It is a natural transition from these considerations to a discussion of why the movement first showed itself in Italy and why it became so widespread. The answer to this query will naturally depend somewhat upon the conception of the movement which has already been agreed upon by teacher and class. If the Renaissance is to be considered, as has been suggested, as primarily a revival of learning, care should be taken to point out the fact that learning had not entirely died out in the Europe of the Middle Ages, but that considerable progress had been made back in the days of Charles the Great and again in the thirteenth century in the rise of universities and the development of the scholastic philosophy. The greater stimulus which followed the revival of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was due rather to a more favorable set of conditions than had heretofore prevailed in Europe. This was especially true of Italy. “It is no mere political mutation,” says Symonds, “no new fashion of art, no restoration of classical standards of taste. The arts and the inventions, the knowledge and the books, which suddenly became vital at the time of the Renaissance, had long lain neglected on the shores of the Dead Sea, which we call the Middle Ages. It was not their discovery which caused the Renaissance; but it was the intellectual energy, the spontaneous outburst of intelligence which enabled mankind at that moment to make use of them.”[4] The enumeration of these favoring circumstances will make necessary a return on the part of the teacher and class to the time of the crusades; and the nearer they approach the fourteenth century, the closer will appear the relation between such phenomena as the passing of feudal conditions, the rise of the bourgeoisie and the awakening of the individual man to a consciousness of his latent powers and resources. The weaving of this chain of circumstances will bring up among other things the rise of national literatures, the founding of universities, the development of town life, the appearance of the Ottoman Turks in Europe, the political and economic condition of the Italian cities, the work of Dante and Petrarch, and the timely invention of the printing press.
What Did the Renaissance Accomplish?
The class is now ready for the final question, “What did the Renaissance really accomplish?” The following headings are suggested for developing this phase of the subject; (1) the revival of learning; (2) the new art; (3) commerce or discovery; (4) science and invention; (5) religion. This order offers an easy and at the same time a natural transition to the Reformation.
Several methods are open to the teacher for expanding these sub-topics. One is to select a single individual, or a small group of individuals and to present their lives and work in sufficient detail to illustrate the various activities of the age and its leading characteristics; or to present a series of contrasts, placing the achievements of these men over against the attainments of the great thinkers and doers of the Middle Ages. Either method does not require an elaborate library equipment for its success.
If the former plan is adopted, Petrarch becomes the embodiment of that passionate love for antiquity, that zeal for the collection of ancient manuscripts, and that bitter opposition to those masters of the Aristotelian logic, the ancient schoolmen, which marked especially the revival of learning. A Raphael, a da Vinci, a Titian, and a Michelangelo mark the highest pinnacle of achievement in painting; Michelangelo, many-sided and versatile, like so many of his brother artists, is the type of the great sculptor; and Bramante of the great architect. The extension of geographical knowledge is so intimately associated with the life and work of Prince Henry the Navigator, that it has led one writer to declare that “the change which has revolutionized European trade and has drawn the whole world within the influence of Western civilization was indirectly the doing of this Portuguese prince.”[5] Science needs no better exponent than a Copernicus; the name of Gutenberg has always been associated with the printing press and finally, religion is ably represented in the person of a Valla and an Erasmus. The consideration of the life and work of the two last-named writers brings us face to face with the reform movement of the sixteenth century.
If the second method commends itself to the teacher, the schoolmen, limited both as to material and method, with their appeal to authority, can be presented in sharp contrast to the critics and scoffers of the Renaissance with their final appeal to the reason. There is some danger of over-emphasizing the follies of the former and of failing to estimate their work at its true value. (On this point see Adams, p. 368, and footnote.) If it is true that St. Peter’s suffers by contrast with the great achievements in the Romanesque and the Gothic, not so a Raphael, a da Vinci, and a Titian when placed side by side with a Cimabue, a Giotto and a Fra Angelico; or the rude reliefs on the doors of Notre Dame and the Strasburg Cathedral, when placed beside the bronze doors of a Ghiberti, “worthy to stand as the gates of Paradise.” The discoveries of a Columbus, a Magellan and a Vasco da Gama, when contrasted with the medieval conception of the world as depicted by their greatest cartographers, emphasize the remarkable progress of this later age in “discovering the world,” as well as man. Finally the misconceptions and pseudo-scientific treatises of the medieval schoolmen sink into insignificance beside the work of a Galileo and a Copernicus and the far-reaching results of the printing press.
Use of Illustrative Material.
Whichever method may be followed, it will be found that illustrations will add much to the interest of the class and make clearer the characteristics of the painting and sculpture of the period. A few pictures carefully selected will serve the purpose much better than a larger number. The “Madonna and Christ-Child,” by Cimabue;[6] the “Death of St. Francis,” by Giotto, and the “Coronation of the Virgin,” by Fra Angelico, will serve as illustrations of some of the faults of medieval painting. Care should be taken, however, to point out the fact that some of these artists are classed among the early Renaissance painters and their work marks a decided advance over that of their predecessors. The “Last Judgment,” by Michelangelo; the Sistine “Madonna,” by Raphael; the “Assumption of the Virgin,” by Titian, and da Vinci’s “Last Supper” are numbered among the “World Pictures,” and illustrate that mastery of technique and conception which has made their names so famous. Pictures of Michelangelo’s Moses, his David, and his figures on the tombs of the Medici, and Ghiberti’s bronze doors for the baptistry of Florence can easily be secured to illustrate the work of the Renaissance sculptors. A suggestion has already been made as to medieval sculpture. The Perry Picture Company or the Cosmos Picture Company can probably supply such pictures as may be needed at a very moderate cost. That teacher is especially fortunate who has access to a good art museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City offers special facilities to teachers and classes wishing to use their collections.
Literature.
Reference has already been made from time to time to helpful literature. Burckhardt’s “Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy” is often cited as the best book in English on the Renaissance in Italy, but it offers comparatively little in the way of suggestive treatment for the secondary teacher. His point of view is psychological and therefore quite beyond the comprehension of the secondary student. This fact, however, should not discourage the teacher from a perusal of his pages, as he throws new light on many a vexed question connected with the movement. Symonds’s “Short History of the Renaissance in Italy,” an abridgement of his larger work, though more popular and less scholarly, portrays the more attractive and the more intelligible side of the period and makes it glow with life and enthusiasm. Placed in the hands of the young reader, it may be the means of inspiring him with some of the writer’s enthusiasm for the labors of the men of that period, and possibly stimulate a stronger desire for some of that culture of which they were such worthy exponents. The chapter by Adams on the Renaissance in his “Civilization During the Middle Ages” is most suggestive and helpful. He not only summarizes the various revivals which culminated in the Renaissance proper, but traces the movement from its inception in Italy to its appearance in Italy and Germany, pointing out clearly its leading spirits and characterizing their special contributions to the movement. Lodge, in the concluding chapter of his “Close of the Middle Ages,” deals with the main features of the Renaissance and presents some admirable contrasts between the old and the new. Mention should also be made of the chapters in Seignobos’s “History of Medieval and Modern Civilization” on the “End of the Middle Ages,” “Modern Times,” “Inventions and Discoveries,” and the “Renaissance.” Beazley’s “Prince Henry the Navigator,” contains much more than a biography of this great pioneer in the field of discovery, and will be found useful for its summary of earlier achievements. Seebohm’s small volume on the “Era of the Protestant Reformation,” though brief, contains an excellent summary of the conditions which prevailed during the Renaissance and their relation to the movement for religious reform. Van Dyke, “History of Painting,” and Marquand and Frothingham, “History of Sculpture,” are useful handbooks for the artistic side of the Renaissance. Whitcomb’s “Source Book of the Renaissance” probably contains the greatest number of readings from the Renaissance authors, both Italian and German. Special mention might be made of his extracts from Petrarch and Benevenuto Cellini in Part I.; and from Erasmus and the “Letters of Obscure Men” in Part II. Part II. is preceded by a short account of the Renaissance in Germany. Robinson’s “Readings,” Vol I., contains much that is helpful, particularly in contrasting the culture of the Middle Ages with that of the Renaissance. In this connection should be noted Chapter xix, on the “Culture of the Middle Ages,” with its subdivisions on “Mediæval Natural Science,” “Historical Knowledge in the Middle Ages,” “Abelard and the Universities,” “Supremacy of Aristotle in the Mediæval Universities,” “Scholasticism,” and “Roger Bacon and the Beginning of Modern Experimental Science.” Chapter xxii contains extracts illustrating the Renaissance in Italy, with subdivisions on the Italian despots (quoting from Machiavelli), “Humanism,” and the “Artists of the Renaissance.” Ogg devotes one of his concluding chapters (xxvi) to the “Beginnings of the Italian Renaissance,” in which he quotes from Dante and Petrarch.