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Issues for Essays and Discussion for Chapter 13
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The Renaissance was a period during which some people began to think and act in different ways. Sometimes this is referred to as a "self-conscious awareness," a stress on "humanism," and a "secular spirit." What do these terms mean? Answer by making specific reference to developments in literature, political thought and art.
>The Renaissance, like any other period in history, had its own intellectual hallmarks, some of which were self-conscious awareness, humanism, and a secular spirit. Self-conscious awareness, also known as individualism, was a new attitude towards the world in which those with gifts did not hide them, but in many cases even flaunted them. Some traits of the individualist were thirst for fame, bold ambition, and a blazing desire for success. People began to write autobiographies to show the world the glory of their uniqueness, one example being Benvenuto Cellini’s Autobiography. Humanism, meaning "new learning", was an attempt to revive the antiquities, as well as a new approach to studying the Latin classics to learn about human nature, with emphasis on their accomplishments, interests, and qualities. Humanists would use this technique to selectively glean information from the classics, and then would reinterpret this from a Christian perspective, using the knowledge they gathered to try and reshape the ways others thought through essays like Pico della Mirandola’s On the Dignity of Man. Finally, the Renaissance brought on the development of a secular spirit, or secularism, a focus on the material world instead of the spirit world. Replacing the medieval idea that life was merely a stepping-stone to heaven, that this world was nothing but a painful passageway to God, was the way of thinking that this life, and its pleasures, should be enjoyed to its fullest. People began using their wealth to make living more comfortable, buying material goods, and in some cases, even sensual pleasures. Books like Lorenzo Valla’s On Pleasure were written that defended pleasure of the senses, and there were books such as The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio, that told stories of the world in a new light, a light of sensuality and ambition. All these attitudes showed a distancing from history, and an awakening of a new era in human development. Self-conscious awareness, humanism, and the secular spirit were three hallmarks of this development, a development that would continue to grow and change, leading up to the attitudes of the modern era.
Was there a "class" dimension to the Renaissance--in other words who benefited the most, the working people, the middle classes, the aristocracy? Was there a gender dimension to the Renaissance as well?
The class dimension of the Renaissance still has impact on the social classes of modern times. The aristocracy benefited most from the culture of the Renaissance. The wealthy merchants could enjoy "high culture", while the large working and middle classes had but "popular culture". Basically, education became the "great social divide" in the Renaissance.
The status of Renaissance women fared even worse than the status of medieval women. Although higher class women did enjoy better education, they were merely receiveing this education to decorate the court of the husband. During the Renaissance, Castiglione's influential work, The Coutier taught women to please the men, in contrast to the medieval standard of men being pleasing to women. Women were considered property although many worked agriculturally, and in urban areas. Besides a better education for the richer women, the Renaissance only hindered women's rights.