Examples Of Humanism In The Early Renaissance

In this paper I will be addressing the fundamental roles of human will and human reason, deemed by Petrarch, a Renaissance humanist. Francesco Petrarca, better known as Petrarch was a renowned but controversial philosopher and poet. Petrarch was a heavy influencer to the Medieval humanist movement and is considered to be one of the first contributors to the extensive trend. Renaissance humanism was a profound reaction to the flawed Medieval educational institution and impaired societal practices. During the Medieval period, both society and the educational system centralized around religion, however, Christianity was clouded and political at times, plagued with bits of corruption. Furthermore, the common

Humanism influenced people during the Renaissance in at least two ways such as Art, and Anatomy. In art, Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, and also created the paintings during the Renaissance along with Duccio Di Buoninsegna. Also, there are 3 ways that the art could be different; the time periods, the religion, and some can be paintings of wealthy merchants. In Anatomy, the drawings of the body seem realistic because, it includes muscle and tissue which is in our body. Also, Zodiac signs were believed to control the health and well being of the person.

The Renaissance was a time for human achievement, art, and literature. The effects of the Renaissance can still be seen today, and it changed man greatly forever, hence Renaissance meaning rebirth. Prior to the Renaissance, however, the Middle Ages occurred. The Middle Ages were a time of war and conquest after the fall of Rome, lasting from about 500 to 1300. Throughout Europe, a system referred to as Feudalism was in effect, and the Roman Catholic Church was the dominating power. Serfs worked for nobles on their land, and were said to be bound to the land. Feudalism was highly reliant on the social pyramid and the system of working for superiors, but this all eventually changed. The Renaissance was a time after the Middle Ages for man to

Humanism initiated in Italy as of renewed interests in classical culture. Early humanist searched for ancient Greek and Roman texts and coins. They strived to learn more about this era. The

During the 1300s, there were famine, war, and diseases. Although the famine, war and other diseases affected Europe greatly, black death had even more impact. The idea of humanism emerged because of Black Death. Humanism offered people to think outside the religious box. There were Christian Humanists like Pico della Mirandola, who believed not only in Christ’s ideas, but also people’s will and talent. On Mirandola’s “Oration on the Dignity of Man”, he stated that God gave humans the power to choose what we want to do. Philosophies like humanism, secularism, and individualism inspired

Religion was an extremely important aspect of the Renaissance. During that era, it was near enough impossible to find a text that was not heavily influenced by Christianity and what it represented for different types of people. Perhaps the most famous text that did this was The Divine Comedy, or more specifically, Inferno, written by Dante Aligheri. In this poem, Dante, as a fictionalised version of himself, reflects on morality, death and sin. He wrote the poem in his native tongue to make the poem more accessible to readers, so that they fully understood the message he was attempting to send. I thoroughly believe that in a culture so reliant on religion, sin and sinners are represented reasonably well due to the detailed accounts of various sinners in Hell. In my opinion however in modern times, this is not a brilliant representation of sin as Dante allows his feelings about personal experiences to cloud the judgement of fictional characters in the poem.

Erasmus, a Renaissance humanist, portrays folly as a character named so in The Praise of Folly to show his appreciation for the role foolishness plays in the human life. For all earthly existence, Erasmus’s Folly states that “you'll find nothing frolic or fortunate that it owes not to me [folly]” (The Praise of Folly, 14). Moreover, she states that “fools are so vastly pleasing to God; the reason being, I suggest, that just as great princes look suspiciously on men who are too clever, and hate them – as Julius Caesar suspected and hated Brutus and Cassius while he did not fear drunken Antony at all…they take delight in duller and simpler souls” (Folly, 115). Folly, indeed, plays a major role in determining the fate of Antony and Brutus after

Humanism, which stressed individual success or achievements, allowed women like Laura Cereta and Isabella d’Este to turn away from their required life of tending the household and really pursue jobs that at the time, only men could do. Following d’Este and Cereta, many women were influenced by humanist beliefs and began to pursue any job that men could do because one of the “slogans” for humanism at the time was “Man/Woman can do anything that is possible”. If not for humanism, women would not have pursued jobs that only men could do and would have kept doing their regular day job in tending the

Christian humanism involves “the belief that human freedom, individual conscience and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine”. It developed ideas, attitudes and programs swayed by humanism, but influenced by Christianity; it stressed the “greatness of the individual”. In Pico Della Mirandola’s work, the influence of this greatness shows the comparison of the characteristics of mankind to the rest of the world.

Dante Alighieri, who was born in 1265 CE and later died in 1321 CE, was a famous poet in Florence, Italy, most commonly known for his book, Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s Inferno was a product of Dante’s time period because in Florence during this time period, the idea of death and afterlife was very prominent in religion, and Dante’s text, The Inferno, focuses on the idea that the sins committed during one’s life determines the fate of one’s after-life. Because the idea that one’s sins determined their fate and life after death was such a common element in literature and art in Florence during this time period, many other pieces of work emphasized the same ideals, specifically one work in particular, The Scrovegni Chapel.

Before the Renaissance was the Medieval Age and the view on humanism was different back then. In Document 1 Pope Innocent III published a work in 1195 On the Misery of the Human

The start of the Renaissance was filled with horror and death, but by the end everyone started to believe in Humanism and in themselves.When Humanism started art, literature, astronomy, and anatomy started to evolve and become more and more true (ren. packet).Before the Renaissance started to evolve everyone thought that they were full of sin and that everyone should die (doc. B).Humanism influenced people during the Renaissance in at least two ways such as literature and astronomy.

Francesco’s works “had a very considerable impact on the visual arts in Italy” (Morris). Petrarch had gained a title for himself by publishing many famous poems, sonnets, stories, and more. “By this time Petrarch had attracted attention to himself as a first-class Latinist. But what distinguished him from his contemporaries was his attitude to the classics and his reasons for immersing himself in them” (Morris). Petrarch’s writing also shaped the italian language (Petrarch). Petrarch viewed fame as the ultimate aspiration of life was to become as famous as possible. Fame, to Petrarch, was viewed as the highest honor. We can see this idea displayed in his poetry, when he writes “Those who attended her (fame) bore on their brows the signs of worthiness (Petrarch).” This quote makes Petrarch a phenomenal advocate for humanism, as humanism is defined by the love of fame and the wellbeing of humans. Petrarch is the father of humanism because he had an authoritative stance in his

The renaissance was a time of many different improvements and changes to the era previous to it, the medieval ages, the renaissance re-introduced many different Roman and Greek traditional aspects, so much so that renaissance literally translates into “rebirth” in French. Other changes include social such as the rise of humanism and humanist beliefs, secularism, individualism, big changes in mathematical studies, sciences and all types of learning in general, the printing press invention, as well as religious changes, and the arts were also affected and changed with techniques such as chiaro-scuro, perspective, sfumato, and further more to be explained. The renaissance started in the end of the 14th century and ended in the 17th century.

As Christianity came into play, literature, music, and art all changed. The “journey of the hero” was changed. The character that would have been known as the warrior in earlier times was now known as a lover. Instead of the hero being public, he was now a private person. In the texts, private events were the main part of the stories rather than huge historical events. The poetry was more lyrical in ways that it expressed emotions that were not expressed from earlier works. The new works were also more written in first person, rather than third person as in earlier ones. Finally, instead of the literature being a story of history, it became more of an autobiography of the author. The works such as “La Vita Nuova” was an autobiography of Dante.