While we think of the Renaissance as an artistic period it has it's origins in the monasteries and academies. Individuals within these institutions became interested in classical texts and throughout the plague and resulting chaos had grown frustrated with studies that emphasized the individual's inherent sinfulness and undeserving nature. Humanism is not the rejection of the spiritual or religious but rather a renewed focus on the inherent dignity of the individual and one's ability to improve oneself and society.

During the Renaissance the country that we know as Italy today did not exist under a centralized government and bureaucracy. Instead, the peninsula was made up of independent city-states with some functioning as republics, some as oligarchies, and others as essentially dictatorships. Many of these states were made wealthy by trade coming from the Silk Road across the Mediterranean or by money flowing into the Catholic Church from all over the Roman Empire which stretched into Continental Europe. This concentration of wealth created one of the most important drivers of the Renaissance, the patron. These were individuals or institutions who, wishing to display their power and wealth commissioned academies in their name or great works of art. One important transition during this period was the growth of a new merchant and banking class with families like the Medici who were not noble of birth but were nonetheless able to amass an incredible fortune and control Florence and seat many of their family members as Popes and even as Regent Queens of France. Two important transitions in Italian society are happening during the Renaissance: (1) the ease with which culture could embrace both the secular and the religious and (2) the increased upward social mobility in what was previously a strict hierarchical society.

Renaissance means rebirth. And as the following slides and documents demonstrate, this was a rebirth of classical Greek and Latin studies, philosophy, art and architecture. It was a move away from the utilitarian nature of medieval modes of thought and schooling and an embrace of individualism and expression of beauty.

See Renaissance document set

See Renaissance document set

The Renaissance was not anti-religious. In fact the Catholic Church and even the papacy itself was often the largest patron of humanist scholars and Renaissance artists. Secularism in this context created a more modern approach to religious matters. It sought to synthesize or synchronize Christian values and societal practices and structures. So we see a renewed focus on the values of citizenship and good governance and a focus on the human's unique ability in God's creation to improve oneself.

The Money Changer and His Wife by Marinus van Reymerswaele illustrates some important values of the Renaissance. Even though it comes from the Netherlands and Northern Renaissance it illustrates the growing wealth and influence of the middle class as well as the tendency, within the middle class, for gender roles to be somewhat more equal. This new merchant and banking class in Italy was called the popolo grosso, or the fat people. This was a metaphor for more resources but many times one could assume wealth and being overweight were correlated. This new class enabled the Renaissance because with it came leisure and money to spend during that leisure time