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The Renaissance, begun in 150 in Florence, Italy, brought on a rebirth and rediscovery of classical culture. In breaking away from the Middle Ages, people brought new attitudes of optimism, confidence, and creativity. They admired and encouraged art, literature, and scholarship. Their surroundings were constant reminders of ancient Rome, certainly helping to boost the interest in classical culture. Medieval society, profoundly consisting of suffering and death, showed its miserable condition through artwork and writings. In the Middle Ages as well, people tried to clarify Church teachings and encourage preparation for an afterlife. So whereas the people of the Middle Ages focussed on surviving, the people of the Renaissance, following classical Greece and Rome, believed in living life as fully as possible. The Renaissance brought on an entirely new view of life. People now had much more secular values and were more accepting of individualism. This Renaissance spirit brought on an ideal of a well-rounded person. This person excelled in many fields and was praised as a universal man. Moreover, the title given was Renaissance man. The ideal Renaissance man and woman were similar in that they were both expected to be charming, educated, artistic, and athletic, even though women were expected to make use of their talents at home.
In Baldassare Castigliones The Courtier, Castiglione illustrated the characteristics of the ideal gentleman. The Courtier was described in a gentle fashion. Castiglione possessed most of the qualities he praised piety, loyalty, courage, an easy learning, and wit. A friend wrote to him I do not wonder that you were able to depict the perfect courtier for you had only to hold a mirror before you and set down what you saw there (Thompson 75). For Castiglione, the courtier was the cream of civilized society. In his book, he explains that the courtier must be able to acquit himself in all manly exercises, however equally familiar with literature. He should speak several languages, play musical instruments, and possess elegant writing skill. (Yo Mr. Longo! How ya likin my paper so far? Pretty good for a procrastinator). Above all, he was to be a man of his word, loyal to his prince, generous to his servants. In modern language, Castigliones courtier would be described as a well-educated, decent man, with a strong code of personal morals, but tolerance of the weaknesses of others (Thompson 77).
The Renaissance man had to be one of charming character. Young, witty, and valuing self control, he was a real gentleman. In love, he was to be discreet and honorable; in war, courageous but magnanimous (Thompson 77). Effective public speaking, polished manners, and elegant writing style were skills valuable to political leaders. A true Renaissance man believed in having secular values and maintained that Renaissance spirit. He was also a humanist and only mildly religious.
This well-educated man believed in education through the study of the humanities. (Mr. Longo, you remind me of the Renaissance man. Indeed you are well educated, and you having such a charming personality). Less concerned with science, he focussed on humankind and culture. Petrach is said to be the first humanist. He used the seven humanities least-regarded in the medieval university and placed them first. Leonardo Bruni, an outstanding scholar, insisted that it was Petrach who opened the way for us to show how to acquire learning (Johnson 4). The word umanista came into use, and its subjects were listed as five grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosphy, and history. Music and mathematics were sometimes studies as well. People learned the Latin and Greek language. Enthusiasm for ancient Greece and Rome spread and many people imitated the customs and lifestyle of the classical civilizations.
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The universal man required artistic creativity. Not only was he interested in oil painting, sculpture, and portraits, but he was also very involved with music. He played instruments such as the lute, viol, cello, recorder and drums. Although it was an age primarily of secular and domestic music, it was also an age in which some of our great Church music was composed (Halliday 1). There were also great operas, quartets, and choruses, and many people enjoyed song and dance. Literature and poetry evolved with graceful and delicate lyrics. The theatre was also amazing; this period was one of the most memorable in the history of English drama. Many new tragedies, comedies, and romances were brought to the stage for those who enjoyed dramatic arts. There were plenty of people who admired architecture and gardens as well.
No Renaissance man was complete without athletic ability. With all of the other qualities said to make up the ideal man, there was very little emphasis put on athletics. However, humanists did add physical games and exercises to the seven liberal arts. Men evolved their military skills. They had to become skilled riders and swordsmen. The courtier was involved in all manly exercises. He did much running and practiced their wrestling.
Patrons of the arts and very powerful, the Medici family ruled in Florence and became active in politics. Lorenzo de Medici was the most famous member of the family. In expanding the university in Florence, he gave young people an opportunity to study classical literature. Lorenzo hired many different types of artists to create works for his palace. He became known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. (Its Mr. Longo the Magnificent if you ask me). A scholar, skilled architect, talented poet, financier, statesman, economist, and strategist, Lorenzo de Medici was definitely a universal man.
Another universal man was Niccolo Machiavelli. A diplomat in Florence, he wrote The Prince, a political guidebook on how a ruler can gain power. According to his book, morality is irrelevant. He tells that a ruler should do whatever necessary to gain power, even if he has to lie, kill, or break treaties. (Ah! Its after 400am, I am so tired. This cant be good for my health). He also claims that people are selfish, fickle, and corrupt. Machiavellis Prince was a cold exercise in logic; Castigliones Courtier was a warm, living portrait of the ideal man (Thompson 75). Machiavelli may have been a cynical political thinker, however he was also a diplomat, patriot, poet, and historian.
Leonardo da Vinci was a remarkable artist with true genius. He was rather unusual, however gifted with intellectual and technical skills. His restless mind had a thirst for knowledge. He believed painting was a science because it is based on mathematical perspective and on the study of nature. Da Vinci left over 5,000 pages of notes and drawings in his notebooks filled with his brilliance (Leonardo da Vinci). This incredible man spent his days painting, engineering, designing, sculpting, inventing, writing, sketching, building, dissecting, and contemplating. No other artist of the Renaissance made such close and detailed observations of nature, including anatomy, as did Leonardo (Thompson 16). Leonardo da Vinci was a true Renaissance man.
Upper-class women, like men were charming and well educated. They were far better educated than the women of the Middle Ages. It was a characteristic of humanism to pay almost as much attention to the education of ladies as of gentlemen (Johnson 41). Young ladies studied poetry, languages, and music. Unlike men, women were not to seek fame. They inspired art, however, never created it. Women were expected to make use of their talents at home. They often entertained their husbands.
Castiglione describes in The Courtier specifically the qualities of courtly ladies. Women were to be occasions of beauty and delight. No court however great, can have adornment or splendor or gaiety in it without ladies; in the same way, no courtier can be graceful or pleasing or brave, or do any gallant deed of chivalry, unless he is moved by the society and by the love and charm of ladies (Thompson 85). Similar to the gentleman, the courtly lady should be well born, naturally graceful, well mannered, clever, prudent, and capable. There are also virtues which are distinctively hers. If married, she should be a good manager of her husbands property, house, and children, and possess qualities that are requisite in a good mother. Beauty is a necessity, for truly that woman lacks much who lacks beauty (Thompson 86). Above all, a Renaissance woman must be charming and a stranger to boorishness. Her kind manner is agreeable, witty, and discreet. In her ways, manners, words, gestures, and bearing, a woman ought to be very unlike a man; for just as he must should a certain sturdy manliness, so it is seemly for a woman to have a soft and delicate tenderness, with an air of womanly sweetness in her movement….which shall always make her appear the woman without any resemblance to a man (Thompson 86).
Isabella dEste was one of the admired women during the Renaissance. She was the daughter of the rulers of Ferrara and sister of Beatrice, her rival in fame. DEste mastered Greek and Latin, the signs of serious scholarship. She was also skilled at lute playing, dance, and witty conversation. Married to the ruler of Mantua, she exercised much political power. She studied maps and astrology, and designed the allegorical schemes. DEste brought many Renaissance artists to court and acquired a famous art collection. (Almost done, almost done, just a little bit more).
Renaissance is the French word meaning rebirth. And for its time in history, this meant a flowering of art, scholarship and literature. It only makes sense that the ideal Renaissance man would symbolize the era in which he lives. In other words, the characteristics of a Renaissance man in a nut shell. The same holds true for any other era as well. It is because the Renaissance period was so focussed on celebrating the classical civilizations and living a beautiful, up lifting life that the Renaissance man tends to receive more publicity than men of other eras. People are, today even, fascinated by those well-rounded people who lived during the Renaissance. To have such skill in the many different fields-education, charmed personality, music, art, poetry, and athletics-is truly phenomenal. The people of the Renaissance who played the part of the universal man or woman deserve much respect and admiration. (Phew!)
Works Cited
Chamberlin, E. R. Everyday Life in Renaissance Times. Portman Square B. T. Batsford Ltd, 167.
Halliday, F. E. An Illustrated Cultural History of England. New York The Viking Press, Inc., 167 11-1.
Introduction to the Sixteenth Century. The Renaissance
Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance, A Short History. New York Random House, Inc., 000.
Leonardo da Vinci. Renaissance Art 7 January 00 http//intranet.gouldacademy. org/ Teachers/manningr/Renwebpage.htm
Rabb, Theodore K. Renaissance Lives, Portraits of an Age. New York Pantheon Books, 1 1-18.
Renaissance 8 January 00 http//www.loyno.edu/~seduffy/renaissance.html.
Rowse, A. L. The Elizabethan Renaissance. Chicago Charles Scribners Sons, 171.
Thompson, Stephen P. The Renaissance. San Diego Greenhaven Press, Inc., 000.
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