RENEISSANCE 3

Rome was a special case because of the Church and as home of papacy. Interesting is fact that, that at some point there were three Pops who wanted to rule The Church. Pope Gregory XII, Pope Beneduct XIII and John XXIII; finally in 1417 three Popes had been deposed and some reformation of the Church happened. Just from the 1417 to 1534 there were 14 popes who rule Rome and sit at the throne in Vatican .The massive amount of money was send to the Pope from all churches around the Europe so their renaissance was unique. Every Pope has different politics and opinions, some of them were very corrupted, some had many achievements. Pope Pius II was greatly admired as poet and his “ The Tale of two lovers “ continues to be read to this day, Alexander condemn slavery, Pope Julius persuade Michelangelo to paint Sistine Chapel build by Pope Sixtus IV, he also employed Rafael to decorate the Vatican palace, and because of him The school of Athens was painted; some as Innocent VII are not remembered positively as his hunt for witches and his crusades. In Rome in time of renaissance there were countless number of artists and architects who served the papal court. As mentioned above master Raphael, Michelangelo and, Domenico Fontana and his marvelous well balanced Chaptel of The Manger and Palazzo Montalto, and of course Bramante with his most harmonious building The Tempieto and the greatest building of all- St Peter’s Basilica. When Julius II was selected Pope in 1503, he launched ambitious project to replace the old ruin of St Peter with new structure and to help finance this massive undertaking he began offering papal indulgences- documents witch promised forgiveness of sins as reward to generous donors. He appointed Donato Bramante as project chief and architect. Bramante greatest admire of ancient Rome style designed church as monumental square with interior shaped as Greek cross. The structure had to be covered by gigantic dome. Julius II and Bramante die in 1514 and project was passed to Pope LeoX who offered to his friend and protégé Rafael. Over the next 32 years a succession of popes and their protégés collaborated on the project. Rafael had added a nave to the central plan and change the design of basilica to rectangular Latin cross. He dies in 1520 before executed his plan and supervision over project took Antonio da Sangallo. Little work had been done on the actual building since the death of Bramante, however after death of Sangallo project was accepted by 71 years old Michelangelo.” It was not of my willing that I build St peter’s” he wrote later “but for glory of God, in honor of Saint Peter and for salvation of my soul” He was tired after painting The Vatican’s Sistine chapel, but he accepted the job any way. Michelangelo returns to original plan of Bramante, ad two large chapels and the drum of the dome. Building resumed, and for 17 years under Michelangelo took beautiful shape. In 1564 he passed away but because he obtained written assurance from Pope Paul III that his design would prevail after his dead, the building grow as his wish. His successors G. Porta and D.Fontana finished plan of Michelangelo with very little changes. Later in history Pope V and Carlo Moderna ad, emphasize and destroy some of the design and even later with Bernini more changes happened. In 1626 basilica with the biggest interior in the world finally was finished and even today is described as the greatest of all churches of Christendom and one of the holiest Catholic site. The Popes commissioned many, many project for churches and many, many decorations. We can’t forget about some of the extraordinary sculpture what was created and specially the one what was created for tombs. Renaissance tombs can be found in Basilicas and cathedrals throughout Europe. The most famous was Michelangelo’s designed for pope Julius II. Some believe that the inspiration of Michelangelo grand free -standing tomb with many statues and ornaments, inspirited Julius II to tear down the old St.Peter Basilica so the new, larger be build to house his monument. Michelangelo funerary work can also be seen in a number of beautifully designed tombs in the Medici chapel and for the duke of Urbino in Florence. In the beginning and mid-sixteenth century there were some political turmoil in Rome and Florence. The Protestant Reformation disturbed prosperity and progress and after the plug in 1522-24 devastates Rome population. Many artist left Rome and cultural center of the Renaissance shifted to Venice. In Florence, as mention the main source of income was coming from banking and manufacturing businesses, in Venice from trading. Venice trade roads went to all direction: trough Greek Island to Egypt, to Constantinople and Black sea and even to India. They brought timber, grain and salt, fruits spices, silk, cotton and jewels and stored in the warehouses before export them farther to the rest of Europe. Trade made the Venetians rich and gave them employment but most of the money went to the private wealth and that individual fortunes financed educational and artistic activities. By the fourteenth century Venice was one of the largest cities in Europe around 120000people live there. Renaissance Venice was a republic; it had no king but was ruled by most eminent families. About 150 families control the city politically and dominated socially. As Aristotle said that there are three possible forms of government –monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, Venetian believed that their constitution combined the best of each in a Doge, Senate and Great Council. Other Italian states admired the stability, peace and justice of the city. Venice was widely regarded as having the best constitution in the world but the “myth of Venice “ according to scholars was not real. There was a corruption and votes were bought and sold, and the power was in minority of rich, however the fact is, that it is true that the Venetian came closer to realizing the good virtues that any other Italian states. Though humanism was slow to take off in Venice, but by the second half of the fifteen century flourish enormously when the printing was introduce there in 1469.Machine what was invented in Germany by J Gutenberg was starting point for big industry. In 1488 Aldo Manuzio, an accomplish humanist scholar set up printing press and turn out numerous fine edition of classical text as well as Italian work. He prints not in Venetian but in Florentine dialect. One of the many innovations of Manuzio was an italic type witch take less space on paper than the usual characters; we still used this type today. He also make books eight times smaller that the ancient, and as a result his books and other humanistic texts with symbol of anchor with dolphin on front page, were circulating around the Europe. Scientific studies also were highly developed in Venice. The University of Padua along with literally curriculum had an excellent reputation for science. Astronomical studies and engineering with emphasis on shipbuilding were of high importance. Galileo Galilei while was employ by the Venetian government, conducted his research at Padua University. It was there that he designed his telescope and military compass. Venice had the economy to support art and art flourish. Some famous names are Giorgione and his best-known work “the tempest”and “sleeping venus” , his young assistant Titan and his “Venus of Urbino” , Tintoretto “The last supper “,Bronzino who did endless portrait of Medici family, and known, as the best and who revolutionized Venetian painting Giovanni Bellini. Vivarini family was also famous for creating many fine painters: Bartolomeo, Antonio, Alvise. Alvise Vivarini was a painter who has learned oil painting from Antonello da Massina. His “Augustine and other saints” in basilica San Zanipolo is a first oil painting done in Venice. Very active and famous in Venice was an architect Andrea Palladio. His buildings are located in Republic of Venice but his name was known everywhere because of his “The four book of architecture’. As many masters at the time he was inspired by classical architecture and work of Vitruvius; later in life he develop his own style known today as Palladian style. He designed many palaces and churches but he is best known for his Palladian villas in Vicenza. His most famous design is the Villa Rotunda. Truough humanism was slow to teke off iin Venice The Italian renaissance is complex moment in the history and in single essay cannot cover many details. The artists, thinkers and others reject values and convention of Gothic and Byzantine form and believed at the time, that they participating in rebirth of ideas of the classical Greek and Roman; they did not copy them but based of their work they create modern, highly creative art which at the end surpass the antiquity. Searching in the past gave them enormous knowledge served as starting point for deep historical vision of knowledge that moved beyond the traditional learning and were inspiration to create, discover, grow but also to impress others. Stimulus was knowledge and that knowledge was spread widely to all around Europe. because of discovery of printing Buildings and art were characterized by symmetry, harmony, proportion, adoption of classical form and mathematical approach to design and often were large in size in order to impress.