands as a whiplash.

on their viewers. Not until the career of Jacopo's By 1509, aged 26, Raphael had arrived in Rome
son, Giovanni, did Venice get a painter who dared and was working for Julius. First he did the fres-
to use the advanced techniques of Florence— and coes in the room called the Stanza della Segnatura

Giovanni accomplished this by painting in a gen- in The theme, or program, for the
the Vatican.

tle and devout manner. From this beginning Flor- frescoes was probably drawn up for the Pope by

entine techniques gradually merged with the three his humanist advisers, and was extremely com-

qualities in which Venetians had always excelled— plicated. But Raphael succeeded in producing a

glowing color, splendor of subject, and psycholog- cycle of paintings which has variously been called

ical penetration. But the merger did not reach ma- the pictorial encyclopedia of humanism and the

turity until the 16th Century, with the works of apotheosis of the classical style. Certainly if any
Giorgione, Veronese and Titian. one painting had to be singled out to exemplify
Soon after 1500 leadership in art passed from the technical accomplishment and intellectual as-

Florence to Rome. The prestige of the papal court, surance of the finest Renaissance art, the School

and its enormous architectural projects, such as of Athens fresco from this room would almost
the rebuilding of St. Peter's, attracted artists of inevitably be the choice.

the stature of Raphael and Michelangelo and archi- The theme of the School of Athens is the rec-

tects like the great Bramante of Milan. Although onciliation of the two most important humanist
some painters, like the Florentines Fra Bartolom- philosophies, Plato's and Aristotle's, one mystical,

meo and Andrea del Sarto, carried on the native the other practical. This painting has its theo-

artistic traditions by working primarily in their logical counterpart in the fresco on the opposite

home city, the greatest opportunities and the live- wall, the Dispute on the Nature of the Sacrament.
liest competition were now to be found in Rome. The frescoes on the other two walls represent the
Rome also offered, in Pope Julius II, one of the two other principal fields of human achievement:
most intelligent and forceful art patrons the world poetry and law. Conceived as an essay on Intel-
has ever known. Julius cared about both theology lect, the four end up as proof of the ascendancy

and antiquity, and the commissions he offered set of Art.

his artists fierce challenges. When the first Stanza was completed, Raphael
The career of one artist, Raphael, shows how was given a second one— subsequently called the
styles changed in the Vatican's air. Raphael had Stanza d'Eliodoro— to decorate. Its program, too.
 was allegorical. Unlike the frescoes in the first,

however, these were not to be imaginary assemblies

of great men but paintings of actual historical in-
cidents whose allegorical references were to current

Church events. Thus the significance of the vic-

tory of Pope Julius' army over the powerful army

of the French was memorialized in a painting of an
event that was thought to have taken place a thou-
HARMONIOUS PROPORTIONS preoccupied Renaissance architects, who tried to relate

the dimensiotjs of every major part of their buildings to one module, or basic unit
sand years before: Pope Leo I miraculously halting
of length. In Brunelleschi's church of San Lorenzo in Florence (above) the module the march on Rome of Attila and his invading
is one side of the large shaded square. This is twice the width of the side aisles Huns.
(small square) and one half the height of the building (below the roof line).
In the second Stanza, where the subjects are
Michelangelo, a century later, used more complex ratios. In his plan for St. Peter's

(below), which was never adopted, he used a single module (blue bars) for the not set pieces but scenes of action, Raphael's
width of the crossing (center) and the height of columns, lantern and cupolas. The style takes on a sweep and perturbation suitable
building's units, measured vertically, are related in a 3:2:1 ratio, as indicated by the
to their dramatic content. There is a sharp con-
shaded areas, the largest unit having a side two modules long. The outline of the
trast between the grave, still treatment of the
building defines an equilateral triangle, a geometric shape perfect in its symmetry.
"good "
characters and the rushing lines and ana-
tomical exaggerations of the "bad. "
It is the be-

ginning vocabulary of Mannerism, the restless,

artificial style that marked the end of Renaissance

painting. By the time Raphael died, in 1520, the

style was there to be seen. His last painting, the

Transfiguration, is full of the spiraling shapes,

the hectic gestures and the perfervid intensity of
mature Mannerism. Compared to his gentle ma-
donnas it is a whirlwind. Raphael was only 37
when he died (of "too many women," said one
sour contemporary), but he probably produced
more great works of art, in more styles, than any
other painter in history.
But the last of Raphael's styles, Mannerism, was
not really his invention. As early as 1502 the Flor-

entine painter Filippino Lippi showed signs of im-

patience with harmonious, rational art. (Filippino

was the son of the better-known Fra Filippo Lippi,

the painter-monk who abducted and married a

nun.) In the church of Santa Maria Novella in

Florence there is a fresco by Filippino that has

many of the marks of the Mannerist style. Its

treatment is as bizarre as its subject: St. Philips

part in the inadvertent death of a pagan king's nerism. For one thing it was never a uniform style,

son. According to the legend, PhiHp called forth and therefore cannot have had entirely external
a ravening monster from the temple of Mars in causes. Some of Mannerism sprang from changes
order to destroy it; as it emerged from its lair the in the individual artist. In learning to be inde-

monster overwhelmed the king's son with its hor- pendent, he learned to be conscious of himself as

rible smell. a person; he was revolting against a style that

Like Raphael in his School of Athens, Filippino seemed to leave him nothing to explore. Having
uses a classical architectural perspective for the given the world one standard by which to judge
background of St. Philip. Unlike Raphael, he uses art, the classical, Italy now gave it another, the

it to create not a lucid, idealized setting, but a anticlassical. Between these two poles, objective

strangely agitated one, restless and nightmarish. and subjective, all subsequent art has swung and
Trophies and vases jab the air with abrupt ac- all art criticism wavered.

cents. The ruins he pictures, instead of being dig- Was this 200 years of experiment and change
nified and archeologically convincing, express a welcomed by the society that spawned it? Or was
fanciful unease. the artist considered an inspired crank? Apparent-

The revolt against rational art quickened in ly, the former. Giotto was popular not merely
1516 when the Florentine painter Giovanni Rosso with the small clique of farsighted men who hired

dared to play visual tricks with reality. Rosso him, but presumably with the vast congregations
produced a fresco for the Church of the Annunzi- who passed through the churches he painted.

ata in Florence in which one of the figures is Donatello's Judith and Holofernes, Michelange-
shown with his robe spilling over the picture's lo's David and Cellini's Perseus were all revolu-

border. Thereafter Rosso, his Florentine contem- tionary and all were set up for the public gaze in

porary, Jacopo da Pontormo, and two other painters the most prickly and critical city in Italy, but there

— Domenico Beccafumi in Siena and Francesco are scarcely any stories of the daubing or mutila-
Parmigianino in Parma— turned their backs on the tion of statues in Renaissance times.

classical style to paint in a style that was subjec- Was this perhaps because men were indifferent

tive and irrational. to art? Or was it because they wanted an art

The reasons for their revolt were partly socio- which celebrated the real world, not eternity, and
logical. Like the earlier painters who had retreated one that arose from the circumstances of ordinary
from Giotto's realism to medieval symbolism un- life, not mystical vision?

der the pressure of distressful events— mostly the Surely the latter. Although there are astonish-

plague— the Mannerist painters were also retreat- ingly few records of a personal response to art

ing from events in the external world. Fear and until the 16th Century, almost no books or letters

unrest made an orderly, harmonious art seem expressing individual likes or dislikes, there is

incompatible. For the Mannerists the cause was plenty of evidence of a lively community interest

not disease, but the series of French and Spanish in the building of churches and the unveiling of
invasions, the defeats and constitutional crises that statues. In a sense Renaissance art, by breaking
swept over the Italian peninsula starting late in with tradition, was part of the process of man's
the 15th Century. liberation from medieval conformity, a straitjacket

Of course sociology alone cannot explain Man- from which he had been longing to escape.
 A SELF-PORTRAIT uj chalk shows Leonardo da Vitui (1452-1519) toward the cud of his life.

THE SCOPE OF GENIUS

Leonardo da Vinci personified the Renaissance spirit: he explored everything and
excelled in nearly all his ventures. He was so busy in so many areas that though
he was one of the greatest artists of the age he had little time to paint; he died
having finished few pictures. His curiosity about nature led him deep into
anatomy, botany, geology, mechanics and astronomy. In more than 5,000 pages
of notes, he drew up plans that anticipated such inventions as the helicopter,
the submarine, the machine gun and the automobile. In one collection of his

works, he proudly signed his name, "Leonardo da Vinci, disciple of experiment."

129
An artist's penetrating analysis of the human body

Leonardo was a pioneer anatomist who

/ sought to render with exquisite
draughtsmanship his detailed knowledge of the
human body. Almost every Renaissance artist

made studies of hands— however, Leonardo

based his sketches (left) on observations of
bones, muscles, nerves and veins. This attention
to detail also led him to formulate ideal

proportions for drawing figures, as shown by the

lines dividing the face below. Gross
deformities intrigued him as much as beauty;

according to one account, he once got a

band of peasants drunk so he could sketch the

sodden bestiality of their faces. His caricatures
of old men (opposite, below) reflect a searching
interest in the grotesque expressions of age.

Internal structure and outward form

had an equal fascination for Leonardo. In one set

of drawings, he demonstrated how the eye

works (opposite, top), showing that light rays

enter the pupil and project an image on

the retina. Investigating the body, Leonardo
produced the most beautiful and accurate
anatomical studies of his day (right).

He gained precise knowledge by dissecting more

than 30 cadavers— until at last Pope Leo X
barred him from the mortuary in Rome.
Hands, accenting bone and muscle itnicture.

A man's face, scaled to ideal proportions.

 f*if'*]/rt»
•:^

1
) i^-'i *}r'-"i '-'"ri

i4 .r7^.'AvV. A^-^i^ff'
v»«V^»
•"
'|a>)»< •N'|Vvf

The human eye depicted in outward form.

Mechanics of vision shown in a diagram.

Skeletal studies made from actual dissections.

Aged faces, drawn about 1490, reflecting the temperaments of mart.

. .^-.,
A painstaking study of the myriad forms of life

Plants and animals intrigued

Leonardo as much as the human
figure. His wide-ranging eye
encompassed the full spectrum of life,

from the movements of a crab

or a cat to the growth patterns of a
flower or a tree. At first he made his
drawings of plants as studies
for paintings. But gradually he grew
interested in botany for its own
sake. He noted before other observers
that various types of trees branch
in their own distinct patterns (left).

With a botanist's eye for detail

he sketched individual limbs (below,

left), measuring changes in the

girth of a single stem as it spreads.

The studies of a horse's foreleg on
the opposite page enabled Leonardo to
draw the realistic horse pictured
above it. The analysis of structural
similarities between the legs of horses

and humans, shown opposite, was

one of the first known studies in
the field of comparative anatomy.
Brancliing patterns of two trees.

Madonna lily, a preliminary sketch for a painting.

A branchini^ stem with segments of varying thickness. A quince bloom, from a study of buds and unfolding flowers.
Crabs, drawn crawling and curled. Feline poses, a study made for a treatise on the movement of animals.

Prancing horse, a sketch of an equestrian statue for the Duke of Milan.

-^^T

I
Bone structure of the leg of a man and a horse.

Foreleg of a horse, measured to exact proportions.

133
 Ingenious designs

to put man in the air

Many men of the Renaissance dreamed of flying; a few

even jumped off towers in exotic winged contraptions.
Leonardo shared the dream and designed many
flying machines, confident that someday one would work
and "fill the world with its great fame." He spent
years observing birds in flight (left). He studied and
sketched the machinery he would need— for example, a

block and tackle (opposite, right) to test the tension

of ropes, or a hand crank (opposite, bottom). One of his

early flying machines (below) used a similar crank to operate
batlike wings. A later refinement (right) used stirrups and
pulleys, so that a flier could flap the wings with his legs.

No one knows if Leonardo ever really got aloft, but

one contemporary left a pretty good clue. "Leonardo da

Vinci also tried to fly, but he, too, failed," he said— adding as
a wry afterthought, "He was a magnificent painter."

Wingspreads of birds in flight.

.4 xoooden loiiT^ hooked up to a hand crank.

 Stirrups pulling ropes over a system of pulleys.

Crank for changing circular motion to up-and-down motion.

Tackle (right) for studying tension exerted on ropes.

An inquisitive mind armed with undaunted confidence

\ii dcnal view of the rivers and land in the Arezzo province.

A test for mirrors, drawn to show the path of light rays.

Leonardo's experiments and studies constantly shifted I

between the functional and the theoretical. For

'

example, his topographical maps (above) were the basis of

practical plans to prevent floods and to aid irrigation.

His ventures in astronomy, on the other hand, could be

highly abstract. On a page from his notebook
crowded with imposing calculations and diagrams,
shown opposite, he established the relative sizes
of the sun and the moon— and was totally wrong.
Often, though, theory and practice went hand in hand.
In optics, he correctly observed that a light's
intensity varies in direct proportion to its distance from a
light source (opposite, top). He also worked out a test for

the quality of mirrors, similar to one still in use, based on

the reflection of light rays (right).And he devised the
'
first telescope— his "glasses to see the moon magnified

—with which he could see and sketch the moon in an

eclipse (center). He worked on every problem he could
think of with the same unlimited exuberance. In
this, he expressed the original, vital spirit of his age.

^ AHti9r4rfi ,.., \,A . A i /s

 ~J}
r;

IT -L

Candlelight, a study showing the change of its intensity over a distance.

The sun and moon, wilh then ^izt-> rxliauyiliwh laliHuUi-d.

The moon, approaching total eclipse.

'
// . / ^*» vt«^ ^v-^J. >H-.V«
'
•^UVirvUv 4«^|fy..^/.«

1 ,«f.K^*.« ^h.,..

l^'^t IM'*** 'vin^^'

fMN I
^4\j« «(!/«» ^1^'. ^Hy

iiC i.5. /•it. 'i"-* ^ »*^ia '-^^^

 Although historians are generally reluctant to look

upon any one year as constituting a dramatic turn-

ing point in the fortunes of a people, many a na-

tion does look back— as France looks back to 1789

and the United States to 1776— to a single event

that came down like a chopper on the threads of

national development.
For Italians of the late Renaissance the year was
1494; the event was the invasion of a French army
under King Charles VIII. For the next two genera-

7 tions Italy

that,
was a battlefield,

cleared and the blood had been stanched,

except for here and there in
and when the smoke

the
it was
arts,
felt

the

WAR AND POLITICS peninsula's glory had departed. Italian armies had
been trounced by Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans
and Swiss. City after city had been stormed. Rome
itself had been sacked. The closed and tranquil
world of the 15th Century had been broken into,

the treasure house looted, the proud, refined voice

of Italian freedom shouted down by orders barked

from beyond the Alps and over the sea. Licking
the wounds to their pride and prosperity, Italians

looked back on the summer of 1494— to a time just

before the French had come down into Lombardy
in September— as the season that closed their gold-

en age.
Contemporary historians were unanimous in

pronouncing 1494 as a year of desolation. Before

it, wrote Corio, the historian of Milan, "everyone
believed that peace had come to stay; everyone was
intent on getting rich, and all paths were open to
them. Feasting and entertainments held the field;

the world seemed more stable than ever before."

Francesco Guicciardini referred to "those happy
times before '94" in his History of Florence (1509).
A generation later, during which he had seen mat-
ters go from bad to worse, Guicciardini expanded
this wistful reference to better times into bitter

threnody. In his History of Italy (1536-1540) he

wrote: "The calamities of Italy began ... to the

greater sorrow and terror of all men, at a time

when circumstances seemed universally most pro-

pitious and fortunate. . . . Italy had never known

such prosperity, or such a desirable condition as

that which it enjoyed in all tranquillity in the year

FLORENTINE HORSEMEN with armor, imposing helmets and larjces fight in

this 1432 battle against Siena depicted by Uccello. For all their knightly
of Our Lord 1490 and the years immediately before

dress, most Renaissance soldiers were mercenaries, many of them ill paid. and after."
 These examples could be multiplied. For the his- an agreement, it was not to leave poor Italy alone,
torians of individual cities, and of Italy as a whole, but to involve themselves more closely with her
1494 was "that most unhappy year." Only in Ven- affairs, to conquer Venice with the aid of Maxi-
ice, whose humiliation was not to come until 1509, milian of Hapsburg, and, later, to reduce the pope
could men look back on 1494 without a jolt of to a Franco-Spanish puppet.
anguish. There was much here that was irrational. France
Why was the French invasion so catastrophic? was a wealthy and self-supporting country. No
What brought it about? And what were its conse- need lay behind her desire for conquest in Italy.

quences? The obvious route for French expansion, moreover,

It was not just that French troops swung down was not over the Alps and into Italy with its long,

into Lombardy, frightened Florence and the Pope thin, difficult-to-guard lines of communications,
into supporting their promenade southward, made but northeast, across an easy plain into the Neth-
their way as conquerors into Naples, left garrisons erlands. Brussels and Antwerp were the logical

there and marched back up the peninsula, and economic targets, not Venice, inaccessible in her
went home a year later. All this, while sensational lagoons, or Naples, rich in grain which France in

enough, and deeply humiliating to the Italians, was any case did not need. In the same way it was not
not in itself a catastrophe. After all, Italy had been need or economic advantage that sent Spanish ar-

invaded before. Most Italian observers, though mies to Italy. In spite of the growing administra-
they were deeply disturbed by the events of 1494- tive unity of the European powers, in spite of the

1495, thought that the danger had passed with the sophistication of their bureaucracies and fiscal

departure of the French; with the fatalism that an policies and legal reforms, their foreign policy

act of God might have produced, they went once was still primitive, motivated less by reason than
more about their business. But they were wrong. by greed, by a thirst for glory and sheer ad-
In 1499 the French invaded Lombardy again. In venturousness.
1500 the new French King, Louis XII, and the Real motives aside, there were plenty of high-
Spanish monarch, Ferdinand of Aragon, agreed to sounding excuses, though of questionable legality,

split up the Kingdom of Naples between them, and for the French invasions. Charles VIII had inherit-
the armies of both countries began operations there ed the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, and
in 1501. he announced his intention of enforcing it. But he
In this double occupation lay the real catastro- would never have marched south if he had not, as
phe, for in 1502 the invaders fell out between a sickly child, been reared on a heady diet of chiv-

themselves. From that moment Italy was doomed alrous romances, and if he had not seen himself as
to be the arena in which the two most potent and the glorious leader of a crusade against the Turks,
aggressive powers in Europe tried their strength. using southern Italy as a base.
Another French army was dispatched. This was There was nothing reasonable about this. There
resoundingly defeated at the River Garigliano in was nothing reasonable about the way in which he
1503 by the Spaniards under Gonzalo de Cordoba, bought the neutrality of Spain and Germany by
known in his own day, and since, as the Great giving away territories in southern and eastern

Captain. Louis was forced to consider coming to France which had been painfully acquired by his
terms with Ferdinand, but when the two reached father. But the element of unreason was, in fact.
a strength when it came to dealing with the Italian tongue and the shared pride in descent from an-
courts. Italian diplomats had been schooled in their cient Rome into thinking that the separate states

own cautious and businesslike world to see foreign of Italy were any more prepared to link their for-

policy in rational terms: they were nonplused by tunes—save for immediate self-interest— than were
the essentially irrational behavior of the feudal France and Germany or Spain and Portugal.
dynasts of the north. There were leagues of Italian states: the papacy
Italian diplomacy, technically so advanced, was combined with Venice, Milan and others to oppose
at fault in two other ways. Lulled by the compara- the retreating French army in 1495, for instance.
tive tranquillity of the years since the middle of But such leagues were composed to meet one par-
the 15th Century into thinking that shrewd diplo- ticular emergency, and were then dissolved. And
macy could prevent wars, the Italian states and not all such leagues were aimed against the for-

their ambassadors believed clever negotiations eigner: in 1509 the papacy, Ferrara and Mantua
would dissuade France and Spain from carving up joined the Holy Roman Empire, France and Spain
Italy. "Before our Italian princes were scourged by in their attack on Venice. All of them assumed,
the foreigners," wrote Machiavelli in 1522, "they falsely, that their violent visitors had not come to

thought it enough for princes to write a handsome stay, and each Italian state offered aid— troops, un-
letter, or return a pointed answer." The second hindered communications, provender— in order to
fault was a failure on the part of diplomatic envoys gain support for its own local squabbles.

abroad to see past the gossip and personalities of It is quite likely that even if foreign invasion
the court to the realities that affected a nation's had not come, the last years of the 15th Century
desire and capacity to go to war: the frame of mind would have seen the outbreak of wars in Italy.

of its nobility, the number of men available to Although the 1454 Peace of Lodi, which settled

fight, and the country's financial resources. disputes between most of the Italian states, lasted
These failings, plus a certain fastidiousness that an uneasy 40 years, this was because the three
made it difficult at first for Italians to take the principals— Venice, Florence and Milan— were rea-

"barbarians "
wholly seriously, plus again a re- sonably content with the frontiers they obtained
luctance on the part of the Italian states to pay by this settlement and required time to consolidate

enough heed to the warnings of their diplomats them. The Peace of Lodi could not conceal forever
abroad, all helped Italians to see each invasion as that Milan and Venice were doomed by geography
the last. As a result they did not adopt the neces- to be uneasy neighbors, as were Naples and the
sary, if painfully novel, solution: firm alliances to papacy. Milan and Naples, whose spheres of in-

repel would-be invaders. fluence in no way overlapped, tended to support

We are so used to the idea of a united Italy that each other diplomatically, and it was with this axis

it is difficult not to feel some exasperation at this that Florence cautiously aligned herself— partly be-

failure of the Italian states to ward off aggression cause Venice was the weightiest possible aggressor
—as they could have done so easily, from a military state and the most direct rival to Florentine trade

point of view— by putting up a coordinated oppo- overseas, and partly because any strengthening of

sition. But Italy was a land that contained a large control by the papacy over its territories east of

number of independent states, just as Europe itself the Apennines was a threat to the Florentine fron-

did, and we must not be misled by the common tier there.

 Guicciardini described Lorenzo de' Medici as Such appeals from Italian princes to foreign

"applying a sort of balance" to the Italian political monarchs had been made before. Commonly it had
scene, and many later historians have seen the been a matter of bluff. It was Italy's misfortune
post-Lodi period as a trial run, on a small scale, that this time France, wholly recovered from the
for the balance-of-power principle which conscious- dislocations of the Hundred Years' War, and with
ly motivated the European alliances of the succeed- a restless and militant nobility, actually came.
ing centuries. But this is most unlikely. Diplomacy In the same way it was unfortunate for Italy

in 15th Century Italy was based on expediency. that Spain was at this point able to take a more
What looks, in retrospect, like the conscious appli- active interest in Italian affairs. Firmly governed

cation of the principle of balance of power was by her joint monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Fer-
merely a series of decisions based on immediate dinand of Aragon, Spain had concluded her cen-
necessity. The existence of marriage ties and trad- turies-long crusade against the Moors by defeating
ing links with France and Spain, the existence of the last infidel state, Granada, in 1492. Now she
historical links with the Empire and the importance had a large army which had nothing to do; she
of trade routes across the Alps meant that Italy was also better administered than she had ever
was not a closed political system. The need to been before. As a result, she was able to involve
placate or to curry favor with other powers sen- herself in Italy— sometimes in league with France,

tenced the rulers of Italy to conduct their long- as in those early days in Naples and in the general

term political plans always with an eye to forces onslaught on Venice in 1509, but eventually in fe-

outside the peninsula. rocious rivalry with her.

Much depended on personalities. The death of The details of the Italian wars— where the great
Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1492 meant that Italy European beasts mauled one another and the Ital-

had lost one guarantee of moderation, for his son ian jackal states danced round excitedly picking up
Piero was a comparatively dim and fickle person- the fragments of their prey— are too complex to be
ality. Then the election of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope followed here. Indeed, since Guicciardini's History
Alexander VI in the same year brought to the lead- of Italy no historian has had the stomach to deal

ership of the Papal States a man more aggressive fully with them. But it is worth taking a look at

and even less scrupulous than Sixtus. Both these some of their results.
events came at a time when Lodovico Sforza was When Guicciardini died in 1540, Milan and Na-
becoming increasingly nervous regarding his own ples were Spanish possessions and the historian's
position in Milan. He was its effective ruler, but own Florence was neither free nor independent;
the legitimate head of the state was his nephew, her republican constitution was replaced by hered-
Gian Galeazzo Sforza, and Gian Galeazzo's wife itary princely rule, and her fortresses were held by
was constantly urging her father, the King of Na- a representative of the Emperor Charles V. Rome
ples, to support her husband's claim to actual rule. and the Pope remained, but only 13 years earlier

This tension within the Milan-Naples axis was in- the city had been pillaged by Spanish and German
creased by Lodovico's doubts of Piero's support, troops and the Pope held for ransom. Venice had
and he turned instead to the King of France, prom- in 1509 been cut back to her lagoons by the great-
ising to support Charles if he would enter Italy est military defeat in her history, and her mainland
and assert the Angevin claim to Naples. possessions were divided among France, Germany
 and the papacy. The French had captured all or

part of the Duchy of Milan four separate times

over a period of 25 years before being driven out
for good in 1525.

In all this the Italians were not exactly the hope-

less victims of fate. Lodovico Sforza had invited
the French in in 1494. Sixteen years later Pope Ju-
lius II invited the Spaniards in to help drive out

the French. The business communities in Milan

and Genoa saw the advantages to be gained from
a connection with Spain, where Italian bankers al-

ready had large investments and were keeping an

eye on the growing wealth arriving in Spain from
the New World; and this tipped the balance of
Italian support against France. There is little doubt
that Italian economic life— in the spheres at least

of overseas trade and banking— gained from an ac-

ceptance of Spanish influence. Constitutional sta-

bility and profit seemed a fair exchange for the
loss of self-government.

The disasters which began to overcome Italy in

1494 were therefore not absolute. Genoa boomed

steadily throughout the following century; Venice

remained as strong and prosperous— and as un-

Italian— as ever. Florence lived a settled and secure
life under her Grand Dukes, even if they had been
foisted on her by Spanish pikes. The papacy, which
had taken advantage of the general confusion to

recapture long-lost cities and to subject the Papal

States as a whole to a reasonably efficient admin-
istration, was able to rally Catholic Europe into a
A FANCIFUL WARSHIP, this naval fortress was designed hy Robertus Valturius,
an artist who worked for the tyrant Sigismondo Malatesta. Many artists dou-
Counter Reformation and deliver Rome from the
bled as military engineers: Leonardo da Vinci, for example, designed arma- shoddy image the Church had cast since the 14th
ments for the Duke of Milan; Michelangelo for the magistrates of Florence. Century. Naples, while heavily taxed by Spain for
wars fought by the Emperor in Africa and Hun-
gary and Germany which did not benefit her, was
nevertheless freed from the interminable feudal

quarrels and petty revolts which had been her

theme song in the previous century.

The smaller states, like Mantua and Ferrara,

remained independent, though henceforward they Petrarch by a century of uncreative Ciceronians,
could not expect to extend their borders. The small- the bursts of creativity in the arts and in litera-

est ones of all, places like Imola, Forli, Faenza and ture between 1420 and 1500 could be expected to

Rimini, were at least freed by subjection to the be followed by a period in which imitation was
papacy from the riots and bloodshed that they had more prominent than advance.
known under their often transient tyrant rulers. However, this did not prevent Michelangelo from
As a result of the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, becoming a greater and greater artist all during
by which France gave up her claims in Italy, and the time the so-called disasters were going on. Nor
thanks to the reimposition of Medici rule in Flor- did their aftermath prevent Buontalenti from show-
ence in the following year, the peninsula was more ing his genius as an architect. This is a theme
settled than it had been since the Roman Empire. which will arise again in the last chapter; at this

Only one trouble spot remained, Siena, over which point it must suffice to suggest that if the names
French and Spanish troops continued to fight until of men of genius are fewer in the second than in

1557, when it was made over to Cosimo I, Grand the first half of the 16th Century, it is because there
Duke of Tuscany, by the King of Spain, Philip II. were fewer of them about and there was no longer
But all around this tiny volcano, and from 1557 the ferment of thought which can draw original

all over Italy, there reigned a wholly uncharacteris- ideas from secondary talents. The political disasters

tic peace. had nothing to do with that. Paintings continued

Anyone who tries to strike a balance and esti- to be commissioned, churches and palaces built.

mate how much Italy had lost or gained at the end The career of Caravaggio, who was violent and
of her period of disaster, is bound to take a rea- truculent as an individual and highly unconven-
sonably optimistic view. For, unless she had been tional as an artist, shows that genius could make
forced into contact with the Atlantic powers, it is itself heard in 1600 as it had in 1500.

likely that she would have suffered economically So there is a bright side to look on. That we
more than she did. The center of trade, like the must look hard to see it is a wry tribute to the
center of governmental experiment and cultural abilities of Florentine writers, especially to the his-

advance, was shifting west and north as overseas torians among them who have held the ear of pos-
expansion came to foster the power of Spain, France terity ever since with their bitterly told tale of woe.
and the Low Countries. If Italy looks less inter- For it was in Florence that the sense of disaster
esting in the second half of the 16th than in the was felt most keenly in the first half of the 16th
second half of the 15th Century it is because other Century. Strongly committed as most of the intel-

states had the task of becoming civilized, settled, lectuals were to some form of republican govern-
expansionist nations still before them. Political sta- ment, they were desolated to find themselves forced
bility may be dull, but it is safe. twice by foreign arms to accept— the second time
In the world of the intellect the picture is mixed. for good— the rule of a family they had earlier ex-
The inhibiting effects of resurgent Catholicism are pelled. They saw the collapse of a way of life which
undeniable; the prosecution of the scientist Galileo was consecrated by Roman example, by the tri-

because his findings conflicted with Church dog- umphs of their medieval past and by their own
ma is a sordid example. And just as Giotto had passionate involvement. Florence entered the wars
been followed by a host of mere imitators, and as the nearest thing to a modern democracy that
could then be found in Europe and emerged from tomed to playing the game of war according to
them a conventional 16th Century princely state. rules, and who naturally killed as few of one an-
In contrast, Venice remained a republic. Milan had other as possible. By faking the casualties in 15th
a foreign governor— but the Sforzas themselves had Century battles down to a few unfortunates who
not been Milanese, and the newcomer hardly modi- fell off their horses and were suffocated in the mud,
fied the functions of her previous princes. Machiavelli created a myth that was to have a long
It was in Florence, too, that there existed the life: of chessboard wars, where gorgeously capari-
strongest sense of affinity with the virtues of cour- soned horsemen moved about the battlefield with
age and faithfulness that had brought such daz- stately deliberation. If they were removed from the
zling conquests to the armies of republican Rome. board, it was only for the rest of the game; after
This, coupled with a political puritanism which a period of honorable captivity, and the payment
could accept the amoralism with which a state of a ransom, they were able to return for the next
could switch sides but shrink from personal treach- bout.
ery or coat-turning, made Florentines, of all the This distorted view of earlier wars was a re-

Italians, the most bitterly conscious of the mor- sult of Machiavelli's special pleading for citizen
al failings that opened Italy so freely to the once armies on the Roman model. To push the system he
despised barbarians. Guicciardini, the greatest of wanted, he had to denigrate the one that preceded
Florentine historians, came to the conclusion that, it. In reality the professional soldier of Italy in

although the political and military ineptitude of 1494 was as well trained and equipped as his ultra-
the Italians had contributed to the humiliating ease montane adversary. Nor was his personal valor
with which Charles VIII had marched down the less. In a tourney staged during a lull in the fighting

peninsula to Naples, plain weakness of character in southern Italy in 1503, thirteen Italian knights
had also played a large part. fought thirteen Frenchmen and defeated them easily.
There is an element of masochism in the zeal Milan had long been exporting armor to the rest

with which writers like Guicciardini traced their of Europe. Her swords and lances and crossbows
defeats to defects of morale. And it led them per- were as good as those used elsewhere. In the Ibth
versely to exaggerate the military inefficiency of Century, whenever the origin of gunpowder was
the Italians. Both he and Machiavelli stressed their discussed, it was believed all over Europe that the
unreadiness for the sort of warfare they now had handgun, precursor of the musket, had been first

to cope with. They claimed that the Italians were used in the war between the Venetians and the Gen-
not only psychologically unprepared for battles oese in 1378-1381. Fifteenth Century inventories of
fought desperately and bloodily, but that they had fortress stores show that Italian castles were rea-

also been left technically behind by the tactics and sonably well furnished with cannon. The use of
equipment (especially artillery) of the French and artillery in siege work was a commonplace. Where
their Swiss allies. the French were definitely in the lead was in the

Machiavelli started from the contention that the use of light artillery, mounted on wheeled carriages,
Italian armies of his own day were despicable. He in the field. But in this period guns seldom, if ever,

explained this by citing the dependence of the Ital- made the difference between victory and defeat in

ian cities on hired mercenaries, on men who con- battle.

stituted an unofficial trade union, who were accus- Somewhat better is the argument that Italian
AMBITIOUS INVENTIONS by architect Francesco di Giorgio anticipated

modern weaponry. A two-stage rocket (1), propelled by gunpowder

burning in its open rear chamber, was supposed to roll to a target and
explode when powder in its front chamber was ignited. A weird tor-
pedo (2) was based on similar principles, with three kegs to keep it

afloat. In (3) a portable cannon fired a missile like the rocket in (1).

MISSILE ON WHEELS

infantry tactics were at fault because they were and too weak to provide platforms for heavy guns.
not based on the pike— a kind of heavy spear car- So the towers were modified, experiment by experi-
ried by foot soldiers. The massed column of pike- ment, into the bastions— solid angled triangles, lev-
men was the characteristic formation of the Swiss, el with the walls— which became the characteristic
and its tanklike effect won battle after battle for feature of 16th Century forts all over Europe and
their employers, the French (whose own national wherever Europeans settled overseas.
army was comprised mainly of cavalry and cross- This development actually had been pioneered by
bowmen) until the Spaniards and Italians learned Italian military engineers before the wars began, at

to copy it. The Swiss fought in compact squares sites like Ostia (1482-1486), Brolio (1484) and Pog-
of about 6,000 men: 85 shoulder to shoulder, on a gio Imperiale, where the magnificent (and still

100-yard-long front, and some 70 ranks deep. In standing) fortifications were begun on the orders
defense the pike phalanx presented a bristling of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1487. In the second

hedge of steel, for the pikes were so long that the half of the 16th Century, Italian military engineers

points of the front four ranks glittered together in were in demand all over Europe. They were em-
the eyes of any horseman bold enough to charge ployed by Queen Elizabeth in England; they forti-
them. In attack, such a column, rumbling forward fied cities in France and Belgium and Hungary.
at a fast walk, had a momentum that only a similar Military engineering was Italy's greatest concealed
mass could resist. export in the 16th Century— and the foundations
But the Italians learned quickly, even adopting of its expertise had been worked out before the
longer pikes that would spear enemy pikemen first. French first broke across the Alps.
And while their infantry bands were small and less Nowhere else was the art of fortification held in

disciplined than their foes' (and discipline was the such repute. No division was made in Italy be-
essence of such a formation), they nevertheless did tween the dignity of civil and ecclesiastical archi-

hire German Landsknechte to counter the Swiss. tecture on the one hand and military architecture
Therefore, the pike cannot be brought forward, on the other. Giotto designed the third circuit of the

any more than field artillery, to explain Italy's help- walls of Florence. Brunelleschi designed fortifica-
lessness at the hands of foreign armies. And it must tions at Pisa. Leonardo da Vinci was appointed in-

always be borne in mind that the wars— with only spector of fortifications in the Romagna by Cesare
one or two exceptions— did not consist of direct con- Borgia. Michelangelo was put in charge of the forti-

frontations between exclusively Italian and exclu- fications of Florence during the Imperialist siege

sively foreign armies. of 1529-1530, and when Cosimo I decided that he

One last technical excuse was made by contem- would strengthen them still further he distributed
poraries. This was that their fortifications were the work among a number of artists, including Ben-
out-of-date, leaving Italian cities vulnerable to venuto Cellini (who was also consulted on the for-

French cannon. But this claim bears examination tification of Paris by the French King Francis I).

no better than the others. The introduction of effec- The mathematical interests of Italian art theo-
tive siege cannon had necessitated a new form of rists were particularly suited to the development
fortification, with thicker walls, and with bastions of a type of fortification based— to allow for a deftly

at the angles instead of the traditional towers which exact flanking fire from the bastions— on geometri-
were vulnerable to the pounding of cannon balls cal principles. The cult of harmony, proportion
 a

2 MARINE MISSILE 3 CANNON AND MISSILE COMBINED

and symmetry among 15th Century Italian artists eign relations committee. But he was no mere
and architects fitted this need for precisely angled clerk; his own name appeared at the bottom of
fire and regular, coherent planning. Inasmuch as these instructions to foreign ambassadors. He also

the interest of the architects was shared by human- went on missions himself— but never the most sen-
ist-minded princes, it is not surprising that in Italy sitive ones. During his diplomatic career he had
more than anywhere else the reaction of plain mil- occasion to meet and speak with most of the im-
itary men to the need for a new type of fortifica- portant men of his time: the Kings of France and

tion was systematized into a model that would be Germany, the Pope, military leaders from several

adapted elsewhere. Italian-style forts were erected countries and, of course, any number of Italian

not only in Europe and not only during the Renais- princes. At home Machiavelli was responsible for

sance; the star-shaped forts built to guard the keeping in touch with Florentine armies in the field

mouth of the Mississippi in the War of 1812 would and for raising— this was a project of his own—
have appeared perfectly familiar to a Florentine national militia of foot and horse in the Tuscan
engineer-architect of 1550. countryside.
In sum, the Italians were not lagging in military An intensely energetic man of affairs, Machiavelli
technology. They became the prey of foreigners for took to his pen only when leisure was forced on him.
other reasons. They were unused to fighting in Because he shared his contemporaries' interest in

large armies made up of men from different states. Roman history he read much classical literature in

Their leadership was divided as Italy was political- the years of his unwilling retirement, and each book
ly divided. Their generals were often hampered by he produced carried a heavier freight of humanist
civilian government agents who followed the armies reading and reflection. His works— on Livy's History

to see that the generals did not waste money or of Rome, on the art of war, on Florentine history-

take unnecessary risks. Finally, there was no widely came, in fact, to smell increasingly of the lamp,

felt urge to keep the foreigners out; the enemy of though the passion and originality of the man and
today might be the ally of tomorrow. With no pan- his concern with current affairs contrived to give

Italian policy, with no united military plan, it is them a notable vitality. This, coupled with the

not surprising that the determined monolithic pow- taut, epigrammatic style that makes Machiavelli the
ers forced the states of Italy to provide the ring and finest of all Italian prose writers, has kept them
act as their seconds while they punched away for alive today.

the dynastic championship of Europe. The Prince was his first book. It incorporates, in

The wars of the early 16th Century had no keen- the formal guise of a treatise, his most urgent re-

er observer of both their political and military as- flections on his personal experiences, his own ob-
pects than Machiavelli. He was 24 in 1494 and he servations of the Italian scene. It was written in

died a month after the sack of Rome in 1527. From 1513, a year after his dismissal from office, and was
1498 until his dismissal from office on the return of in fact not only the vehicle for his ideas on how
the Medici to Florence in 1512, he was a civil serv- Italy could recover her freedom but a way of show-
ant—not a very important one, but one whose office ing the Medici— who had not yet disillusioned him
kept him near the center of important decisions. by dismantling the republican constitution of Flor-

His principal duty was writing up and sending out ence—that he was a man who deserved re-employ-
instructions from the Ten of War, Florence's for- ment. If they had responded, they would have
gained a valuable public servant and the world paigns against the city-states of the Romagna. Sub-
would probably have lost the later books which are sequent missions to France demonstrated to him
an essential complement to The Prince. Machiavel- how a strong monarchy had made a fighting power
li's main sympathies were republican, but this could out of the fickle and light-minded French, and this
not be guessed without reading the Discourses on strengthened his opinion that Florence should be
Livy. The Prince, with its emphasis on expediency, well armed and have a resolute ruler in whose pol-
is about how to deal with an emergency, not how icy there could be no place for scruple.

to constitute an ideal city. These lessons he spelled out in The Prince, sup-
The main themes of The Prince are these: a state porting modern examples of political behavior with
must have a national citizen army and not rely on references to similar examples in ancient Greece
mercenaries. It must have a resolute policy, backed and Rome. Men had written about statecraft all

to the hilt by cash and troops, unimpeded by de- throughout the Middle Ages, but always in terms
lays in decision-making and flirtations with neu- of what the Christian ruler should do. Machiavelli

tralist positions. Its rulers must resort to craft if wrote of what rulers had to do to survive. Though
the safety of the state demands it. A ruler cannot statesmen had always flouted Christian morality
afford the luxury of a private conscience. An in- when it suited them, the principle had never been
dividual can afford to tell the truth and suffer for openly stated before, let alone recommended. In
it; he suffers alone. But a ruler may not strike a The Prince we have for the first time a work that
noble gesture if the people he is responsible for are deals with politics as a study of the practical and
to suffer as a result. expedient rather than of the ideal, and with history
All these themes were prompted by Machiavelli's as a guide to conduct in the present.

own knowledge of affairs. The irresolution and One lesson of the wars was to show that the
treachery of the mercenary troops employed by Flor- qualities that make for intellectual sophistication

ence convinced him that national troops were the are not necessarily those that win wars. The subtle
only answer— a solution buttressed by his interpre- and civilized Italians were defeated by the cultural-
tation of Roman history. On a mission to France in ly old-fashioned Spanish and French. The prag-
1500, repeatedly snubbed or ignored as the repre- matic merchant could not deal with the less rational

sentative of a weak state, he saw that a country was elan of "feudal" warriors.
respected only when it was strong. Constantly ham- Though they were defeated, the Italians were
pered by the hesitant policy of his employers, he not destroyed.Once the riots were over, the shops
came to see that half measures (favored by the cau- reopened and life went on. From a European point
tious businessmen of Florence) were useless, neu- of view, perhaps the most lasting effect of the wars
trality a form of suicide. From the French gibe that was that by observing them Machiavelli was led to
Florence was Ser Nihilo, "Mr. Nothing," he saw codify the politics of expediency, and thereby to
that in the modern world money and arms alone transform political theory into the companion rath-
counted, and that in a life-and-death struggle a er than the conscience of political action. From
small man must sometimes hit a big bully below Giotto to Leonardo, artists had sought to show how
the belt. And these lessons were reinforced in 1502 men really stood and moved; in one swift treatise

by his meeting with Cesare Borgia, whose ruthless- Machiavelli showed how man, political man, really

ness and deceit paid heavy dividends in his cam- thought.

A FANFARE OF TRUMPETS adds a characteristic Renaissance flourish to "The Baptism of the King," by the Venetian artist Carpaccio.

THE CARNIVAL SPIRIT

The Renaissance was an age of spectacles, filled with the clash of festival sports,

the pomp of processions, the tumult of great citywide celebrations. Almost any
occasion— a saint's day, the arrival of a visiting prince, the anniversary of a great

battle, even the dismissal of an ambassador— was reason to fill the streets with

revelry. When there were no events, however trivial, to celebrate, the gaiety of the

age found expression in hunts and ball games, horse races, boxing matches, snow-
ball fights. Trumpeters like those above were the flamboyant heralds of the time,
announcing town criers, accompanying brides to church, enlivening banquets or
preceding nobles and dignitaries through the streets. In brief, the men of the Ren-

aissance needed no excuse for celebration: they were busy celebrating life itself.

149
 a

A CITY
IN PROCESSION

A Renaissance procession was a civic spec-

tacle. It brought together in one majestic

display a city's magnificently robed nobles,
magistrates and leading citizens, its mili-
tary companies, contingents of clergymen,
and swarms of musicians, acrobats and jest-
ers.Thousands marched while, from their
doorways, windows or housetops, thou-
sands more beheld the spectacle. Proces-
sions marked a variety of occasions. In the

city-state of Siena, whose patron was the

Virgin Mary, the Day of Assumption was
celebrated by a spirited festival, portrayed
in the 16th Century painting shown here.
In the picture, colorfully costumed compa-
nies representing different wards of the
city march around the Piazza del Campo.
Each proudly follows a wheeled float built
in the shape of its emblematic animal—
goose, snail, elephant or unicorn— amid the
flurry of unfurling banners and the blare
of trumpets.
Describing an occasion of similar splen-
dor, the Feast of St. John in Florence, one
spectator captured the festive spirit of the
age: "The whole city," he wrote, "is given
over to revelry and feasting ... so that
this whole earth seems like a paradise."
 -*ii^'-^--,-

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151
PLAYING BALL, an Italian noblewoman prepares to swing her paddle. The game she playing, "giuoco della palla," was a primitive
is form of tennis.
 GAMES FOR PLEASURE
AND EXERCISE

The energy and enthusiasm of the Renaissance

found expression in a wide variety of sports and
games. Schoolmasters considered physical exercise
an essential part of education and included it as

a daily part of the curriculum. The Florentine

prince Piero de' Medici played a popular ball game,
like the one shown opposite, so passionately that
he often let pressing affairs of state wait while he
finished a match. According to the writer Leon
Battista Alberti, exercise was both necessary for the

young and useful for the old. The only people

who do not exercise, he declared, are those "who
do not wish to live happy, gladsome and sane."
AGAMEOF CHEbb. u pufiirnt- pvpuuii in uuin Luurt unu tuuern, wm (.unstd-

ered "a pleasing and ingenious amusement" when not played too seriously.

A SNOWBALL FIGHT offers outdoor sport for both lords and ladies in midwinter. The scene is from a 15th Century Italian fresco of the four seasons.
 THE SPLENDOR OF SPECTATOR SPORTS
Public sports, like the rough-and-tumble horse race, historic defeat of the Saracens there. The Flor-
or Palio (above), with which Florence honored its entines were enthusiasts not only of the horse race
patron saint, were played in the streets and squares but of boxing (right) and palla al calcio—a foot-
of all Renaissance cities. Each city had its tradi- ballgame with 27 players on each team.
tional sports, and no festival was complete with- The pell-mell Palio was as popular in Siena as
out the excitement of the games. Some places were in Florence (it is still run in Siena today). The

famed for their bullfights, others for their jousts race was held even in periods when the city was
or donkey races. The regattas of Venice were known threatened by invading armies— and in 1474, a year
throughout Italy. In Pisa, the most popular sport of war, gunpowder was actually taken from mili-
was a mock battle on a bridge, commemorating a tary supplies to provide fireworks for the Palio.
A HORSE RACE through the streets of Florence, part of the city's
annual celebration of the Feast of St. John, was a thrilling and
hazardous event. Riders were often thrown and trampled and spec-
tators injured as mounts thundered through the narrow streets.

GENTEEL BOXERS, three young Florentines engage in a local form

of the sport called "civettino." In this game, combatants pinned
down their opponents by treading on their feet. Then, at legs'

length, they flailed away with their hands, ducking and dodging blows.

155
 MASKED MUSICIANS sing to the accompani-
ment of a lute. In the Renaissance, musicians
were often employed as part of a noble's
domestic staff to play or sing at banquets
and balls or between scenes of courtly shows.
sj-'-S^^^

oi^^'
LFS^-.

ACROBATS AND WRESTLERS perform for a

cluster of partying lords and ladies while
lute players strum in the background. Such
gatherings had a diversity of amusements,
from impromptu acts to elaborate tableaux.

^-^

'.^r;«^;5«*7i^:>%ij

V)^'

s awtwgp^
-

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 ENTERTAINMENTS FOR THE ARISTOCRACY

Renaissance society was steeped in pageant. When staged between the acts. When the Cardinal of Fer-

musicians played (opposite), they often wore masks rara presented a play in 1508— "a farce or merry
and elaborate costumes. The antics of acrobats (be- jape," as one spectator described it— the most en-
low) enlivened the most formal courtly gatherings. thralling part was an interlude in which several
At dinner parties, as one noble lady wrote, "the winebibbing cooks danced about the stage beating
different dishes . . . were carried in to the sound of on earthen pots. During these interludes, the stage

trumpets." When a troupe of actors performed, the might be filled with fireworks, torches, lifelike ani-

play often mattered less to the audience than the mal costumes or colorful birds. For special ef-

costumes and scenery. Fantastic spectacles were fect, performers might even set fire to the scenery.
 -J.^ .r...

-S:}

^Pi
the finest gift anyone could give. Stores of wine and supplies
hunted down. In Paolo Uccello's painting, above,
of food were usually brought along as a company patricians
set out canter pleasantly on horseback and a retinue
after deer or boar. For a lord, the of huntsmen,
only fit quarry was the full-
kennelmen and beaters do the hard work on
grown foot, in a scene
stag; when a herd was spotted only the stag was
that vividly expresses the pageantry
and vitality of the age.

159
 The habits of thought and the cultural achievements
associated with the Italian Renaissance achieved
their full intensity in the first half of the 15th Cen-
tury, the age of the great creative artists Masaccio
and Donatello, Brunelleschi and Alberti. By this

time the social conditions of Italy had enabled schol-

ars and artists to produce a culture of supreme
quality, and though Florence was the leader, this

culture was common to the whole peninsula. What

was reborn in the Renaissance was contact with the

8 ideas of the ancient world.

of this rebirth

many men
ative activity.
of genius and a
What made
memorable was the existence of so
sustained burst of cre-
the period

RENAISSANCE There was a fairly clear pattern to the develop-

IN THE NORTH
ment of the Italian Renaissance. Basic to the design

was a new social and political order, whose educa-

tional and ethical needs were different from those
of the medieval world. The emergence of humanism
came as an answer to those needs. This led to the
growth of a social and intellectual atmosphere in

which genius could flourish— genius expressed in a

triumphant rephrasing of man's deepest reactions

to God, to love and to nature.

This pattern emerged much later in the rest of

Europe. The central years of the Renaissance in

Germany, France, England and Spain stretched over

the 16th, even into the 17th Century.
These later outbursts of creative vigor followed
the example of Italy, but even if Italy had not exist-

ed, or had been culturally numb, the other countries

of Europe would have experienced cultural Renais-
sances of their own.
Each European country had had a vigorous na-
tional culture during the Middle Ages— as is evi-

denced by the German cathedrals, and by such poets

as Geoffrey Chaucer in England and Fran(;:ois Villon
in France. Therefore, to speak of Renaissances in

the north and in Spain is not to imply that these

areas had been asleep and then suddenly woke up.
It is to suggest that the 16th and early 17th Cen-
turies saw the development of a culture markedly
different in tone from that of the Middle Ages and
expressed by an unprecedented emergence of men
of genius.
A RENAISSANCE LEGACY can be traced in Rome's graceful Turtle Fountain.
Created in 1585 in the vibrant Mannerist style, it recapitulated Renais-
The difference of tone was due in part to the ex-

sance art and pointed the way to the ornate splendor of the baroque. ample of Italy. But no country can learn from the

161
ideas of another until it is ready to do so. Other
European nations snapped up Italy's humanism
and its artistic styles as greedily as they did because

the moment was right: the armies of these nations

began to pour into Italy at the very time that the
countries themselves were rapidly reaching a state
of development that made possible a cultural leap

forward.
It was not until the late 15th Century that the
administrative and financial machines of the West-
ern powers reached this point. Now, for the first

time, they could send large armies outside their own

borders. Well organized internally, domestic peace
assured by strong monarchs, they could also pro-
vide a settled, reasonably prosperous environment
in which secular education could absorb new ideas,

and individuals explore new tastes. Travel, whether

for business, diplomacy or scholarly reasons, had
brought foreigners to Italy from the beginnings of
the Renaissance, in the time of Giotto and Petrarch.
Now, in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries, the
soil in which these contacts had been planted was
ready to produce a harvest.

Humanism itself does not equal Renaissance.

Bringing to light the intellectual life of Greece and
Rome did, it is true, enormously extend the range
of ideas men could think about and the ways in
which they could express their thoughts. But a

Renaissance depended on the talent that could put

these thoughts into enduring memorable form. In THE GODDESS FORTUNE, carrying reins and a chalice that symboUze her power
to chastise and to reward man, makes her airborne rounds in this engraving
each country a body of humanist scholars prepared
by the German master Albrecht Diirer. The print's Renaissance characteris-
the way for more original, creative writers to ex- tics—its mythological subject, its realistic nude figure, its use of perspective

press themselves in the new styles. —were products of DUrer's studies in Italy. Here the artist, raised in the
medieval tradition, heartily embraced Renaissance principles. Through his
Not surprisingly, it was in Germany that Italian
later essays, woodcuts and engravings, he did more than any other man to
humanism made its first strong impact abroad.
popularize the classical revival in his own homeland. Thus Ditrer's visit to
Though the empire as a whole was divided and Italy in 1494 may be said to mark the start of the northern Renaissance.

incompetently administered, there were thriving

towns with a degree of municipal independence that
gave them a strong resemblance to the city-states
of Italy. With their own schools and universities
and with a merchant aristocracy that felt a need for Europe in the late 15th Century; and Albrecht Dii-
advanced secular education, towns like Basel and rer, the great painter and engraver.

Nurnberg learned readily from Italy. And, at the Preparation for the French Renaissance began
opposite pole, the emperor himself needed the elo- around 1500 with the work of the humanist schol-
quence of humanists for his diplomacy. He also ars Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples, who brought back
enjoyed their ability to eulogize a ruler, an art they the principles of humanism to France after a visit

had learned in the service of Italian tyrant princes. to Florence, and Guillaume Bude, who fostered the
Thus, although the greatest humanist scholar and study of Greek works and was the moving spirit

popularizer that northern Europe produced was behind the establishment of the College de France
a Dutch priest named Desiderius Erasmus, when by Francis I.

Erasmus began to spread the gospel of humanism it In terms of wide cultural achievement the French
was in Germany that he found the greatest number Renaissance spans the middle two generations of
of congenial minds. Erasmus lived from 1466 to the 16th Century. In art it is associated with the
1536. He traveled widely, made friends everywhere, work of Italian painters who were drawn to the court

and developed an enormous international corre- of Francis I, the first French monarch prepared to

spondence through which he helped disseminate pay lavishly to satisfy his cultural interests. The
humanism throughout Europe. He also was able to result was the elegant, mannered and, above all,

take advantage of the newly invented art of print- decorative art of the School of Fontainebleau. The
ing and became, in fact, the first author to live on group of poets headed by Joachim du Bellay and
the profits of his books, and the first author to pro- Pierre de Ronsard and known as La Pleiade was also

duce one bestseller after another. The invention of active in France in the middle of the 16th Century,

printing was, of course, another reason why Italian encouraging the use of French in literature and
ideas spread so rapidly beyond the Alps after the striving earnestly to enrich the language. Fran(;ois

late 15th Century. Rabelais' ribald and intellectually stimulating mas-

The German Renaissance, while it was the first terpiece Gargantua was published in 1534 and was
of the northern European Renaissances, was the an immediate and influential success. The Essays
shortest in duration. It flourished at the court of of Montaigne appeared almost half a century later.

Maximilian I in the last years of the 15th and the In England and Spain there was an even greater
first years of the 16th Century, after which it was gap between humanist preparation and literary and
sucked into the bitter theological controversies of artistic achievement. Erasmus had humanist friends
the Reformation. Humanism, with its emphasis on in England— Thomas More, author of Utopia, and
the dignity of man's own works, was essentially a John Colet, dean of St. Paul's and founder of St.

Catholic philosophy. The rise of Protestantism, Paul s School, among them. But the key figures in

with its special emphasis on man's intrinsically evil the English Renaissance were Edmund Spenser,
nature, brought the humanist movement in Ger- Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare;
many to an end. But while it lasted it produced behind their careers loomed England's first Renais-
some great names: Johann Reuchlin, a Christian sance court, that of Elizabeth I, who died in 1603.

who was a scholar of the Hebrew language; Sebas- In Spain the University of Alcala was founded in

tian Brant, whose satirical verses in The Ship of 1508 with a deliberately humanist program. But it

Fools exercised a profound influence throughout was even longer before Spain achieved its constel-
lation of great creative talents— the great painter torical models or the sonnet, or realism in painting,

El Greco (c. 1541-1614), the novelist Miguel de Cer- or classical proportions in architecture. Their at-

vantes (1547-1616), the dramatist Lope de Vega tempts to provide accurate texts of ancient au-
(1562-1635). thors, their praise of the active, virtuous, secular

To all these countries, as they slowly educated life, and their attempt to show how much in the
themselves into a new age, Italy acted as a chal- teaching of ancient philosophers was in anticipa-
lenging schoolmaster. Italian Neoplatonism influ- tion of God's verbatim teaching through the mouth
enced the way in which Colet thought about God, of Christ— all this was directly useful to northern

Spenser about love, Shakespeare about nature. Pe- humanists, who were mainly concerned with how
trarch's sense of an intimate contact between him- to live good, useful lives in the world outside the
self and Cicero was echoed by Erasmus' sympathy church. Thomas More and Erasmus did not be-
for the ascetic scholar St. Jerome, author of the come Christian humanists simply because they
first Latin translation of the Bible. Petrarch's pre- read books written by Italians, but they were able
occupation with his own reactions to other people to express themselves more clearly and forcibly be-
and to nature was copied by Elizabethan poets writ- cause of the preparatory work that had been done
ing in a form dear to Petrarch himself, the sonnet. in Italy. Though the tone of More's Utopia, and the
The humanists of the north listened intently to topics it dealt with— war and peace, social justice

the message transmitted from Italy. —reflected More's own ideas about what needed
Humanist historical writing was one of Italy's reforming in his own society, the concept of the
most successful exports. Any self-made individual ideal community came from Plato, as did his em-
who feels that he has reached a pinnacle of fortune phasis on the control of man's political and social
begins to think about providing himself with a environment by reason. Plato, of course, had been
pedigree (even if it is a faked one). It is the same rediscovered by the Italians. Erasmus' Biblical criti-

with nations; there is a moment at which they wish cism was based on the Latin of the Vulgate, St.

to see their history written out in a fair hand, a Jerome's Bible, which in turn was based on the
record of difficulties overcome, of hazards faced method developed by Italian philologists in puri-
and solved. This demands a new kind of histo- fying the classic Roman texts.

riography which keeps the intervention of God at a Italy's schoolmaster phase may be divided into
distance while showing how man has solved his two periods. First the northern powers used Ital-

own problems. Such a school of historiography was ians themselves as teachers. They imported artists

founded in France by Paolo Emilio of Verona who —Andrea del Sarto was at the French court in
wrote an accurate history of his adopted country in 1518-1519 and Leonardo died there in the latter

1516-1519. In England the founder was another year. Pietro Torrigiano (who had broken Michel-
Italian, Polydore Vergil, whose patronage by Hen- angelo's nose for him in a youthful brawl) com-
ry VII enabled him to write a 26-volume history; pleted the graceful tomb of Henry VII in West-
in its secular regard for facts this work profound- minster Abbey in 1519. Italian diplomats and letter

ly affected later English historical thinking— and writers were used by the chanceries of England,
ultimately the view of the English past presented France, Germany and Poland.
by Shakespeare in his historical plays. In the second period native pupils carried on in

The Italians had much more to offer than his- the Italian manner, and though Italians were called
 C.IOVANNI DI BICCI DE MEDICI
CONFALONIERE 1360-1429

GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY

LORENZO
1395-1440

PIER FRANCESCO
1431-1477

QUEEN

GIOVANNI
LORENZO (IL POPOLANO)
(ILPOPOLANO) ,,.
(D (IL
LORENZO
MAGNIFICO)
GIULIANO
1453-1473
H4a-14'^2

GIOVANNI DELLE BANDE NERE

^3 )
GIUL
GIULIO
PIER FRANCESCO
\@/
(
1478-1 5J4
1495-1526
1486-1525

PIERO GIOVANNI /
1475-1521
1471-1503 ^
LORENZINO
1514-1547

1519-1589
Henry II of France

FERDINAND II

I6I0-I670

HENRIETTA MARIA
d. 1669
Charles I of England

THE MEDICI GENEALOGY

THE MEDICI FAMILY, a mighty dynasty that provided popes, patrons and rulers
for Italy and Western Europe, descended from Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici,
who founded the family bank in 1397. Even untitled members (gray disks) such ANNA MARIA LUDOVICA
as Lorenzo the Magnificent wielded almost regal power. Illegitimacy (dotted 1667-1743
Last of the Medicis
lines) did not hinder three Medici from becoming a cardinal, a duke and a pope.
in from time to time, it was as gifted individuals short story with such gusto that northern novelists
rather than as the only accredited representatives and dramatists raided Boccaccio and Matteo Ban-
of an essential part of the curriculum of modern dello for plots well into the 17th Century. Not
life. It was not long before the pupils were chal- only did Italy have a respectful attitude to Vergil
lenging their former teachers. Catherine de' Medi- and Ovid but it also took seriously a body of ver-
ci, Dowager Queen of France after the death of nacular works— by such writers as Dante, Boccac-
her husband, Henry II, summoned Italian artists cio and Petrarch— which, after a period of neglect,

to her court to help create an atmosphere similar came by the 15th Century to constitute a parallel

to that in which she had grown up. But French body of Italian-language "classics."

master masons and artisans would no longer un- As a result, many major Italian writers turned
questioningly accept Italian designs, and the result, to the classical tradition for form but to the vernacu-
visible in tapestries, enamels, jewelry, architecture lar tradition for tone. This combination of secure
and books of the 16th Century, is a happy wedding form and vital content gave Italian works a special
of French and Italian influences. appeal to lively creative minds throughout Europe.
In the arts, the greatest Italian influences were Moreover, alongside the confident, racy tone of
literary ones. Climate as well as national tradi- much Italian literature was a note of nostalgic mel-
tion led to a fairly cautious acceptance of Italian ancholy. Renaissance Italy had its melancholies as
architecture, and the most direct influence did not well as its enthusiasts; the buoyant civic politician,
come from such innovators as Brunelleschi and whose hero was Cicero, was balanced by the recluse,
Michelangelo but, late in the 16th Century, from whose love of the slower tempi of the countryside
Andrea Palladio, with his emphasis on classic sym- was supported by Vergil in the mood of his Bu-
metry. In painting, northern Europe, though con- colics and by the Arcadian musings of Theocritus.
servative, had such vitality that it had already giv- The early idyllic novels such as Arcadia by Eng-
en something to Italy itself— notably the technique land's Sir Philip Sidney, and the Spaniard Jorge
of painting in oils. Knowledge of this technique de Montemayor's Diana, all of which put well-
filtered up from Naples, where Flemish painters born lords and ladies into a tranquil rural setting
were working before the mid-15th Century, and of woods and meadows, sheep and gentle shepherds,
influenced artists in northern Italy by the 1480s. could not have been written without the Italian
Although Diirer did study for a while in Italy example of Jacopo Sannazzaro's Arcadia (1504).
and acted as an interpreter of Italian ideas for Ger- And Sannazzaro in turn depended on Theocritus
many, the artistic conventions of the north tended —but on Theocritus with a difference. Whereas
to hold their own: Holbein's Henry VIII stood in the characters in Theocritus' writings were sim-
a sufficiently stout three-dimensionality for early ple peasants and other rough-hewn types, Sannaz-
Tudor taste, which ran to the sturdy and the com- zaro introduced world-weary courtiers into a rustic
fortable rather than the fragile and the flamboyant. scene, and in this way so modified his model that it

But the Italian influence on books was really appealed to a feeling more characteristic of the
pervasive. Italian literature covered an extraordi- urbane Renaissance than of the simpler classical

narily wide range of form and mood. Not only did world.
it resurrect classical forms like the dialogue, the Similarly the Italian dramatists, while using the
tragedy and the epic, but it developed the medieval act-divisions and other devices employed by the
 MEANWHILE IN THE NORTH

Roman playwrights Plautus, Terence and Seneca,

elaborated the love interest and made the comic

relief mirror contemporary society; once again, a

classical product was modernized in Italy and made

suitable for export. Italian literary influence was
strong because it brought attractively up to date

so much of what men had thought about not only

in antiquity but in the Middle Ages. The Italian

influence was therefore complicated, but it was

strong precisely because it was complicated. If it

had consisted merely of ancient literature in trans-

lation, the national literary traditions in other coun- In the 16th Century, when Florence had
tries would have resisted its influence and gone long been established as a second Athens

their own way. in the eyes of the Western world, Ivan IV

was hand not only (above), a domineering young duke, came

Moreover, Italian influence at
to the throne of a Russia still mired in
when writers in other countries were considering
feudal despotism. He was the grandson of
into what mold— novel, epic, play, lyric— they were Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow, who had
to pour their feelings, but also when they were laid the foundations for a new nation by
trying to decide what language they would use. his refusal in 1480 to pay tribute to the
There were several choices of language open to Tatars, Russia's longtime overlords. In
the following years, as the Tatars warred
Italian authors. If they chose to write in Latin they
among themselves, Ivan III established
could limit themselves to words used by Cicero—
Moscow's domination over a vast territory.
the most generally admired stylist— or they could Ultimately, he proclaimed himself 'Sover-
fall back on the usage of a variety of other classi- eign of all Russia." To glorify his capital,
cal authors. If they chose to write in Italian they he imported architects and painters from

could use pure 14th Century Tuscan, or an Italian Renaissance Italy. Finally, in 1547, Ivan

which picked and chose words from many different

IV, known as "The Terrible, "
formally
adopted the august title of Czar, or Caesar.
regions and even from Latin itself.
A tall, fierce man subject to ungovern-
As time passed, this wealth of choices began able fits of rage, Ivan IV suppressed the
more and more to be a question of which vernacu- old landed aristocracy, the boyars. In his
lar to use. That the problem came up at the time later years, as Russian armies conquered

it did is important, for it started arguments about Kazan and Astrakhan in Asia, and ad-
vanced into Siberia, distrust and terror
language elsewhere in Europe just when modern
became Ivan's policy. He had the saintly
French, Spanish and English were in the process
metropolitan of Moscow, the head of the
of crystallizing themselves.
Russian Church, strangled for opposing
Ultimately the Italian emphasis on the vernacu- him. He killed his own son, whom he
lar prevented other languages from being swamped loved, in a rage. Three years later, in 1584,

with Latin words and phrases. Castiglione, for Ivan the Terrible died in a fit of delirium.

example, talked about language in The Courtier.

When this work was translated into English in
1561, it contained a letter from Sir John Cheke, ents. The necessary information was obtained from
an ardent, if cranky, disciple of a pure national Dutch and French Huguenot theorists, as well as

language. "I am of this opinion," Cheke wrote, from Machiavelli. The states of Europe took from
"that our tongue should be written clean and pure, Machiavelli what they needed, when they needed
unmixed and unmangled with borrowing of other it, but their political and religious circumstances
tongues." Almost certainly Shakespeare's English were so different from those of Machiavelli's Italy

would have been less directly and idiomatically that they needed very little.

English had it not been for the influence of Dante's What Europe did need, and took a lot of, was
and Boccaccio's Italian on the language theorists the teachings of Castiglione. The nobility wanted
of the 15th and early 16th Centuries, and the re- a program that would bring the values of chivalry
spectability they gave to a comparatively unlatin- up to date: the expanding bourgeoisie wanted a
ized vernacular. way of life that would carry with it some upward
The direct influence of Renaissance political mobility in the social and cultural sphere. The
thought outside Italy is difficult to trace. It con- Courtier was a bestseller throughout Europe. In
sisted, above all, of the influence of Machiavelli, fact, after religious works, one of the largest cat-
whose name by the second half of the 16th Cen- egories of 16th Century books was that dealing
tury had become an epithet: a "Machiavel" was with social behavior. The historian Ruth Kelso has
anyone you hated, particularly if you wanted to counted 891 volumes, dealing solely with the edu-
suggest that he was crafty and irreligious. But, cation and conduct of women— and most of these
alongside the name-calling, there was serious study derived from (and some did little more than para-
of his works. The Prince was circulated in manu- phrase) The Courtier and Giovanni della Casa's
script in England long before 1640 when it was Galateo. Slipping beneath the guard of politics and
first allowed to be printed there, and more than religion, the Italian program of individual self-

one ruler used it to justify what he was planning culture was able to affect the tone of social life

to do anyway. even under the nose of a divine-right monarch or

However, despite the widespread attention paid a Protestant church.
to Machiavelli's writings in the 16th Century it is Italian influence on the rest of Europe would not
impossible to point to any one political action that have been so great if the creativity of the Renais-
depended on a knowledge of his works. Politicians sance had suddenly petered out early in the 16th
react to events, not to books— or at least this was Century. Just as a teacher who has the vitality to
true until Marx published Das Kapital. But a book continue with his own original work is more re-

can help formulate the creed of a party, and action spected than one who lives on the reputation of
can flow from that. Something like this happened what he has achieved in the past, Italy the school-
during the Puritan Oliver Cromwell's ascendancy master continued to impress Europe with its cre-
in England between 1640 and 1660, but England ative powers.
was in the throes of experimenting with republi- In one branch of cultural activity, indeed, Italy

can forms of government at the time. With heredi- displayed more creative vigor in the 16th Century
tary kingship temporarily abolished, the nation than in any earlier period. This was music. Italy
needed the guidance of republican experts in prac- and the Netherlands were the countries where "the
ticable, rather than legally correct political expedi- new music" came to the full pitch of its develop-
 ment in the careers of Giovanni da Palestrina and
Orlando di Lasso, both of whom wrote motets,
Masses and other choral music.
Music and song had always played a part in

Italian life, both in church and outside. But from

the second half of the 15th Century an interest in

its potentiality quickened. Marsilio Ficino learned

to play the lyre; Leonardo impressed Lodovico Sfor-

za with his musical talents as much as with his
artistic ones. From pictures like Titian's The Con-
cert and Raphael's St. Cecilia we can see something
of the charm and the philosophic dignity that mu-
sic had for contemporaries. With its many courts
and its sophisticated attitudes toward cultivated
leisure, it was natural that secular music should
flourish more happily in Italy than elsewhere.
In Italy, too, the prestige of poetry and a gen-
erally sensuous approach to the arts helped bring
about the major revolutions in Renaissance music.
These were the expressive wedding of music to

verse, and the substitution of one kind of musical

texture for another: instead of separate strands of
music laid one on top of the other, there was now
harmony— i.e., vertical chords, rather than a set of

horizontal lines.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS were indispensable To gain richness and diversity of expression,

accessories to Renaissance life. Every cul- choirs were made large, new instruments were intro-
tured person was expected to play at least
duced, composers experimented with dissonances
one. The psaltery, "spinettino" and "lira da
braccio" were played in gardens, ballrooms and quarter tones. Nicola Vicentino of Ferrara even
and churches. But the most popular instru- constructed a harpsichord which had not 12 but
ment, the lute, was heard everywhere, de- 31 tones for each octave. Both in the papal chapel
lighting Tuscan peasants and Sienese lords
and in the musical academies which were created
alike. Great lute players were so esteemed
that Isabella d'Este protected her favorite for the performance and discussion of music in

from punishment after he murdered his wife. the Italian cities, the emphasis was on how to

bring back to music the expressiveness, the power

to move, that it had had among the Greeks. No
Greek music remained. But no Greek painting re-

mained either— as far as was known then— and yet

LIRA DA BRACCIO
Italians had gone to literary sources and then
set about mastering the realistic techniques which
would enable them to reproduce what they decided in architecture, that of classicism. When to this

Greek painting must have looked like. It was the we add the lively novelle of Bandello, which were

same with music. The Renaissance musicologist, published in the 1550s, and Torquato Tasso's im-
E. E. Lowinsky, has noted: "Greek writings on mu- mensely successful epic of 1581, Gerusalemme Li-

sic were studied by Renaissance musicians with berata, we can see that to 16th Century Europe
the same awe and reverence as the philosophers the Italian schoolmaster remained very much alive;

studied Plato, the sculptors ancient statues, and his lessons continued to be taken with the seri-

the architects the remaining ancient buildings . . . ousness due one who seemed at the height of his
The study of Greek ideas on music was used as powers.
a catalyst to bring about those radical changes in Much of this occurred beyond a time when re-

the aims and means of music that introduced a new birth had any meaning for Italy, but the signifi-

epoch. The authority of ancient Greece was invoked cance of the Italian Renaissance and its power to

to unseat the universal rule of counterpoint that infect the culture of other countries cannot be un-

had been reigning . . . for half a millennium." derstood unless some attention is paid to its after-

The beginnings of opera, too, came from Italy; glow. Only by seeing how 16th and early-17th
Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea Century Europe turned for inspiration to the art-

(1642), which can still move a modern audience, ists and scholars of this divided, defeated, but stub-

was preceded by plays set to music, like the Dafne bornly creative country can we realize how great

of Ottavio Rinuccini and Jacopo Peri (1594). a debt our own culture owes to Italy.

In the visual arts Europe saw no hint of Italian Because that country gave unrivaled opportuni-
faltering. Titian painted with increasing power un- ties to talent over some two and a half centuries, a
til his death in 1576, and Tintoretto produced a set of attitudes to life and to the arts was worked
flow of astonishingly original work up to his death into a shape that enabled others, when they were
in 1594. By this time new names had appeared ready, to absorb them as a tonic to their own aspi-

which were to become household words, and for rations. Each country, when it was prepared to step

two and a half centuries eclipse the fame of the over the shadowy fissure that divided the medieval
masters of the quattrocento. In the eyes of con- from the modern world, could reach out to grasp

noisseurs of the 17th and 18th Centuries even Leo- the steadying hand of Italy. While Italy did not
nardo and Michelangelo lacked appeal when com- affect the main course of political and economic
pared with Domenichino and Guido Reni, and the events, it helped the whole modern world to think
Carracci family, Lodovico, Agostino and Annibale, and feel and build and play.
who, though fine artists and the best of their day, If the Italian Renaissance had never happened,

have never since, by popular taste, been considered Shakespeare would probably still have written plays,
comparable to the great masters. And just as Italy Louis XIV would still have built a palace at Ver-

in the second generation of the 16th Century pro- sailles, John Harvard would still have founded a

duced Mannerism, the first truly international style college. But no Romeo and Juliet would have loved
since the Gothic— for it appealed to aristocratic and died in Verona, there would have been no col-
taste everywhere— so later in the century, with the umns at Versailles, and Latin and Greek would not
work of Palladio and Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italy have helped to mold the imaginations of the Found-
produced the first post-Gothic international style ing Fathers of America.
THE CHILD: "To him it is granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills"— Pico della Mirandola ( 1 463-1494 ).

A NEW VIEW OF MAN

As the great sculptor Donatello labored over a lifelike statue, he was heard ex-
horting it, "Speak, then! Why will you not speak!" In a figurative sense, Dona-
tello's statues, and many by other Renaissance masters, do speak: they state

eloquently in stone and bronze the bold new attitude toward man that animated
the age. The sculptured portraits reveal a new fascination and esteem for the

individual. The full-bodied figures express an unabashed delight in the human

form. Renaissance sculpture also asserts the vital optimism of the time. In

Desiderio da Settignano's statue of a bright-eyed boy (above), can be seen the

same feeling that Count Pico della Mirandola put into words: "God the Father
endowed man, from birth, with the seeds of every possibility and every life."
How fair is youth that flies so fast!

Then he happy, you who may;

what's to come is still unsure.

-LORENZO DE MEDICI

Renaissance artists delighted in por-

traying youth. The NeapoHtan sculp-
tor Giovanni da Nola, seeking a figure to

personify Temperance, chose to carve a

lovely maiden (right), alluring and sensu-
ous, yet childlike in her purity. Similarly,
a vision of perfect young manhood in-

spired Michelangelo as he planned his

memorials to Giuliano and Lorenzo de'
Medici, the son and grandson of Lorenzo
the Magnificent. Transcending realistic

portraiture, Michelangelo glorified Giulia-

no (left) as the ideal nobleman, and Lo-
renzo as the archetypical man of thought.
When these lordly figures were finished,
the sculptor was told by a fatuous ac-
quaintance that his statues were not good
likenesses. Michelangelo, confident that
his works would be immortal, replied:

"Who will care, a thousand years hence,

whether these are their features or not?"
 vw
^
^-

f J^

>
^

r
l^^^^r^"
Bring to mc my kind, compassionate lady for company ....

Let her chaste appearance, her modest words calm me.

-LORENZO OE MEDICI

the liberal spirit of the Renaissance,

In
women of aristocratic famiHes were ac-
corded new respect and greater opportuni-
ties. As girls, some received the classical
education given to their brothers. But
all were brought up to be good mothers;
the relief shown opposite, a Madonna and
Child by the Florentine sculptor Desiderio
da Settignano, reflects a growing sentimen-
tality toward motherhood and children.
To fulfill her other roles, the well-born
woman raised leisure to an art. The bust
at right, another work by Desiderio, dis-
plays the grace and refinement expected
of the lady as a dutiful wife, an occasion-
al companion to her husband, a skillful

hostess to his guests. A few gifted women,

flowering in the hothouse of court society,
became towering figures, and as versatile
as the age's "universal man." One great
lady, Vittoria Colonna, fascinated worldly
courtiers, befriended religious rebels (for
which she was placed under surveillance
by a Church court), exchanged passionate
lyrics with Michelangelo and secretly dis-
pensed political advice to Pope Paul III.
Advance then, and. ..you may make yourself known to all the world.
-BOrc Arc lo

Maturity came early to Renaissance man, bringing with it

a driving ambition to win fame. Giovanni delle Bande

Nere was one of many noblemen who fought as comiottieri
for glory and cash. This bold commander, portrayed above by

Francesco da Sangalio, fell in a skirmish and died at the age

Another mercenary, Duke Gianfrancesco Gonzaga II of

of 28.
Mantua, lived to enjoy his battle-won wealth and to sit for a
bust (far left) by Gian Cristoforo Romano, which shows him
in his virile middle years. But the rewards of commerce were
safer and surer than the wages of war. The Florentine mer-
chant Pietro Mellini, having amassed an impressive fortune,
used it freely to assure his remembrance as a patron of the
arts. His portrait (^/e/fj, by Benedetto da Maiano, reveals a wise
old man who bears his wrinkles with a trace of wry humor.
It is a remarkable fact that we all must die,

and yet we all live as if we were to live forever.

-GUICCIARDINI

'he Renaissance was a turbulent epoch in which death awaited young and old at
I
-*- every turn. Guidarello Guidarelli, the heroic warrior portrayed at right in a
funerary statue by TuUio Lombardo, survived many a battle only to die in his prime
at an assassin's hand. Yet always the age's passion for life made death seem remote.
Pope Paul III, seen above in a bust by Guglielmo della Porta, led a long, full life as

a worldly prince, lavish in his nepotism and his patronage of the arts; when he died
at 81 he was vigorously pursuing a second life as a pontiff dedicated to Church re-
form. Even before his death, the Italian Renaissance may be said to have died. But
its exuberant culture, carried abroad by teachers, writers and artists, took root
in the north and shaped the quality of life in many nations. And its unconquerable
vitality bequeathed to modern man "the seeds of every possibility and every life."
 ;T:Wy\' .-M

*
•<

)
^
.^r'"

.^ ^.

.iSi.
APPENDIX

Greece

Etruria

I
AD ^100

Barbarian Invasions

1100

1200

GREAT AGES
OF WESTERN
CIVILIZATION M^iOO

Exploration
The chart at right is designed to show the and
duration of the Renaissance in which
Colonization ^^H Renaissance
Italy, 1500
forms the subject of this volume, and to

relate it to the other cultures of the West-

ern world that are considered in one major
group of volumes of this series. This chart
is excerpted from a comprehensive world
Age of Reason
chronology which appears in the introduc-
tory booklet to the series. Comparison of
1700
the chart seen here with the world chro-
nology will enable the reader to relate the
Age of Enlightenment
great ages of Western civilization to impor-
tant cultures in other parts of the world.

On the following two pages is printed a

1800
chronological table of the important events Age of Political Revolution

that took place within the Italian penin-

sula during the era covered by this book.

Age of Social Revolution

1900
zs
 v^ u. C

T1

•^ — .s —

^ 2
=
-i

cs CO -J £ > <;

B^^T
 SIENA

PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, ARCHITECTS PAINTERS

Vasari

Bronzino

MANNERISM (1520-1600) Pontormo

Andrea del Sarto

Fra Bartolommeo

Michelangelo

Raphael

Leonardo da Vinci

HIGH RENAISSANCE (1500-1520)

Antonio Pollaiuolo
Andrea del Castagno
Piero della Francesca

RENAISSANCE (1400-1500)

Duccio

PROTO-RENAISSANCE (1300-1400)
 FLORENCE THE NORTH

SCULPTORS ARCHITECTS SCULPTORS ARCHITECTS

ICiacomo della Porta K 1 Vasari
iGiovanni da Bologna
iBcnvcnufo Cellini Palladio

Sansovino

Tullio Lombardo

Antico

Leopardi

THE GROWTH OF RENAISSANCE ART from its Gothic and Byzantine

roots is shown in this chart. The process had four phases (far
left): the Proto-Renaissance laid the groundwork, the Renaissance
formulated the style, the High Renaissance perfected it and Man-
nerism moved it in a new show the
direction. Vertical divisions
three major Italian schools. Most important was the Florentine,
and the key figure in its development was Giotto. His style was
further developed by Masaccio, Donatello and Brunelleschi. The
artists who followed them are sometimes grouped together (e.g.,

the Florentine painters Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolommeo),

indicating that they lived at the same time or that their work
was related stylistically. The school of the North, dominated
by Venice, represents a variation in the tradition initiated by
Gothic and Byzantine Art Giotto. Siena departed least from the Proto-Renaissance tradition.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY se books
for thei
to readers
?re selected
nterest
during

seeking additional infori

tin
and authority. and
preparation of the vol-
for their usefulness
Hon on specific points.
An asterisk (*} marks works available in both hard-cover and
paperback editions; a dagger (^ ) indicates availability only
in paperback.

GENERAL READING THOUGHT AND CULTURE

American Heritage, Horizon Book of the Rerjaissar^ce. Doubledav, 1''61. •Cassirer, Ernst, Paul O. Kristeller and John H. Randall,
Jr., eds Renaissance Philosophy
,

•Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Transl. by S.G.C. of Man. University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Middlemore. London. Phaidon Press, 1960. Chastel, Andre, The Age of Humanism: Europe 1480-1530. McGraw-Hill. 1963.
The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I, The Renaissance. Cambridge University Press, Ferguson, Wallace K The Renaissance m Historical Thought. Houghton Mifflin, 1948.
,

1907. •Kristeller. Paul O , Renaissance Thought. Peter Smith, 1963.

*Clough, Shepard B., and others. A History of the Western World. D. C, Heath, 1964. tKristeller, Paul O., Renaissance Thought II. Harper Torchbooks, 1965
Durant. Will, Th>: Story of Cwihzation, Vol. V, The Renaissance Simon & Schuster, 1953. Reese, Gustave, Music in the Renaissance. W. W. Norton & Co., 1959.
Ferguson, Walkce K., Europe in Transition, 1300-1520. Houghton Mifflin, 1962. •Ross, James Bruce, and Mary Martin McLaughlin, eds.. The Portable Renaissance Reader.
tFerguson. Wallace K., and others. Facets of the Renaissance. Harper Torchbooks, 1963. Viking Press, 1953.
•Ferguson. Wallace K., and others. The Renaissance: Six Essays. Peter Smith, 1962. Sanctis, Francesco de. History of Italian Literature. 2 vols, Transl, by Joan Redfern,
•Gilmore, Myron P., The World of Humanism, 1453-1517. Harper & Row, 19S2. Basic Books, 1960
*Guicciardini, Francesco, History of Italy and Other Writings. Transl. by Cecil Grayson. Wilkins, Ernest H,, A History of Italian Literature-Harvard University Press, 1954,
Twayne Publishers, 19o4. •Woodward, William H,, Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators. Teachers
Hay, Denys, The Italian Renaissance in its Historical Background. C nbridge University College, Columbia University. 1963
Press, 1962.
Jacob, E F., ed., Italian Renaissance Studies. Barnes & Noble. 1960. ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Lucas, S., The Renaissance and the Reformation. Harper & Row, 1960.
Henry
The New
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I, The Renaissance. Cambridge Un 'y rnard, Italian Painters of the Renaissance. Phaidon Publishers, 1957.
Press, 1957: Vol. II. The Reformation. Cambridge University Press, 1958. DeWald, Ernest T., Italian Painting, 1200-1600. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961
tPlumb, J. H., The Italian Renaissance. Harper Torchbooks, 1965. Fletcher, Banister, /I History of Architecture. Scribner, 1961,
The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. II, The 12th Century to the R. tHolt, Elizabeth G., ed., A Documentary History of Art. 2 vols. Doubleday Anchor Books,
Cambridge University Press, 1952. 1958.
*5ymonds, John Addington, The Renaissance in Italy. 3 vols. Peter Smith, 1961. Janson, Horst W., History of Art. Prentici Hall and Harry N, Abrams, 1963.
tThompson, James W., and others. The Civilization of the Renaissance. Frederick Un- Larousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art. Ed. by Rene Huyghe. Prometheus
gar,19S9. Press, 1964.
tMeiss, Millard, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death. Harper Torch-
POLITICS AND SOCIETY books, 1964.
Murray, Peter J., The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. Schockcn Books, 1964,
, H., The Crisis of the Early Italic Re ols. Pri eton Uni' .ity Pri tMurray, Peter and Linda, A of Art and Artists. Penguin Books, 1964,
Dictionary
1955. •Panofsky. Erwin, Studies Smith, 1962,
in Iconology. Peter
Brucker, Gene A,, Florentine Politics and Society, 1343-137S. Princeton University Press, Pope-Hennessy, John, Italian Renaissance Sculpture. Phaidon Publishers, 1958
1962. •Vasari, Giorgio, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects. 4 vols, Transl. by
Castiglione. Baldesar, The Book of the Courtier. Transl. by Charles S Singleton. Dou- A B Hinds. Dutton, Everyman's Library, 1963.
bleday Anchor Books, 1959. Vermeule, Cornelius, European Art and the Classical Past. Harvard University Press,
Delia Casa, Giovanni. Galateo Transl. by R S Pine-Coffin. Penguin Books, 1958. 1964.
De Roover. Raymond, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494. Harvard Wittkower, Rudolf and Margot, Born Under Saturn. Random House, 1963,
University Press, 1963. •Wolfflin, Heinrich, Art of the Italian Renaissance. Schocken Books, 1963.
Hicks, David L., "Sienese Society in the Renaissance." Comparative Studies in Society
and History, Vol. 2, No 4 (July 1960). BIOGRAPHY
Hutton, Edward, Florence. David McKay, 1952.
Lucas-Dubreton, Jean, Daily Life m Florence m the Time of the Medici. Transl. by A. tAdy, Cecilia M., Lorenzo dei Medici and Renaissance Italy. Collier Books, 1962.
Lytton Sell^ Macmillan, 1961 •Hale, John R., MachiaveUi and Renaissance Italy. Macmillan, 1961
•McCarthy, Mary, The Stones of Florence. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1959. Leonardo da Vinci. Reynal & Company, 1 956.
•McCarthy, Mary, Venice Observed. Reynal & Company, 1956. tPlumb, J H ed.. Renaissance Profiles. Harper Torchbooks, 1965.
,

•Machiavelli, Niccolo, The Prince and the Discourses. Modern Library, 1940. Ridolfi, Roberto, The Life of Niccolo Machiavelli. Transl. by Cecil Grayson, University
tMartin, Alfred von. Sociology of the Renaissance. Harper Torchbooks, 1963. of Chicago Press, 1963.
'Mattingly, Garrett, Renaissance Diplomacy. Houghton Mifflin, 1955. tRoeder, Ralph, The Man of the Renaissance. Meridian Books, 1960
Schevill, Ferdinand, Medieval and Renaissance Florence. 2 vols. Harper Torchbooks, tVespasiano, Renaissance Princes, Popes, and Prelates: Lives of Illustrious Men of the
1963. XVth Century. Transl. by William George and Emily Waters. Harper Torchbooks, 1963.

ART INFORMATION AND PICTURE CREDITS

The sources for the illustrations in this book are set forth by semicolons, from top to bottom by dashes. Photographers'
below. Descriptive notes on the works of art are included. names which follow a descriptive note appear in parentheses.
Credits for pictures positioned from left to right are separated Abbreviations include "c." for century and "ca." for circa.

-Head of a War, :opy of a dr ring by Michelangelo (now lost), black chalk. dellAccademia, Venice (Emmelt Bright) 40-Gondolas at the edge of the Grand Canal in
16th . . British Museun ndon (Ahnar Venice (Bernard G, Silberstein from Rapho-Guillumette). 41-Detail from The Healing
of the Demoniac by Vittore Carpaccio, oil painting, 1494, Gallerie dell ademia, Ve
CHAPTER 1: lO-Dctail ftom the Cflntoria by Luca della Robbia, marble bas-relief, 1431- ice (Emmett Bright), 42-Pine forest near Classe (lames Burke)-detail fr cession of
1438, Museo del Duomo, Florence (Gjon Mili). lS-Chris( Disputing with the Doctors (/le Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli, fresco, 1459, Medici-Riccardi Palace. Floren (Ma •zari), 43-
by the Master of the Resurrection, majolica, 1510, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Fruit Vendor by Vincenzo Campi. oil painting, 2nd half loth c, eca di Brera,
l9-Piero de' Medici by Mino da Fiesole, marble portrait bust. 1453, Museo Nazionale, Milan (Scala)-Yo«ng Girls Bathing by Bernardino Luini, fr .. IS20-I525, Pinacoteca
Florence (Alinari), Zl-Portrait of Andrea Odoni by Lorenzo Lotto, oil on canvas, 1527, di Brera, Milan (Marzari), 44-View of Flo (David Lees)-detail of Charles V Be-
Hampton Court, Collection of Her Maiesty The Queen, copyright reserved, 22-13-The siegingFlorence by Giorgio Vasari. fresco. 1530. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (Erich Lessing).
Roman Forum by Paul Brill, oil on copper, 16th c Doria-Pamphili Gallery, Rome (David
, 45-5heltering Pilgrims by Franci o Hubertini Bacchiacca, oil painting on wood panel,
Lees), 24— Boy Reading Cicero by Vincenzo Foppa, fresco, ca 1460, The Wallace Collec- ca 1550, Rijksmuseum, Amsterda 46-Villa near Spoleto (Don Watson) 4c-47-Detail
.

tion, London (Derek Bayes), 2S-S(, Jerome in Study, presumed portrait of Cardinal
his from The .Assassination of St. Peter Martyr attributed to Giovanni Bellini, oil painting,
Bessarion by Vittore Carpaccio, oil painting, 1502-1507, Scuola di San Giorgio degli ca 1500, The National Gallery, London (Derek Bayes). 48-Casalc Marco Simone, north-
Schiavoni, Venice (Marzari), Ib-The Three Graces, Pompeian wall painting, fresco, 1st c, east of Rome (Aldo Durazzi)-Cit)ing Lodging to the Pilgrim from the School of Ghir-
AD, Museo Nazionale, Naples (Marzari); The Three Graces, Italian manuscript illumina- landaio, fresco, 2nd half of 15th c, San Martino dei Buonomini (Scala) 49-Feeding the
tion, 14th c„ The British Museum, London, 27-Detail from Primavera by Botticelli, oil Hungry by Santi Viviani, majolica frieze, 1526-1528, Ospedale del Cceppo, Pistoia (David
painting, ca, 1478, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (Marzari) 28-29^rhe School of Athens by Lees), 50-Pilgrim Croup by Santi Viviani, majolica frieze. Ospedale del Ceppo, Pistoia
.
(

Raphael, fresco, 1509-1511, Stanza della begnatura, Vatican, Rome (David Lees), (David Lees), 51-r;ic Seven Churches of Rome by Antoine La.... engraving, 1575, origi-
nal in black and white, Gabinetto delle Stampe, Rome (Oscar Sa o).
CHAPTER 2: 30— The Baptistery at Pisa (Roloff Beny), 33— Pope and Emperor, print, ca,,
1470, Gabinetto dei Disegni, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (Walter Sanders) iA-Payday CHAPTER 3: 52-Detailof C/irisfandSt, Thomas by Andrea del Verrocchio, bronze, 1478-
at the Venetian Arsenal, engraving, early 17th c. New York Public Library (Frank H 1483, Tabernacolo di Mercanzia. Orsanmichele, Florence (David Lees), SS-Page from
Bauer), 36-Boccfie di leone, stone, 16th c. Ducal Palace, Venice (Roloff Beny) 39-Detail Arilmetica by Filippo Calandri, woodcut, 1491, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
from The Departure of St. Ursula by Vittore Carpaccio, oil painting, 1490-1496, Gallerie York, Rodgers Fund, 1919 59— Sfudies of Costume by Antonio Pisanello, pen-and-ink

186
with walercolor washes. 1435-1440. Ashmolcan Museum. Oxford, copyright reserved. 60- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) 129-Se(f Portrait, chalk, Palazzo Reale, Turin (Anderson
ol-Drawings by Malt Greene 63-Delail from Si Peler Baplizinfi by Masaccio. fresco. -Rome) 130-Hartds. silver-point drawing. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, copyright
1427-1428 Santa Maria del Carmine. Florence (Fernand Bourges) 64-Shnne. terracotta, reserved-Proporlions of Ide Hkman face, Palazzo Reale, Turin (Anderson-Rome) 130-
late 15th c Palazzo Davanzali. Florence (David Lees) oS-Thf Annunciation by Anto-
. 131-Slce/elon, pen-and-ink. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, copyright reserved 131
nello da Messina, oil painting, ca 1475. Museo Nazjonalc. Palermo (Scala). Church of -Human Eye. Palazzo Reale Turin Anderson-Romej-Diaxram of Eye. Library of the
(

San Francesco at Arezzo showing frescoes by Piero della Francesca (G)on Mili). 66— Ex- Instilut de France, Paris (Bibliotheque Nalionale)-Crolesi?ue Faces, pen-and-ink. Royal
ternal pulpit by Donatcllo. marble. 1438. Duomo. Prato (David Lees) 67-S( Vincent Collection, Windsor Castle copvright reserved 132-L./y, pen-and-ink with sepia wash.
Ferrer Preachinf outside the Church of Si Eufemia a( Verona by Domenico Morone, panel Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, copyright reserved. Light on Plants. Library of the
painting, ca 1485. Ashmolean Museum. Oxford (Derek Bayes) 68-La Derelitta by Bot- Institut de France. Pans (Reynal and Company)-Brancfiing of Plants. Library of the
ticelli. oil painting, after 1500. Collection of Principe Pallavicini. Rome (Emmeli Bright) Instilut de France. Pans (Reynal and Company)-f lower, Accademia. Venice (Anderson
t>9-Tht Martyrdom of Savonarola in the Piazza della Si$noria by an unknown artist oil -Rome) 133-Crabs, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne (Rheinisches Bildarchiv). Cats.
painting, ca 1500. Museo di San Marco. Florence (Scala). 70— Cell in San Marco. Florence pen-and-ink over black chalk. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, copyright reserved-
(Gjon Mili). 71-Detail from Crista Deriso by Fra Angelico. fresco, 1438-1447. San Marco. Horse, pen-and-ink over black chalk. Royal Collection, Windsor Caslle, copyright re-
Florence (Scala). 72-73-Sl. Peter's, Rome (Dmitri Kessel) served, SIcflelal Anatomy of Leg of Horse and Man, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle,
copyright reserved— Proportions of Horse's Leg, pen-and-ink. Royal Collection, Windsor
CHAPTER 4 74 — Frontispiece from Canzone per andare in maschera per Carnesciale by Castle, copyright reserved. 13^— Birds in Flight. Library of the Institut de France, Paris
Lorenzo de' Medici and others, published by Bartolomeo de' Libri, woodcut, after 1497, (Bibliotheque Nationale)— Cranic Dei^ice for Manipulating Wings. Ambrosiana Library,
Biblioteca Nazionale Cenlrale, Florence (M Vivarelli) 76-77-Guild emblems, glazed Milan 13S— Power Mechanism (for Flying Apparatus), Library of the Institut de France,
terra-cotta, ca 1455-1465, Orsanmichele, Florence (Alinari) 78-79-Drawing5 by J. Ber- Pans (Bibliotheque Nationale)-;ac(; with Rack and Reducing Gears, Ambrosiana Library.
tolli. 6i-Historiae Seneses. Volume IV. miniature. 16lh c . Vatican Library. Rome 85- Milan; Tackle and Study of Rope Tension. Ambrosiana Library, Milan. 136— Map of
Delail of Lucrezia Borgia attributed to Fra Bartolommeo Venelo, oil painting, early l6lh c ,
Tuscany, pen-and-ink with watercolor. Royal Collection. Windsor Castle, copyright re-
Museedes Beaux-Arts NJmes (Eddy Van der Veen): Detail of Cesare Borgia, anonymous served-Reflecliori of Light on Mirror. The British Museum. London 137-RefIeclion of
oil painting, ca 1500, Palazzo Venezia, Rome
(Aldo Durazzi)— detail of presumed por- Light. Diagram of a Candle. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, copyright reserved-Eclipse
trait of Isabella d Este bv Leonardo da Vinci, drawing, ca 1499. Louvre. Paris (Alinari), of theMoon. Library of Lord Leicester. Holkham Hall. Norfolk (Reynal and Company)
Lorenzo de' Medici il Magnifico attributed to Niccolo Fiorentino, bronze portrait medal, Distance of Sun and Earth and Size of Moon. Library of Lord Leicester, Holkham Hall,
ca. 1490, Museo Nazionale, Florence (Emmett Bright): Detail of Portrait of Andrea Vesa- Norfolk (John Freeman)
lius by Titian, oil painting, ca 1560, Pitti Palace. Florence (Emmett Bright)-Andrea Man-
(cgtiaby Gian Marco Cavalli. bronze bust, ca 1500. Sam Andrea. Mantua (Dmitri Kessel); CHAiTER 7: 138— Detail from Niccolo Mauruzi da Totentino at the Battle of San Romano

Detail from /^Wms Manulius, anonymous, bronze portrait medal. 15th c Museo Correr, ,
by Paolo Uccello, wood panel, ca 1450, National Gallery, London. 143-Ship. illustration
Venice (Aldo Durazzi) 86-95-Pholographs of re-creations of Renaissance locales by from De re militari by Roberto Valturio, woodcut. 1483. New York Public Librarv (Al-
Erich Lessing. bert Fenn). 146-147-Drawing5 by J Bertolli from War Studies by Francesco di Giorgio,
ca 1495. The Chigi Collection. Siena 149-Dctail from The Baptism of the King by Vil-
CHAPTER S: 96-Detail from Gales of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti, bronze relief. 1425- tore Carpaccio, oil painting. 1507. Scuola degli Schiavoni. Venice (Emmer) 150-151-
1452, San Giovanni Baptistery, Florence (R Kafka) 99-Architectural Perspective by Procession of the Contrade by Rustic! Viricenzo. oil painting, second half I6lh c, Soprin-
Baldassare Peruzzi, drawing, ca 1520, Gabinetto dei Discgni, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence lendenza alle Gallerie. Florence (currently at the Bank of Monte dei Paschi, Siena) (Da-
(Alinari)-diagram by Victor Lazarro. 100-101-Bronze casting drawings by J Bertolli vid Lees) 152-Lady Playing Ball by an anonymous Lombard artist, fresco, 15th c, Pa-
103-Rospiglio5i Cup attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, gold, enamel and pearls. 16th c .
lazzo Borromeo, Milan (Scala) 153- Tfie Cfiess Players by Francesco di Giorgio, tempera
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, Bequest of Beniamin Altman. 1913 105- on wood, second halt 15th c The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of
,

Coatlicue, Aztec, stone. 15th c. National Museum, Mexico City (Fotos Irmgard Grolh- Maitland Fuller Griggs, 1943-Snou)ha(/ Fight by an unknown artist, fresco, 15th c, Cas-
Kimball, Mexico, D.F.). 107-Detail from The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the tello del Buonconsiglio,Trenlo (David Lees) 154-155-Horse Race in the Streets of Flor-

Golden Gate by Ciotto, fresco, 1304-1305. Cappella degli Scrovegni. Padua (Aldo Durazzi) ence by an unknown Florentine painter, cassone panel, tempera on wood, ca. 1417, The
108-Detail from The Tribute Money by Masaccio. fresco. 1425-1427. Brancacci Chapel. Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland. Holden Collection 155-Ciuoco del Civettino by an
Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence (Dmitri Kessel) 109-lnterior of the Pazzi Chapel by unknown Florentine painter, panel painting. 15th c Palazzo Davanzati. Florence (David
.

Brunelleschi. begun in 1443. Florence (Emmett BrighD-detail from The Resurrection Lees) ISo— Detail from Four Seasons: Winter by Cesarc Vecellio, fresco, 16th c Palazzo .

by Piero della Francesca. fresco, ca 1463. Borgo San Sepolcro (Dmitri Kessel). Si George Piloni, Sede delle Provincia. Belluno (Emmett Bright) 157-/1 n /Icrofcal and Wrestlers Per-
by Donalello. marble copy of original. 1416. Orsanmichele. Florence (Emmett Bright) forming from the Workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, cassone panel painting. mid-15th
110-Delail from The Damned Cast Into Hell by Luca Signorelli. fresco, ca 1500. Duomo, c , The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Derek Bayes) 158-1S9->1 Hunt in a forest by
Orvieto (Marzari)-Hercules and Antaeus by Antonio del Pollaiuolo. bronze, ca. 1480, Paolo Uccello, panel painting, after 1460, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Derek Bayes)
Museo Nazionale, Florence (Emmett Bright) Ill-La Calumnia by Botticelli, panel paint-
ing, ca 1494, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (Marzari)-/! Forest Fire by Piero di Cosimo, CHAPTER 8: 160— The Turtle Fountain by Ciacomo della Porta, marble, 1585, Rome (Ro-
panel painting, ca. 1487-1489, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; The Dead Christ by An- loff Beny) 162-Nemesis by Albrechl Durer, engraving, ca 1500. Sammlung Handke (His-

drea Mantegna. oil painting. 1506. Pinacoleca di Brera. Milan (Dmitri Kessel). 112-The tonsches Bildarchiv, Bad Berneck) 165-Drawing by | Bertolli 167-;Ban ifie Terrible,
CadOro. Venice (William Robbins from Black Starl-Concert Champetre by Giorgione, Bvzantine tradition, panel painting, probably mid-16th c Nalionalmuseum of Denmark,
.

oil on canvas,ca. 1510. Louvre. Paris (Eddy Van der Veen). 112-113-Sacred and Profane Copenhagen 169— Lute 16th c Rolf Rapp-Nives Poli. Complesso Fiorentino Musica
Love by Titian, oil painting, ca. 1516, Galleria Borghese, Rome (Eric Schaal). 113-Sl Antica, Florence (Walter Sanders)—spinellino, ca. 1540. The Metropolitan Museum of
Francis in Ecstasy by Giovanni Bellini, panel painting, ca. 1485, The Frick Collection, Art, New York, Purchase, 1953, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest-psaltery, 16th c Rolf Rapp-
,

New York->lbun<iance by AlessandroLeopardi, bronze, 1505, Piazza San Marco, Venice Nives Poll. Complesso Fiorentino Musica Antica. Florence (Walter Sanders)— fira da brac-
(Roloff Beny) 114-La Bel/e /ardiniere by Raphael, wood panel, 1507, Louvre, Paris (Fer- fio made by Giovanni d Andrea. 1511, Venice. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Vienna 171-
nand Bourges); Dome of St. Peter s, design by Michelangelo, 1558-1560 (completed by Detail from the Monument lo Carlo Marsuppini by Desiderio da Settignano. marble. 1455.
GiacomodellaPorta,1590), Rome (Mark Kauffman)-Dat)id by Michelangelo, marble, 1501- Church of Santa Croce. Florence (Roloff Beny) 172-Detail of Giuliano de' Medici, by
1504, Accademia, Florence (Emmett Bright) 115-Delailof The Last Supper by Leonardo da Michelangelo, marble, begun 1520, Medici Chapel. San Lorenzo. Florence (Roloff Beny).
Vinci, fresco, 1495-1497, Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan (Aldo Durazzi) 116- 173— Temperance, detail from the tomb of Don Pedro di Toledo, by Giovanni da Nola,
Deposition by lacopoda Pontormo, panel painting, 1525-1528, S. Felicita. Florence (Scala); marble, commissioned 1537, San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, Naples (Roloff Beny) 174—
Madonna with Long Neck by Parmigianino. panel painting, ca 1535, Galleria degli
the Madonna and Child by Desiderio da Settignano, marble bas-relief, ca 1460. Museo Na-
Uffizi, \17-Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini, bronze, 1545-1554. Loggia
Florence (Marzari) zionale, Florence (Roloff Beny) 175-Busl of a Youn^ Woman by Desiderio da Settignano,
dei Lanzi, Florence (Emmett Bright), Abduction of the Body of St. Mark by Tinlorello, marble, ca 1440, Museo Nazionale. Florence (Roloff Beny) 176-France5co Conzaga at-
oil painting, 1562, Accademia, Venice (Eric Schaal). tributed to Gian Cristoforo Romano, terra-cotta. ca. 1500. Museo Bardini. Florence (Ro-
loff Beny) 177-Ciouanni delle Bande Nere by Francesco da Sangallo, marble. 1522. Museo

CHAPTER 118— Porlraif of a Youth by Filippino Lippi, panel painting, ca, 1485, Na-
6: Nazionale. Florence (Roloff Beny)— Pieiro Mellini by Benedetto da Maiano. marble. 1474,
tional Gallery of Art, Washington, DC., The Mellon Collection. 120-The Balds of Dio- Museo Nazionale, Florence (Roloff Beny). 178-Pope Paul III by Guglielmo della Porta.
cletian, anonymous drawing, 15th c, Biblioteca Estense, Modena (Aldo Durazzi). 123— marble and alabaster, 1546, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte. Naples (Emmett Bright).
Cassone with The Story of the School Master of Falerii, cassone carved and gilded wood, 179-Guidaretlo Guidarelli by Tullio Lombardo, marble, 1525. Accademia, Ravenna (Ro-
ca. 1440, National Gallery, London 127-Drawings by J. Bertolli. 129-137-Drawings by loff Beny)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors are indebted to David L Hicks. Associate Professor of History. New York Archive. Vatican Museum. Vatican City: Giovanni Antonelli. State Archives. Viminal
University, Bruno Molajoli, Director of Fine Arts and Antiquities for Italy, Ministry of Palace. Rome. Iiaio Faldi. Director. Palazzo Doria Gallery. Rome. Angelo Monteverdi.
Public Instruction. Rome; Ugo Procacci, Superintendent of Galleries, Florence. Luciano President. Accademia dei Lincei. Rome. General Arnaldo Forgiero and Colonel Eugenio
Berti, Director of National Museum, Florence; Luisa Beccherucci, Directress of Uffizi Panasci. Castel Sant Angelo. Rome, Francesco Valcanover, Director of the Acidemy
Galleries. Florence. Irma Merolle-Tondi, Directress of Laurentian Library, Florence; Pi- Gallery. Venice, Giovanni Mariacher. Director of Correr Museum. Venice, Giuseppe
ero Aranguren. Director of Historical Museum. Florence, Sergio Camerani, Director of Marchini. Superintendent of the Galleries of the Marches. Urbino: Filippa Maria Aliberti
State Archives, Florence. Mario Ristori, State Archives. Florence; Rodolfo Francioni. Di- Superintendency of the Galleries of the Marches. Urbino: Academy of Fine Arts. Raven-
rector of lOpera del Duomo, Florence. Rolf Rapp-Nives Poli, Complesso Fiorentino di na; Savino Melone Director, National Museum of Science and Technology. Milan; Luigi
Musica Antica. Florence. Silvio Sensi. Superintendency of Florence. Mario
Galleries. Crema, Superintendent of Monuments for Lombardy. Milan; Giovanni Paccagntni. Super-
Bernocchi. Pralo. Alessandro Prosdicini, Director, Civic Museum, Padua. Eugenio Pre- intendent of Galleries, Mantua, Gilberto Carra. Archivio di Stato, Mantua; Raffaello
muda and Giuseppe Ungaro. Institute of the History of Medicine, Padua University, Causa. Director, Capodimonte Museum. Naples. Galleria Luigi Bellini, Florence. National
Deoclecio Redig de Campos, Vatican Museum, Vatican City. Ugo Bianchi, Photographic Gallery. London, and Department of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
INDEX
*Thi5 symbol in front of a page number indicates a photograph or painting of the subject mentioned.

Courtier, 56-58: Delia Casa's Galateo, Cartoon, political allegory, ^141

59, Italian influence in Europe, 168 Castagno, Andrea del, 122, 125
Bellay, Joachim du. 163 Caslel Sanf.Angelo, Rome, ^93
MAPS IN THIS VOLUME Bellini, Gentile, *46 Castighone, Baldassare, 124; on language,
M<ips by David Greenspan Bellini, Giovanni, •113, 126 18, 167-168, The Courtier, 56-58, 168
Jacopo, 126
Bellini, Castles, *48, 145
Belvedere Apollo, 22, 121 Cathedrals, 65
Florence in the Renaissance Belvedere Torso, 121 Catholic Church, 60-62, 63, 144; human-
Benedetto da Maiano, ^177 ism and, 17, 59, 62, 163; injunction
Italy during the Renaissance Bernardino of Siena, St., 60 against taking interest, 82, Preachers
Bernini, Lorenzo, 73 of Repentance, 59, '66-67, *68-69
Bessarion, Cardinal, ^24-25 Cellini, Benvenuto, 125, 146: bronze-
Street names used on pages 8-0 are those in current use: al-
Biblical criticism, 104-105, 164 casting art, '100-101, chalice attributed
though the streets shown existed during the Renaissance,
Biblical subjects in art. 100 to, 'lOS, Perseus, '117
most of the names used today originated at a later date.
Biondo, Flavio, 22 Cennini, Bernardo, 84
Vespasiano da, 56, 82 Cennini,Cennino, 123

M
Bisticci,
Black Death. 14, 36, 99 Cervantes, Miguel de, 164
Boboli Gardens, map 9, 76 Chalice, attributed to Cellini, ^103
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 18, 166 Chance, as emblem of Renaissance, 17
Arms. See Weapons Bologna, map 12, 13 Charity, in Titian s Sacred and Profane
Army, 145-146 Bonfire of vanities, 61, 62, 66 Love, 105
Abduction of St. Mark's Body, Tintoretto, Arno River, maps 8-9, 12; 76 Boniface VIII, Pope, 14 Charles VIII, French King, 61, 139-140,
•117 Arsenal, dockyard of Venice, *34, 35 Bonvicino da Riva, 56 142
Academies, 125, 169 Art, 13, 19-20. 110, 124-125, allegories, Book of Good Examples and Good Man- Cheke, Sir John, 168
Acrobats, *156, 157 17, '33, 110, 122, 127, *141; bronze- ners, Paolo di Pace da Certaldo, 58 Chess game, ^153
Actors, 157 casting procedure. *100-101; great cre- Bookkeeping, 14 Chest, *123
Adige River, map 12 ators, 119-128; Italian influences in Eu- Books, 55-56, 84, 94 Chiaroscuro, 99
Alberti,Leon Battista, 17, 53, 122, 125, rope, 164-166; Italian wars and, 144; Borgia, Cesare, "85, ^87, 92, 148 China, Ming Dynasty art, 105
153, 161 classical influences on, 120; naturalism in, 102-103, 107, 120-121, Borgia family, 92; coat of arms, *60-61 Choral music, 169
on realism, 102; treatise on theory of perspective, principles of, *99; political Borgia, Lucrezia, '85. 92. 93 Christ. See Jesus Christ in art
painting, 84 influence on. in Florence, 82-83; reli- Borgia. Rodrigo, 92 Cfirisf and St. Thomas, Verrocchio, ^52,
Albizzi family. 77 gious, 121-122; rivalries between the Botany, Leonardo s studies of, 132 53
Alb.zzi, Rinaldodegh, 77 arts. 124; School of Fontainpble,iu 163: Botticelli, Sandro, ^68. 82, 84, 122; allego- Christian doctrine, 104-105, humanism
Alcala. University of, 163 theories on, 123. See also Architecture, ry, *111, Three Graces, *2t and, 17,59,62, 163
Aldine Press, 17 Painting, Patrons of art; Sculpture Bourgeoisie, 53-54, 168 Christian faith, 59
Alexander VI, pope. 60, P2, 142 Art collections, 21, 119-120 Boxing, 149. •ISS Church, The. See Catholic Church:
Allegories, 110, 122; Botticelli, *111, For- Artillery, 145, 146 Bracciolini, Poggio, 22 Papacy. Papal States
tuna and Occasio as emblems of Ren- Artisans. See Craftsmen Bramante, Donate, 73, 123, I 26 Church doctrine. See Christian doctrine
aissance, 17; political, *33, *141, in Artist: change in social status of, 119- Brant. Sebastian. lo3 Church music, lo9
Raphaels paintings in Vatican, 127- 120, 122-125; guild and workshop sys- Bread and wine, symbolism of. 104 Church States. See Papal States
128; in Titian's Sacred and Profane tem, 107, 122; influence exerted by Bridal chest, •123 Cicero, 16, 54, 166
Love, *H2-113 patrons on, 82-83, military engineers, Bridges, in Florence, map 8-9, 76 Cimabue, 98
Alum, 81 146-147; role of, in Florence, 84 Brienne, Walter of, 79 Ciompi revolt, 79
Amusements. See Entertainment map 12,84
Assisi, Brigandage, 39, •46, 47 Cire-perdue method of bronze casting,
Anatomy, 20, 91, 99, 108; Leonardo's Assumption, Day of, procession in Siena, Brill. Paul, ^22-23 •100
studies of, *130-131, *133; realism •150-151 Bronze sculpture casting procedure, Cities, 14, 31. 53, culture in Germany,
and. 102 Astronomy, Leonardo s studies of, 136, •100-101: Cellini s Perseus, •ll?; com- 162-163: entertainment in, 58; medi-
Andrea del Castagno, 122, 125 •137 petition for Florence Baptistery doors, eval concept of, 33: procession in, '150-
Andrea del Sarto, 122, 123, 126, 164 Athletics, 55 101-102, 119; goddess by Leopardi, 151; rules of conduct in city life, 55-56
Angelico, Fra,70, *71 Avignon exile of papacy, 14 •113: Pollaiuolo '5 Hercules and Citizenship, in Venetian Republic, 35
Anjou, House of, 13, 142 Aztec civilization, 105 .^nteus, '110 City-states, map 12, 13, 14; during
Anne, St., 104 Brunelleschi, Filippo, 122, 123, 161; clas- Italian wars, 141, 143-144; government
Annunziata, Church of the, Florence, 128 sical influences on, 119, 120; competi- of, 19-20: role in Italian history, 32-38
Anticlassicism, 128 tion for bronze doors of Florence Bap- Civettino, boxing game, *155
Anticlericalism,oO B tistery, 101, 102, 119, Innocenii Found- Class distinctions, 56-57, in Florence,
Antiquarianism, 21, 22, 119-120 ling Hospital, 102; mechanical perspec- 36-37
Antonello da Messina, *65 Balance of power, map 12, 32, 142 tive, 98; Pazzi Chapel. •109; Pisa Classical revival, 13, 16, ^21-29, 162;
Apennines, 31 Ball games, 149, *152, 154 fortifications, 146; realism, 108; San ancient manuscripts, search for and
Apollo Belvedere, 22. 121 Bandello. Matteo, 166, 170 Lorenzo church, *127 study of, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24; books
Apothecaries, emblem, *76 Bandinelli, Baccio, 124 Bude, Guillaume, l63 printed by Manutius, 94; Christian
Apprentices, 107 Bandits, •46-47 Buoninsegna, Duccio di, 125 doctrine and, 62; influence of classical
Aragon, House of, 14 Banking, 38, 53. 62; role of, in Fl^ Buontalenti, Bernardo, 144 literature of Renaissance writing, 166;
Arcadia, Sidney, 166 36,75,80-81, *89 Business methods, 75, education and, role in new education during Renais-
Arch, 121 Banquets, 56 15-16,54 sance, 54
Archeology, 21, 22 Baptism, of St. Peter, *63 Classicism in architecture, 170; Palladio,
Architecture, 120; classicism in 16th Baptism of the King, The, Carpaccio, 166
Century, 170; fortifications, 146-147; •149 Clerics,humanism and, 24
as gentlemanly profession, 124; great Baptistery of Florence, competition f Cloth, production process. •78-70
names of Florentines in, 75; Italian in- bronze doors, *96, 97, 101, 102, 11' Coatlicue, Aztec goddess, '105
fluence in northern Europe, 166, Medici Baptistery of Pisa, ^30, 31 Ca d Oro, palace, Venice. '112, 125 Coats of arms: of Medici family, 82, of
buildings in Florence, 82, perspective, Bardi family, 75,80 CalixtuslII, Pope, ^60 20 pontiffs, ^60-61
•90, proportions, •127; in Rome, 126, Baroque art, fountain in Pisa, ^31 Cambrai, Treaty of, 144 Codex, Roman law, 16
in Venice, 125 Bartolommeo, Fra, 122, 126 Campi, Vincenzo, '43 Coducci, Mauro, 125
Aretino, Pietro, 58, 59 Basel, 163 Campo, Piazza del, Siena, ^150-151 Coiffure, *59
Arezzo, '65 Bastions, 146 Canonlaw, studyof, 59 Coin collections, 119-120
Aristocracy, 53, 168; entertainment for, Bathers, in Luini painting, *43 Cannon, 145, 146, •147 Cola di Rienzo, 32-33
157, 158-159; in Florence, 37, 78-79, in Baths of Diocletian, Renaissance not Capitalism, 38,62 Colet, John, 163
Genoa, 38, humanism and, 24; in Ven- of, ^123 Caravaggio, 144 College de France, 163
ice, 35; women during Renaissance, Battle of Nude Men,Pollaiuolo, 99 Caricatures, by Leonardo, 131 Collegio, executive body of Venice, 35
175 by Paolo Uccello, 102
Battle scenes, Carnival See Entertainment Colonna, Vittoria, 175
Aristotle, 20; in Raphael's School of Beccafumi, Domenico, 128 Carnival songs, 58, 75 Comedies, 58
Athens, *28-29, 126 Bedroom, of Lucrezia Borgia, •93 Carpaccio, Vittorc, ^24-25, ^149 Commerce. See Trade
Arithmetic, See Mathematics Behavior, rules of. 55-56; for artist- Carpenters, emblem of, ^76 Commines, Philippe de, 34
Armor, 145 gentleman. 124; Castiglione's The Carracci family, 170 Commune, 33, 38
 ;

Concert. The, Titian, lo'^ 81. progress toward capitalism. 38. 62. Francesca, Pierodella. *6S.98. 108. •lO? Holy days. 149
Conduct, rules of. See Behavior, rules of in Venice. 35 Francesco di Giorgio, inventions by, •Ho- Holy Family, symbolism in representa-
Consiantine. Donation of. 20 Education. 38. 54-55; bourgeois ideology 147 tion of. 104
Constantine the Great. *o5 and. 53-54; medical schools. 91. new Francis French King, 163
I. Holy Land. 34
Convent schools, 59-t>0 theories of. 15-16. 17. 21. 24; physical Franciscan Order. 70 Holy Roman Empire. 13. 32. humanism
Conversation, art of. 55 exercises as part of. 153; Piccolomini Frederick III. Holy Roman Emperor. ^33 and diplomacy. 163. Italian wars. 141;
Copernicus, 20 treatise on, 17; study of theology and French literature. 163 political allegory. ^33
Copper engraving. 94 canon law. 59-60 Fresco painting. '26. ^28-29. ^70-71. 126. Horse, Leonardo's studies of, ^133
C6rdoba. Conzalo de, 140 El Greco. l64 •153 Horse races, 149, '154-155
Corio, 139 Eliodoro. Stanza d. Vatican, 126-127 Friars. 70 Humanism, 15-16, revival of classical cul-
Costume and dress, "SO. •59. *75. *l5b. ElizabethI. English Queen. 163 ture, 13, 18-19, 21, 22, 161, 162, Chris-
157 Elizabethan poets. 164 tian doctrine and, 59. 62. in Germany.
Council of Ten. Venice. 35 Emblems Fortuna and Occasio. 17. 163; historiography. 164; influence on
Counter Reformation, 143 family emblems of 20 popes. •60-61 development of art, 101-102. 119
Counterpoint. 170 guilds of Florence. •70-77 Humanities, term. 15
Courtesan, The. Pietro Aretino. 38 Enamel, chalice attributed to Cellini. '103 Galateo, Giovanni della Casa. 57, 59, 168 Hunting. •110-111. 149, 158-159
Courtier. The, Castiglione. 56-57, 124; England. 161. 163, 168, influence of Galen, 20, 91 Hus. Ian. 104
Aretino s Courtesan a satire of,58; Italian Renaissance- lo4, 166 Galileo Galilei, 144
translations of 167-168
, English literature, 164 Galleys, 35
Courtly life. 56-57, 5». '156-157 Entertainment, 58, '75, 149-159; musical Games, •152-155
Craft guilds. 78. 122 instruments, *169 Cargantua, Rabelais, 163 I
Craftsmen: change of artists status Epic, 166 Garigliano River, map 12
from. 119. 122. 123; in Florence. 37. 78; Erasmus, Desiderius, 163, 164 Gattamelata, Donatello. 121 166
Idyllic novels.
in Siena. 37. in Venice, 35 Essays, Montaigne, 163 Gems collections. 119-120 Imola. 144
Cromwell. Oliver. 168 Este, Isabella d Marquise of Mantua,
, Genius, idea of. 124. 16I Impruneta. Our Lady of. 60
Crossbows, 145 55, *85,87, 169 Genoa, map 12. 75. 143; economic and /ncorormzione di Poppea, Monteverdi. 170
Crucifixion, Fra Angelico. *70 Ethics, humanism and. 62 political developments, 14. 37-38 Industry, role of. in Florence. 36
Curriculum, 24 Eucharist. 104. 105 Gentile da Fabriano. 101 Infantry. 146
Customs and manners, 53-55, 58; Casti- Europe, influence of Italian Renaissance Germany. 14; Diirer, 162; Renaissance in. Innocent VIII. Pope. 60
glione The Courtier. 56-57, 124. 168-
s in. 162-170 161. 162-163 Innocenti Foundling Hospital. Florence.
169; Delia Casa s Galateo, 59 Evening, Michelangelo. 106 Gerusalemme Liberata, Tasso, 170 102
Ghibellines. 32 Inns, "44.48
Ghiberti. Lorenzo, 119, 123, 125; bronze Interest on loans. 62.82
doors for Florence Baptistery, *96, 97, Inventions. "146-147
D 101, 102 Isabella d'Este. 55. ^85. 87
Ghirlandaio, Domenico, 13, 83. 84 Isabella of Castile. 142
Dafne. Rinuccini and Peri. 170 Fabriano. Gentile da. 101 Giorgione. •I 113 12. Italian language. 166. 167; dialects. 32;
Dante Alighieri, 11, 98: Boccaccio's Fabric of the Human Body, The, Vesalius. Giotto. 11.84.97-98. 100. 107; naturalism vernacular versus Latin. 18
biography of, 18 91 and. 120-121; new realism. 108 Italian League. 12
David, Michelangelo, •114 Faenza. 144 Giovanni da Nola. 172 Italian literature. 18. 170; behavior books,
Da Vinci, Leonardo. See Leonardo da Falcon hunting. 158 Giovanni delle Bande Nere, 177 50-57. 58. 59. 168. historiography. 164;
Vinci Family, role of, 53.57 Giraffe. •83 drama. 166-167
Dawn. Michelangelo, 106 Family emblems. 82, 'eO-Ol Glazed ware. '15 Italian wars. 139-144
Dark Ages, term, 13 Fashion. '50. ^59. *75. *156. 157 Goldfinch, symbolism of. 103-104 Italy, map 12; significance of name dur-
Day, Michelangelo, 106 Vittorinoda. 54
Feltre, Goldsmithing. '103 ing Renaissance, 33
De ingenuis moribus, Vergerio, 54 Ferdinand V. of Aragon. 140. 142 Gondolas. •40-41 Ivan IV, Russian czar, ^167
Dead Chhsl, Mantegna, '111 Ferrara. map 12. 54. 141. 143 Gonzaga. Francesco II. 177
Death, 99 Fcrrara. Cardinal of. 157 Gonzalo de Cordoba. 140
Delia Casa, Giovanni, 57, 59, 168 Ferrara. Dukes of, 53, 141, 143 Gothic architecture. ^30. 31. '112. 121
Delia Porta, Guglielmo, '178 Festivals, 149, 154, in Siena, •150-151; Government. 19-20. 38; Florence. 77; me-
Delia Robbia, Andrea, guild emblems, in Venice, 35 dieval concept of. }i. role of state, in
•76-77 Feudal lords, 14,38 new bourgeois ideology. 54; Venetian Jerome. St.. 164
Delia Robbia, Luca, guild emblems, '76- Ficmo, Marsilio, 120, 169 republic. 35-36 lesus Christ in art. 100. 104; Fra Angeli-
77 Fiesole, map 8, 76 Gozzoli. Benozzo. 101 co s Crucifixiort, ^70; Mantegna 's Dead
Delia Rovere family, coat of arms, '60 Filarete, Antonio, 13 Graces. The. classical, medieval and Ren- Christ, 94; Masaccio s Tribute Money,
Deposition, Pontormo, *116 Fine arts See Architecture; An, Paint- aissance versions of. '26-27 •108; in Raphaels painting. '114; pic-
Desiderio da Sellignano, ^171, •175 ing, Sculpture Grammar, study of, 15 ture on plate. ^15; new interpretation
Despotism, in Florence, 79 Flavio Biondo, 22 Grand Canal. Venice. ^40-41, 125 of Leonardo s Last Supper, 104-105;
Dialogues, of Plato, 55 Florence, map 8-9. map 12. •44-45. 75- Great Council, Venetian government. 35- symbolism in Leonardo's Vir_^in and St.
Diana, Montemayor, 166 84; art. 82-84. 97-98. 102. 119-125; 36 Anne, 104
Digest, Roman law, 16 economic and political development. Greco. El. 164 John the Baptist. St . •lU
Diocletian. Baths of. Renaissance notion, 14. 36-37. 77-81 competition for Greek culture. 13. 21. 54. 162 Joseph. St.. 104

•123 bronze doors of Baptistery. 101. 102. Greek medicine. 91 Journey from Venice to Rome. ^39-51
Diplomacy. 141, 142; education and. 15; 119; creation of Academy. 125; enter- Greek music, 169-170 Judith and Hohfernes, Donatello. 121
Italian diplomats in Europe. 164 tainment in. 5S. 150. '154-155; fortifi- Greek painting, 169-170 Julius II. Pope. 60. 126. 143; Michelan-
Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli. 148 cations. 146; geographical location and Guarino da Verona, 54 gelo's monument for. 18. plans for St.
Disegno, term. 124 topography. 76-77; government. 79-80. Guelphs and Ghibellines, 32 Peter s. 73
Dispute on the Nature of the Sacrament, 144; guild emblems on Or San Michele, Guicciardini, Francesco, 139, 142, 145
Raphael. 104. 126 •76-77; household shrine. ^64; during Cuidarelli.Guidarello. 178
Doge. 35 Italian wars. 141, 142. 143. 144-145; Guilds. 122. 123; as patrons of art. ^53.
Dolphin-and-anchor emblem. 17 Machiavelli. 147; Our Lady
Impru- of 77. 83. 101; emblems. •76-77; in Flor- K
Dome. 120. Florence Cathedral. ^44; St neta. 60; population. 76-77; San Lorenzo ence, 78. 80; of lay brothers. 60
Peters Basilica. 73. '114 church. 106. ^127; San Marco Convent. Guns. 145 Kelso Ruth. 168
Domenichino, 170 70; Savonarola and religious revivalism.
Dominican Order. 69. 70 59. 60-62. ^08-69
Donatello. 97. 161. 171; classical influ- Florence Baptistery, bronze doors of. *96.
ence and. 119, 121; paneled pulpit. ^66. 97, 101, 102, 119, 121 H
realism. 108; S( George, 83, '109 Florence Cathedral, •11,14. ^44, 84
Donation of Constantine, 20 Flying machines. Leonardo's studies of. Hairstyle. ^59 Lances, 145
Drama. 58. 157. 166-167 20 •134-135 Handgun. 145 Landsknechte. German mercenary sol-
Dress, ^50, ^59, •75. •ISo. 157 Fonlainebleau. School of. 163 Harmony. 169 diers. 146
Ducciodi Buoninsegna. 125 Forli.55. 144 Harpsichord. 169 Landucci. Luca. 60
Dungeon in Castel Sant Angelo. ^93 Football games. 58. 154 Henry VII. Holy Roman Emperor. 14 Language. 18. 21. 32. l60-lo7
Duomo of Florence. See Florence 146-147
Fortifications. Henry Vill, Holbein. 166 Laocoon, 22. 121
Cathedral Fortuna. emblem of Renaissance, 17 Hercules and Anteus, Antonio del Pol- Lasso. Orlando di. 169
Durer. Albrecht. 162. 163. 166 Fortune, goddess by Durer. ^162 laiuolo. '110 Last ludgmenl, Luca Signorrlli. '110
Forum, Rome, '22-23 Heresy, charges against Savonarola. 62 Last ludgmenl. Michelangelo. 102 121
Fountains. ^31. ^161 Highways. 47. 48 Last Supper. Leonardo da \'inci. 104-105
Fra Angelico. 70, '71 Historiography. 75. l64 Uteran Council. Fifth. 02
Fra Bartolommeo, 122, 126 History, study of. 15 Latin language. 18. 21. 167
Fra FilippoLippi,84, 122. 128 History of Florence, Guicciardini, 13o Latin literature. 21. 54. 123
Economic situation. 14; effects of Italian France. 14; Italian wars. 139-140, 141; Holbein. Hans, 166 Law. 15. 16
wars. 143, 144; in Florence. 36-37. 80- Renaissance in, 161, l63, l64 Holding companies. 14 Lay brothers. oO
Learning, alofSefCla ival; Mathematics. 20. 123. 124. 146; book of. during Italian wars, 140, 141, 142, 143 Perseus, Cellini, '117, bronze-casting pro-
Hi •55 Naturalism in art, 102-103, 107, 120-121 cedure, '100-101
Lefevre d'Etaples, Jacques, 163 Maximilian I. Holy Roman Emperor. 140. Neoplatonism, 62, 164 Perspective, 20, 98-^99, 102; Brunelleschi,
Leisure- See Entertainment 141.163 Niccoli, Niccolo, 119-120 98, 108; Leonardo, 115; Parmigianino.
LeoL Pope, 127 Medici. Alessandro de'. 106 Nicholas V, Pope, 24 116
Leo X, Pope, 22, 60 Medici. Catherine de'. 164. 165 Nicola Vicentino, 169 Perugino, 126
Leonardo da Vinci. 84, 97, 98, 99, 115, 122, Medici. Cosimo de . 65. 77. 82. 125. 144. Night, Michelangelo, 106 Peruzzi, Baldassare,99
124, anatomical and botanical studies, 146. 165 Nobility See Aristocracy Peruzzi family, 75, 80
'130-133, flying, studies on, 134-135, Medici. Giovanni di Bicci de'. 80.165 Notaries, in Florence, 37. 78 Petrarch, 50, 54. 164; revival of classical
fortifications of Florence, 146; Last Sup- Medici. Giuliano de'. 77. 106. 172 Novels. 166 studies. 16. use of vernacular. 18
per, new interpretation of meaning of, Medici. Lorenzo de'. the Magnificent. Nude in art. 102. 108, 121 Philip II. Spanish King. 144

105; musical talents, 169, perspective, •75. 81. 82. ^85. 89. 165; fortifications, Nurnberg. 163 Philosophy. 15. 17-18. 20. 62
98, 102, on reproduction of nature, 102- 146; Michelangelo and, 122; Pazzi plot, Physical education. 54-55
103; science, importance of, 20, 124; 77 poems and carnival songs. 18.
, Physicians, emblem, '76
self-portrait, *120, on status of artist. 58; political activity and balance of pow Physics, Leonardo's studies of, ^134-137
124; theoretical studies, "136-137; Va- er. 80. 142; Savonarola's denunciation o Piagnoni, 68
sari's comments regarding, 124; Virgin of. 69 Piazzas. See Squares
and St. Anne, symbolism, in, 104 Medici, Lorenzo de', the Younger, 106, Obscenity, 58 Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius, 17
Leopardi, Alessandro, '113 165 Occasio, emblem of Renaissance, 17 Piccolomini family, coat of arms, ^60
Levant. 34 Medici, Piero de', 18, 82, 142, 153, 165 Odoni, Andrea, *21 Pico della Mirandola, 17, 62, 171
Libraries. 16. 24 Medici Chapel, 18, 106 Oil painting, 113, l66 Piero della Francesca, *65, 98, 108, *109
Light and shade. 98. 108, 115 Medici family. 82; banking activities. 75. Opera. 170 Piero di Cosimo, •llO-lll, 122
Lippi. Filippino. 127, Portrait of a Youth, 80-81. ^89; coat of arms. *60-61. dur- Opportunity, as emblem of Renaissance, Piefa, Michelangelo, 104
*118, 119 ing Italian wars. 142. 144; expulsion of. 17 Pietro Aretino, 58, 59
Lippi. Fra Filippo. 84, 122, 128 61. 77. 80. genealogy. 165. Machiavelli's Optics, Leonardo's studies on, 136, "137 Piety, 59
Lira da hraccio, '169 relations with. 147-148; villa near Flor- Or San Michele, Florence, *76-77 Pike, 146
Literature, 54, 58, 75; drama, 166-167; in- ence. S3. •88-89 Oratory, Renaissance education, 54
in Pilgrims, 39, *S0-S1
fluence of Italian Renaissance on Eu- Medici-Riccardi palace. Florence. 82 Ordinances of Justice, Florentine govern- Pisa, map 12, 31,75. 154
ropean literature, 164, 166-168, 170; Medicine. 91 ment, 78 Pisa. Baptistery of. ^30, 31. University of,
Italian wars and, 144; La Pleiade in Medical schools. 91 Orlando di Lasso, 169 91
France. 163. vernacular versus Latin. 18 Medieval art, ^26. 97 Ostia. map 12; fortifications, 146 Pisano, Andrea, 120-121
Livy. 16 Mediterranean basin. 14, 31 Pisano, Nicola, 120
Lodi. Peace of. 141 Meeting of Joachim and Anna at Golden Pius II, Pope, 17
Lombardo. Tullio. •178-179 Gate, The, Giotto. 107 Plants, Leonardo's studies of, ^132
Lombardy. 14. 140 Mellini. Pietro. 177 Plato, 164; in Raphael's School oMf^ens,
Lope de Vega. 164 Mercenary soldiers, 47, 145-146, 148, 177 "28-29. 126
Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, 125 Merchants, 38, 53-54, book of mathemat- Padua, map 12. humanism in. 16. 75; Plays, 157
Lorenzetti, Pietro, 125 ics for, '55, church doctrine and, Andrea Mantegna. 125-126. Donatello's Pleiade, La, 163
Lorenzo the Magnificent. See Medici. 62, in Florence, 37, 78-79, 82, 83; in Gattamelata, 121. Giotto's work in. 84 Pliny, 123
Lorenzo de' Siena, 37; travel by, 39, 47, in Venice, Padua. University of. *90, 91 Po River, map 12
"Lost wax" method of bronze casting. 35 Pagan themes in art. 110. 122 Po Valley, 42
*100 Metal-casting procedure, •lOO-lOl Painting. 11. 13, 97-106. 110. Alberti's Poetry, 123, 169; carnival songs, 58; La
Lotto. Lorenzo, *21 Mexico, 105 treatise on theory of. 84; allegories. 17. Pleiade school in France, 163; vernacu-
Louis XII, French King, 140 Michelangelo, 122, 123, 125, 126; anato- 110. 122. 127, Fontainebleau, School lar versus Latin, 18
Love, goddess of, 26 my and realism, 84, 102, 103; David, of, 163, as gentlemanly profession, Poggio Imperiale, 146
Lowinsky, E E., 170 •114; Italian wars and, 144; Last Judg- 124; great names of Florentines in, 75; Political situation, 13-14, 31-38. allegory
Lucca, rnap 12 ment, 102, 121; memorial to Giuliano Greek, 169-170, guilds and workshops of papacy and empire. ^33. Castiglione
Luini, Bernardino, 43 and Lorenzo de' Medici, 18, 106, 171; system, 107, 122, influence of Italian on, 58. in Florence, 61-62. 78-82; in-
Lute, '156, *169 Pieta, 104; Pope Julius' monument, Renaissance in Europe, 166, Manner- fluence of geography and trade on. 31-
Luxury, Savonarola s crusade against, 61 18; St. Peters, 73, *114, ^127; symbol- ism, 116, 127, 128, 170; new realism, 32; Italian wars and. 139-144; military
ism in, on Titian, 113; tomb,
104, 106; 102, 106, 108; nonreligious themes, 110, situation influenced by. 147; in north-
125; Vasarion,97 122; perspective, principles of, 20, 98- ern Europe. 162. Renaissance problems
Middle Ages, 11, 13. 16-18, 161 99, 102; realism in, 83-84, 97-98, 102, regarding. 19-20. 161
M Middle class, 53-54, 168
Milan, map 12, 13, 14, 32, 36; Preachers
103, 106, 108; rivalry
artists, 82,
among Florentine
Venetian school, 113, 125,
Political theory. 147-148.
Poliziano. Angelo, 84
168

Machiavelli, Niccolo, 16, 58; analysis of Repentance, 66, Italian wars and, 126 Pollaiuolo. Antonio. 99. •IIO
of Italian wars and contemporary war- 141, 142, 143; as Spanish possession, Palaces, 34; Ca'd'Oro, *112: Medici- Polydore Vergil. 164
fare, 145-146, Mandragola, 58, political 142, 145 Riccardi, 82; Rucellai, 120, 125: Ven- Ponte Vecchio. Florence, map 9. 76
and military thought, 33, 36, 147-148, Milan cathedral, 31 dramin, 125 Pontormo. Jacopo da, 116. 128
168, role in Florentine government, Military engineering, 146-147 Palestrina, Giovanni da, 169 Popes- See Papacy. Papal States
147-148, vernacular, 18 Ming Dynasty, 105 Palio festival, 154 Popolo grasso: in Florence. 38. 78. 79, in
Madonna. See Virgin Mary in art Miracles, 100 Pallaalcalcio, 154 Genoa, 38
Madonna and Child, Desiderio da Setti- Mirandola, Pico della, 17, 62, 171 Palladio, Andrea, 166, 170 Popolo minuto: in Florence, 37, 80, in
gnano, *175 Missiles, *146 Pallas Taming the Centaur, Botticelli, 122 Genoa, 38
Madonna of the Goldfinch, Raphael, 103 Missionary work, 59, 61-62 Palmieri, Matteo, 13,53 Population, 59; Florence, 76-77
Madonna of the Long Neck, Parmigiani- Modena, map 12 PaoloEmilioof Verona, 164 Pornography, 58
no, *116 Monarchy, in northern European coun- Paolo di Pace da Certaldo, 58 Portrait of a Youth, Filippino Lippi, *118,
Maiano, Benedetto da, *177 tries, 162 Papacy, 14, 60, allegory of Holy Roman 119
Man, Renaissance versus medieval con- Monasteries, 48, 70 Empire and, *33; coats of arms of 20 Prato, Donatello pulpit in, "66
cept of, 17-18 Monasticism, 59 pontiffs, *60-61, decay of ancient Ro- Preachers of Repentance, 59, ^66-67, 69;
Mandragola, Machiavelli, 58 Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, 98, 102 man buildings and, 121; Medici as bank- Savonarola, 60-62, ^68-69
Manetti, Gianozzo, 20 Moneylenders, 36 ers of, 81, popes as patrons of arts, Prmavera, Botticelli, ^26
Mannerism, 116, 128, 170 Montferrat, map 12 72-73, 126-127; Savonarola's crusade Prince, The, Machiavelli, 58, 147-148, 168
Manners. See Customs and manners Monks, 60, 70 and, 61-62 Prince or lord, 38, 53, 89: Machiavelli on,
Mantegna, Andrea, '85. 94, 95, 125-126, Montaigne, 163 Papal Slates, map 12,13, 32, 81 Donation ; 141, 148: relation of courtier to, 57
Dead Christ, *111 Montemayor, Jorge de, 166 of Constantine, 20; Italian wars, 140, Printing, 94, 163: Cennini's edition of com
Mantua, map 12, 54, Isabella d'Este. 87. Monteverdi. Claudio, 170 141, 142, 143 mentary on Vergil, 84
Italian wars. 141. 143 Moon. Leonardo s studies of. 136. ^137 Parma, map 12 Printing press, "94
Mantua. Marquis of. 87 Moorish architecture. ^112 Parmigianino, Francesco, 116, 128 Processions, 35, 61, 149, "150-151
Manuscripts. *26; collection of classical. More. Sir Thomas. 163, 164 Partnership agreements, 14 Professional soldiers, 47, 145-146, 148,
120
16, 24, Multiplication tables. ^55 Passion, symbolism and, 104 177
Manutius, Aldus. *85, 94 Music. 157. 168-170 Patrons of art, 82-83, 121, 123, 125; cit- Proletariat, in Florence, 37, 78-79
Map, Leonardo's topographical map, '136 Musical instruments. '169 ies as, 14. guilds as, 77. 83. 101; in Protestantism, 62, 163
Marriage chest, '123 Mysticism, humanism and, 62 French Renaissance. 163. popes as, 72- Psaltery. "169
Marcello, Jacopo, 141 Mysticism in art, 100, 103, 104 73.126-127 Public service. 38. 53
Marlowe. Christopher. 163 Myths, as themes in painting, 110 Paul II. Pope. 81 Pulpit. "66
Mary Magdalen, Donatello. 121 Paul III. Pope, *33. 178
Masaccio. 63. 84. 97. 161. influence on Pazzi Chapel. ^109
Raphael. 126. Leonardo on. 98; painting Pazzi family. 77
of the Trinity. 102. realism, 108, The N Peasants. 37
Tribute Money, '108 Peking. China. 105
Masks. •36. ^156 Naples, map 12, 84, 166 Pentecost, paintings of the, 100 Queen of Sheba, "65
Masons, emblem, ^76 Naples, Kingdom of, map, 12, 13, 14, 36, Peri, Jacopo, 170 Quintitian, 16
 Santa Maria Novella, church, Florence, Vernacular, 18, 166, 167
83, 102, 127 Verona, map 12, 16, '66-67, 75
Rabelais. Francois, 163 Santa Trinila, church, Florence. 83 Table manners. 56. 57 Verrocchio, Christ and St. Thomas, '52,
Raphael. 22. 97. 103. 115. 121. 123: Madonn Santissima Annunziata. church. Florence. Tacitus. 16 53
•114; plans fof Si Pelf r s. 73: real- 82 Tactics. 146 Vesalius, Andreas, 20, '85, 91
ism and. 84. School of Athens, •28-29. Sarto. Andrea del. 122. 123. 126. 164 Tasso. Torquato. 170 Vespasiano da Bisticci, 56, 82
12o symbolism. 103-104: Vatican paint- Sassetti. Francesco. 83 Taxation. 35 Vias See Streets
ings. 120-I28 Satirical literature. 58 Telescope. Leonardo s studies of. 136. Villa. '46. 53, '88-89
Realism in art. 100. 102. 108. Giotto and. Savonarola. Girolamo. 59. 60. 61-62. '137 Villani,Giovanni,32, 33, 98
97-98 influence of patrons of art on •e8-69. 75 Tempera. 113 Vincent Ferrer, St '66-67
,

trend toward. 83-84. Renaissance inter- Savoy, map 12 Temperance, Giovanni da Nola. '172 Vinci, Leonardo da. See Leonardo da
pretation of. 103. 106 Scamozzi. Vincenzo, 170 Ten. Council of. Venice. 35 Vinci
Reformation, 62. 163 Schifanoia estate. Ferrara. 53 Ten of War. Florentine government. 147 Virgin and Child, household shrine, '64
Regattas. 154 School of Athens, Raphael. ^28-29. 126 Tenochtitlan. Mexico, 105 Virgin and St Anne, Leonardo, 104
Religious art. 99-100. 121-122 Schools, new educational aims, 54 Textile industry, in Florence, 36, '78-79 Virgin Mary in art, 100, 104, Assump-
Religious revivalism. 59. 60. 69: Preachers Science, 19, 20; Leonardo's studies of, 129, Theater, 58, 157, 166-167 tion Day festival in Siena, '150-151;
of Repentance, •66-67; Savonarola, •130-136 Theocritus, 166 Desiderio da Settignano's Madonna
61-62, •68-69 Sculpture, 120-121, 171, bronze-casting Theology, 13, 59-60; symbolism and, 104- and Child, '175. Our Lady of Impru-
Reni, Guido, 170 procedure, •lOO-lOl; as gentlemanly 105 neta. 60. Parmigianino's Madonna of
Republican government, 33. 35: in Flor- profession, 124; great names of Floren- Three Graces, classical, medieval, and the Long Neck, '116; Raphael repre-
ence, 77. 78; Machiavelli on, 148: in tines in, 75, monuments to famous Renaissance versions, '26-27 sentation. 103. '114; shrines, '64-6S;
Venice. 35 painters in Florence, 84; nude sculp- Tiber River, map 12 Leonardo's Virgin and St. Anne, 104
Resurrection, The, Pierodella Francesca. ture, 108, 121; pagan subjects, 122; ri- Tintoretto, 116, '117, 170 Virtuoso, term, 85
•109 valries among Florentine artists, 82, Titian, 113, 170; realism and, 84; Sacred Visconti, Gian Galeazzo, 32
Reuchlin, Johann. 163 symbolism in Michelangelo s Medici and Profane Love, 105, '112-113 Vitruvius, 123
Revival of learning. See Classical revival tombs, 106 Tolfa, alum deposits, 81 Vittorinoda Feltre, 54
Revivalism. See Religious revivalism Segnatura, Stanza della. Vatican. 126 Topography. Leonardo's study of. '136 Vol terra, 81
Rhetoric. IS. 54 Self-portrait by Leonardo. ^129 Tornabuoni. Giovanni. 83 Vulgate Bible, 164
Rienzo. Cola di. 32-33 Senate, in Venice. 36-37 Torpedo. 146. '147
Rimini, map 12 Sermons. 66 Torrigiano. Pietro. 164
Rinuccini.Ottavio. 170 Settignano. Desiderioda. *171. *17S
Riva. Bonvicino da. 56
Roads and highways. 47. 48
Seven Churches of Rome, map *50-51
Sforza Caterina. 55
Torture. 58
To5canelli.l08
Tournaments. 58
w
Robbers. '46-47 Sforza. Gian Galeazzo. 142 Towers. 44. 146 Walls, 76, 77
Robert of Anjou, 14 Sforza. Lodovico, 142, 143 Town criers, 149 Walter of Brienne, 79-80
Rocket. *146 Sforza family, 53, 145 Towns. See Cities Warfare, 32, '143, 145-146: fortifications.
Romagna. 148 Sfumato, 99 Trade. 14. 31-32; in Florence. 36. 76. 80- 146-147
Roman amphitheater. Florence, 76 Shakespeare. William. 163, 164, 168 81.82; in Venice, 34, 35 Warship, ^143
Roman and Greek culture. See Classical Ship of Fools, The, Brant, 163 Tragedy, 166 Wealth. 14-15
revival Shipping. *34. *39 Transfiguration, Raphael, 128 Weapons. 145-146; inventions by Fran-
Roman art and architecture, 22, 119. Shopkeepers. 53 Travel, journey from Venice to Rome. cesco di Giorgio. ^146-147
•120. 121 Short story. 166 '39-51 Wild beasts, combats between. 58
Roman Catholic Church. See Catholic Shrines. 65 Tribute Money, The, Masaccio. '108 Women of the Renaissance. 55-56. 175:
Church Sicily, map 12. 14 Trinity, Masaccio. 102 coiffure. '59. Isabella d Este. 55. '85.
Roman Empire, Cola di Rienzo s attempt Sidney. Sir Philip. 166 Trinity, paintings of the. 100 87; lady playing ball. ^152. Lucrezia
to revive. 32-33 Siege tactics. 145. 146 Trumpeteers. 149 Borgia. ^85. 92-93
Roman law. 16 Siena, map 12. 37. 144: artists. 126; Palio Turtle fountain Rome. '160. lol Wool industry, 36. 78
Roman roads. 47 festival. 154; Preachers of Repentance. Tuscan style. 102 Wrestlers. ^156
Romanesque architecture. '30. 31 66; procession. *150-151 Tuscany. Grand Duke of, 144 Wyclif. John. 104
Romano. Gian Cristoforo. '177 Signorelli. Luca. 102. 110
Rome, map 12. 13. 16. 32; archeology. 22. Signori, 33-34
121: artists journey to. 119. Cola di Signoria, or priorate. Florence. 77
Rienzo 32-33; leadership in art. 126; Silk manufacturers, emblem. *77 u
pilgrimages to. 39. sack of. 142; St. Simony. 60
Peter 5 Basilica. *72-73; Seven Churches. Singers, '10. 11 ^74. 75 Uccello, Paolo. 122. 126; battle scene, an. Federico. 125
map 50-51; Turtle fountain, *161 Sistine chapel. 84; Last Judgment, 102. •138. 139; hunting scene. •158-159;
Rome Restored, Flavio Biondo. 22 121 perspective. 98. 102
Rome Triumphant, Flavio Biondo. 22 Sixtus IV, Pope, 84 Unemployment, in Florence, 37
Ronsard. Pierre de. 163 Sixtus VI, Pope, 60 Universities. 15. 59-60
Rosso. Giovanni. 128 Social behavior See Behavior, rules of Urbanization trend, 14
Rucellai palace. Florence. 120. 125 Social conditions, 18-19, 53-59, 161; Urbino, map 12, 56
Russia. 167 change in status of artist, 119-120, 122- Urbino, Duke of, 24
125; Florence, 36-37, 77-78, 80: Man- Utopia, More, 164
nerism in relation to, 128; subdivision
into social and economic classes,
33-34; Venice, 34-35, of women,
55-56, '86,87,175
Sacrament, theological dispute over. 104 Songs, carnival songs, 58
Sacred and Profane Love, Titian, 105, Sonnet, 164 Valla, Lorenzo, 20
•112-113 Spain, 14; Italian wars, 140, 141, 142. 143: Valturius, Robertus, '143
St. Cecilia, Raphael. 169 Renaissance in. 161. 163-164 VanEyck,Jan, 166
St Francis, Giovanni Bellini, •lis Spenser. Edmund. 163 Vanity bonfires. 61. 62, 66
St. George, Donatello. 83. ^109 Spinello Aretino, 100 Vasari, Giorgio, 122, 124:on competition
Rome. '50-51. •72-73.
St Peter s Basilica. Spineffino, *169 for bronze doors of Florence Baptis-
Michelangelo's dome. '114; Michelan- Spoleto. 84 tery, 101;on Michelangelo. 97.
gelo's lulius monument. 18. Michelan- Sports. 149. ^152-153. '154-155: role of. symbolism in. 106
gelo's Pietfl, 104; Michelangelo s plans in Renaissance education. 54-55 Vatican library 24
for. 73. '127 Sprezzatura, term, 57 Vatican palaces. Raphaels frescoes, 126-
St. Philip, Filippino Lippi. 127. 12« Squares, in Florence, map 8-9, 76-77 127
Saints. 59 Stanza d'Eliodoro, Vatican, 127-128 Vatican Venus, 22
Salimbene, Bartolini. 80 Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican, 126-127 Vendramin palace, Venice, 126
Saluzzo. map 12 State. See Government Venetian Republic, map 12, 13, govern-
Salviati. Francesco. 125 Statecraft, 148 ment, 35, 145; Italian wars, 140, 141,
San Lorenzo, church, Florence, •127; Me- Strategy, 146 142
dici Chapel, 18. 106 Streets, in Florence, map 8-9. 76-77 Venice, map 12, 14, 34-35, ^39; art, 113,
San Marco. Basilica. Venice. 31. 35 Studia humanitatis, 15 126, Ca' d Oro, '112; Commines'
San Marco Convent. Florence. 70 Sumptuary legislation. 56 description of, 34; Grand Canal, '40-
San Michele in Isola. church. Venice. 125 Swiss mercenaries. 146 41; Moulds of Truth, '36; political
Sangallo. Francesco da, '177 Swords. 145 allegory, '141: regattas, 154, shipyard,
Sangallo, Giuliano da, 84 Symbolism in art. 103-104; Giotto and. •34
Sannazzaro, Jacopo, 166 97; Michelangelo and. 104. 106. new Vergerio. Pier Paolo. 54
Santa Maria del Fiore See Florence interpretation of Leonardo s Last Vergil. 84166
Cathedral Supper, 104-105 Verismo, 103
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