Man: the measure of all things (Script)
European thought gained a new impetus from the rediscovery of its classical past.
Began in Florence; later also in courts like that of Urbino (from where Raphael is from), Mantua
Where did it come from this light, economical style, which is unlike anything before or since? I think that it really was the invention of an individual - of Brunellesco.
But of course, an architectural style can't take root unless it satisfies some need of the time.
And Brunellesco's style satisfied the need of the clear-headed, bright-minded men who appeared on the Florentine scene at the moment when the discipline of trade and banking, in its most austere form, was beginning to be relaxed, and life - the full use of the human faculties - became more important than making money
As Walter Pater said of Michelangelo, "Out of the strong, came forth sweetness."
Humanists – They valued reason, clarity, harmonic proportions, and believed in the individual. Humans.
Man can do all things if he will ~ Leon Battista Alberti
Jan van Eyck and others painted faces with the imperfections and details that characterized individuals, rather than the idealized stereotypes that just represented status that was common in previous depictions. These were also a sign of the confidence of these Florentine men, that was necessary to bring forth this new wave of civilization.
Brunellesco's cloister [of Urbino's palace] but calm and timeless.
And the rooms are light and airy.
And so perfectly-proportioned that it exhilarates one to walk through them.
And so, Raphael, one of the civilising forces of the Western imagination, found his earliest impressions of harmony and proportion and good manners in the court of Urbino.
Good manners.
That was another product of Urbino.
In common with other Italian courts Ferrara and Mantua young men went there to finish their education.
Gentlemen (Courtier), an evolved version of Chilvary
Just as Botticelli's Spring unites the tapestry world of the Middle Ages with pagan mythology, so Castiglione's Courtier unites the medieval concept of chivalry with the ideal love of Plato.
One of the weaknesses was the fact that the renaissance was a thing of the few. The countryside people had a Civilization too (compare the order of the ploughed agriculture fields vs the swamps and forests that must have been there before), but:
The truth is, I suppose, that the civilisation of the early Renaissance was not broadly enough based.
The few had gone too far away from the many, not only in knowledge and intelligence - this they always do - but in basic assumptions.
When the first two generations of humanists were dead their movement had no real weight behind it.
And there was a reaction away from this human scale of values.
Fortunately, they left in sculpture, painting and architecture their message to every generation that values reason, clarity and harmonious proportion, and believes in the individual.
For the renaissance painter nature is idealized. Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, the idealized myth of Arcadia. Eyck's Adoration Of The Lamb
European Renaissance music compilation mix (XV-XVI th century)
A character in one of Alberti's dialogues says, "A man cannot set his hand to more liberal work than making money, for what we sell is our labour - the goods are merely transferred.
" Yes, that was really written in 1434, not in 1850.
Sandro Botticelli