The Revival of Greek and

Roman Culture in the

Renaissance: Humanism and

the Arts

World HistoryHistory 100

October 9, 2010Prof. Re

Jamiline Marie C. Lebrilla

INTRODUCTION

The Renaissance meant rebirth, a time of transcendence for Europe. It was a

transformation from a restricted collection of traditions and values to something … freer.

It was filled with rampant energy. Some would call it a singularity point; wherein for a

short number of years, the Europeans achieved more advances in all fields, than they did

for centuries. It was a time when they were gluttonous, as if starving and finally freed,

they fell like a pack of wolves, unto a sea banquets.

And this is no false picture, for what were the Dark Ages but a starvation of the

mind. Knowledge was restricted to monasteries and private collections. The church was a

frightening specter of fear and violence. At a time when plagues, like the Black Death fell

upon man again and again, when death was found in every corner, and where themes of

morality and the end of times figured well in poetry and literature, where else could men

find solace but in God?

But the starving time did end, and the banquet began. The Church lost power as

the corruption within it grew more entrenched. No doubt its lowest point came when

papal power was broken and there were not two, but three popes all claiming that they

had received divine direction from God and were the “genuine” heirs to St. Peter’s

throne. Kings grew more powerful as they realized they need not depend on their lords

and knights. An elite merchant class appeared that opened doors of opportunity for

themselves, only once reserved for the nobles and royalty.

It was a time rife for discovery, when men were rich, and too much money

allowed men to have the leisure to look for something more. They searched, and they

found it, inspiration in the form of art, culture, and literature from the past…the long dead

civilizations of Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

They found something awe-worthy, in the remnants of the old. From the teachings

of several Greek and Roman scholars such as Aristotle and Cicero, came the philosophy

of Humanism. From the sculptures of Grecian gods and goddesses, came a desire to copy

the human form in the natural way. From their buildings, came a new understanding of

the importance of symmetry and style. From Grecian myths grew inspiration for fantasy-

like reaches of the imagination not limited to religious iconography. Roman stories

brought new heroes and villains to the fore, such as Alexander the Great and Julius

Caesar.

Grecian and Roman cultures were a treasure trove of new ideas, but nowhere were

they more visible than in the many objects of art which painters, sculptors, and architects

created during the Renaissance. For this reason, the paper only limits itself to the

concepts and ideas related to the areas of painting, sculpting, and architecture. Through

humanism, one will see the importance of Greek and Roman culture to the transformation

of human identity, and how the exploration and research through dusty old tracts of

ancient manuscripts have led humanity to realize the full maximum of possibilities

available to the entire race.

HUMANISM

Humanism was the impetus of the cultural revolution of the Renaissance. It strove

to resurrect and emulate the literature and art of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The

greatest characteristic of humanism was its strong belief in the idea of individualism and

the great potential of human beings. It’s content largely rejected Aristotelian views and

medieval scholasticism in favor of Roman authors such as Cicero, Livy, Virgil and

Quinitilian. It also drew much of its material from Greek writings, especially Plato. You

could say that…“antiquity provided the humanists not only with certain forms of thought,

literary expression and action, but with new norms for determining the suitability and

rightness of the content of thought, word, and deed. The humanists were concerned with

humaniora, or the human studies. The concept of the studia humanitatis, the liberal arts,

was taken over from Cicero, who believed that the poet or orator as best suited to

communicate humane learning. These liberal arts embraced grammar, rhetoric, poetry,

history, and moral philosophy” (Spitz, 1987)

Humanists went into a fervor of studying ancient languages. Initially, Latin of

ancient Rome was the main focus, however, after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in

1453, there was a revival of Greek culture and the language came to be studied

extensively. Petrarch and Boccaccio began what was to become a favorite sport, the

search for ancient manuscripts. They went to great lengths, visiting different libraries and

private collections, ransacking monasteries, discovering and preserving old manuscripts,

all for the sake of their aesthetic value as well as importance for literary and historical

documentation. By 1500, virtually all of the significant ancient Roman and Greek texts

that have been rediscovered were translated and printed.

Humanism invaded all aspects of Renaissance life, and was even intensified

further when there came about a strong focus on educational theory. Humanists believed

in a liberal arts educational program that included grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history,

politics and moral philosophy. Civic Humanism believed that education should prepare

leaders who would be active in civic affairs. This attention on education involving arts

and letters, only reinforces further more the importance of the individual and the potential

heights that man could reach through his effort and creativity.

ART AND ITS AUDIENCEHumanisms influence was represented when their came an increasing change in

the content of paintings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In the Renaissance,

there was a focus on the individual. Self-portraits came into being. Sculptures and

paintings were produced which showed the ordinary individual. Noblemen, Royalty, even

wealthy merchants and their families were depicted in these paintings. This is so

revolutionary because during the Middle Ages, paintings were done strictly for religious

purposes. By painting or sculpting an object or an entity, the artist signifies that such an

object or entity is deserving of being preserved for all eternity. During the Middle Ages,

preservation of religious people and symbols, was seen as worship for the greater glory of

God. With the coming of the Renaissance, religious content was replaced by the

individual because humanism taught that man is worthy of being respected and

remembered. Humanism induced individuals to have a high opinion of their selves, which

brought about a yearning on their part to leave some symbol of their lives for all eternity.

ART AND ITS CREATORS

Between the artists in the Renaissance and the artists during the Middle Ages, the

most significant difference was on how they were treated. Anonymity is the word one can

best use to describe the life of an artist during the Middle Ages. Painters, sculptors, and

architects were mere craftsmen. They were talented servants, but servants nonetheless,

seen as no different from farmers, carpenters, and other livelihoods having to deal with

the use of one’s hands. In direct contrast to this, people’s reaction to artists in the

Renaissance was entirely different. They were like rock stars. They weren’t mere

craftsmen anymore; they were geniuses, men of a class apart. They were respected

because their unique creativity to produce objects that no ordinary individual could

create. During the Renaissance, there snobbery still occurred when people of the noble

class met members of society who did labor in order to earn money. Artists, however,

were exempt from this snobbery because what they did wasn’t seen as labor, it was

something unique in which only they could do. Some even say that their talent was a gift

from God.

RENAISSANCE ART

In the early stages if Renaissance art artists studied the Greek and Roman

techniques of light color and space. Because there was virtually no ancient painting as yet

discovered during the Renaissance, the artists had to either emulate other classical

painters, or copied Greek and Roman statues by reconstructing classical paintings from

contemporary ancient descriptions, a complex discipline known as ekphrasis. The faces

of subjects expressed more unique individual characteristics, embodying the Renaissance

ideal of “individualism”. By contrast, medieval paintings tended to be lifeless and dull.

A new concept of art came to be known which was called Realism. Artists shifted

their focus from the painting of heavenly creatures to the painting of the human body. In

this endeavor they went beyond mere suggestions of the human form as was done by

medieval artists. Instead they studied the musculature of the body even going so far as to

buying cadavers to dissect them.

SCULPTURE

Donatello – Saint Mark (1411-1413)

St. Mark is a prime example of the realism to

which artists were going towards during the

Renaissance. Master sculptors during that era

focused much on the human form. It’s said that the

technique artists’ employed during that time was to

make a small clay figure of the body of their

sculpture and then cover it with clothing. This is

what makes the folds of cloth seem so fluid as if St.

Mark would leave that niche in the wall any second

now.

Like Masaccio who painted religious themes,

the sculptures of Donatello were also religious at

times, but as seen in St. Mark, they are given natural

expressions, where common people’s clothes and are

depicted to be carrying on with their ordinary day to day

duties or activities. This is also one of the first free-

standing statues created. It shows the Greek and Roman influence of proportion and

balance as the set of the shoulders and the position of the legs produces a statue which

can stand on its own.

David - Donatello

Still by Donatello, this shows the study on

musculature beneath the skin and dynamic

posing. Cosimo de' Medici owned this statue and

placed it in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici in

Florence, it is now in the Bargello.

Lorenzo Ghiberti - The story of Joseph,

Gates of Paradise, Baptistery, Florence.

Experimentation on perspective

among Renaissance artists produced

such works of art as this. Ghiberti used high relief and lateral lines to show a gradual

receding of space into the distance.

Michelangelo - Pieta

Michelangelo studied so much on the

workings within the body that he even

carved on the veins and tendons on his

sculptures.

PAINTING Bronzino – Portrait of a Young Man

This is an example of a Renaissance portrait.

Renaissance artists always went for the

elusive combination of beauty. Raphael once

said, in a letter he wrote to his friend,

Baldassare Castigilione, that in order to “paint

a beautiful woman, I would have to see

several beautiful women … but because there

are so few … I make use of a certain idea

which comes into my mind. Whether it carries

any excellence of art I do not know, but I

work hard to achieve it.’

Giogorne - Sleeping Venus (c.

1510) Gem ldegalerie Alte

Meister, Dresden

Giorgione was an

Italian painter of the High

Renaissance in Venice.

There are currently six

paintings attributed to him, and I have chosen this painting and the one below to show the

Renaissance artists propensity to mimic Grecian freedom in sculpting and painting nude

forms. In these paintings are shown further transition as they now show that not only is

the figure given attention, but the scene as well. The attention given to the background of

the painting Pastoral Concert is even more detailed compared to Sleeping Venus. Such

paintings as these were the progenitors of landscape paintings.

Giorgione - Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Concert). Louvre, Paris.

ARCHITECTURE

After the discovery of De architectura, the only surviving treatise by Vitruvius,

an ancient Roman architect, a new way of thinking about architectural techniques and

principles was embraced. The beauty of the buildings that were designed encouraged

churches, rulers, and other civic leaders to spend vast sums of money in constructing

edifices that are esteemed as monuments the world over. Influence was taken heavily

from the Greeks and Romans when it came to Renaissance architecture as architects

utilized the ancient forms of Greek columns, Roman aches, and domes. An example of

this is the Pantheon in Rome.

The watchwords were

simplicity, symmetry, and

balance, a far cry from the

highly-ornamented gothic

style of the middle ages with

their pointed arches.

Of the three

watchwords, the most

important architectural principle was symmetry. Renaissance architects sought to achieve

harmony in their works by integrating various parts of their structures while avoiding at

the same time, mixtures of designs that did not fit well together. So saying, architects

generally sought to find a harmonious merging of different styles like Doric, Corinthian,

Ionic, and Tuscan without losing the beauty of the symmetry the wanted to show.

Architects of this

period were very fond of

domes that could be seen

from every point of a

city when contructed.

Pilasters, or decorative

columns that adorned

walls without providing

any real support were

also a favorite of

Renaissance architects,

as were traditional

Roman columns that did support the building. The rounded arch that was used in ancient

Roman architecture was likewise incorporated into Renaissance design. St. Paul’s

Cathedral (as shown above) is a perfect example of the use of pilasters, Roman columns,

and a dome.

CONCLUSIONThe Renaissance, represented here in the paintings, sculptures, and architecture, is

an expression of human possibilities and human potential given form. Because of the

freedom of thought and imagination which became possible through the lessening of the

power and influence of the Church, and the rise of power and influence of the wealthy

merchant-class, art was not restricted only to certain areas. Art was given the full

opportunity to blossom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Weinstein, Donald. 1965. Renaissance and the Reformation: 1300 – 1600.

Canada: The MacMillan Company.

Spitz, Lewis W. 1987. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements: Volume I

The Renaissance. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Stokstad, Marilyn. 1995. Art History Volume One. New York: Harry N. Abrams,

Inc.

Burckhardt, Jacob. 1956. “The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy” Home

Course Appreciation. Classics Appreciation Society: Grolier Incorporated.