How Did the Growth of a Wealthy Merchant Class Affect the Development of Art in Northern Europe

Italian Trade Cities

Italian city-states trading during the tardily Middle Ages set up the stage for the Renaissance by moving resources, civilization, and noesis from the Eastward.

Learning Objectives

Show how Northern Italian republic and the wealthy city-states within it became such huge European powers

Fundamental Takeaways

Key Points

• While Northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of evolution, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper. In particular, Florence became ane of the wealthiest cities in Northern Italy.
• Florence became the center of this financial industry, and the golden florin became the main currency of international trade.
• Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks, were imported to Italy and then resold throughout Europe.
• The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and across were also major conduits of civilisation and cognition.

Key Terms

• Vitruvius: A Roman author, architect, and civil engineer (built-in c. 80–70 BC, died later on c. 15 BCE), mayhap all-time known for his multi-volume work entitled De Architectura.
• Hanseatic League: A commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market place towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe.
• Tacitus: A senator and a historian of the Roman Empire (c. 56–after 117 CE).
• Levant: The countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean Body of water.
• metropolis-state: A political phenomenon of small-scale independent states more often than not in the cardinal and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries.

Prosperous City-States

During the late Middle Ages, Northern and Central Italy became far more than prosperous than the s of Italy, with the city-states, such every bit Venice and Genoa, among the wealthiest in Europe. The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, and the Fourth Crusade had washed much to destroy the Byzantine Roman Empire as a commercial rival to the Venetians and Genoese.

The chief merchandise routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury appurtenances bought in the Levant, such equally spices, dyes, and silks, were imported to Italian republic and and then resold throughout Europe. Moreover, the inland metropolis-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po valley.

From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, state and river trade routes brought appurtenances such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining and agriculture.

Thus, while Northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper. In particular, Florence became 1 of the wealthiest cities in Northern Italian republic, due mainly to its woolen textile production, adult nether the supervision of its dominant trade guild, the Arte della Lana. Wool was imported from Northern Europe (and in the 16th century from Spain), and together with dyes from the east was used to brand loftier quality textiles.

Revitalizing Trade Routes

In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced potent economic growth. The trade routes of the Italian states linked with those of established Mediterranean ports, and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and northern regions of Europe, to create a network economic system in Europe for the beginning time since the quaternary century. The city-states of Italy expanded greatly during this period, and grew in power to go de facto fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire; apart from the Kingdom of Naples, outside powers kept their armies out of Italy. During this menstruum, the modern commercial infrastructure developed, with double-entry bookkeeping, articulation stock companies, an international banking system, a systematized foreign exchange market, insurance, and government debt. Florence became the eye of this financial manufacture, and the gold florin became the main currency of international trade.

While Roman urban republican sensibilities persisted, there were many movements and changes afoot. Italy showtime felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Typically there was:

• A rise in population―the population doubled in this period (the demographic explosion)
• An emergence of huge cities (Venice, Florence, and Milan had over 100,000 inhabitants by the 13th century, and many others, such as Genoa, Bologna, and Verona, had over 50,000)
• Rebuilding of the great cathedrals
• Substantial migration from country to city (in Italia the charge per unit of urbanization reached xx%, making it the most urbanized society in the globe at that time)
• An agrarian revolution
• Development of commerce

The pass up of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury appurtenances led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods.

Palazzo della Signoria eastward Uffizzi, Florence: Florence was 1 of the most important city-states in Italia.

The Transfer of Culture and Noesis

The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and across were likewise major conduits of culture and knowledge. The recovery of lost Greek texts, which had been preserved by Arab scholars, post-obit the Crusader conquest of the Byzantine heartlands revitalized medieval philosophy in the Renaissance of the 12th century. Additionally, Byzantine scholars migrated to Italy during and following the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantines between the 12th and 15th centuries, and were important in sparking the new linguistic studies of the Renaissance, in newly created academies in Florence and Venice. Humanist scholars searched monastic libraries for ancient manuscripts and recovered Tacitus and other Latin authors. The rediscovery of Vitruvius meant that the architectural principles of Artifact could exist observed once more, and Renaissance artists were encouraged, in the atmosphere of humanist optimism, to excel the achievements of the Ancients, like Apelles, of whom they read.

Venice and the Ottoman Empire: Crash Form Earth History #19: John Green discusses the strange and mutually beneficial human relationship betwixt a democracy, the city-land of Venice, and an Empire, the Ottomans—and how studying history tin can assist you to be a improve fellow and/or girlfriend. Together, the Ottoman Empire and Venice grew wealthy past facilitating merchandise: The Venetians had ships and nautical expertise; the Ottomans had access to many of the about valuable appurtenances in the globe, especially pepper and grain. Working together across cultural and religious divides, they both become very rich, and the Ottomans became one of the near powerful political entities in the earth.

Italian Politics

Italian politics during the time of the Renaissance was dominated past the rising merchant class, specially one family, the House of Medici, whose power in Florence was virtually absolute.

Learning Objectives

Describe the intricacies of Italian politics during this fourth dimension

Primal Takeaways

Fundamental Points

• Northern and Key Italy became prosperous in the tardily Middle Ages through the growth of international trade and the ascent of the merchant class, who eventually gained well-nigh complete control of the governments of the Italian city-states.
• A pop caption for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis that the primary impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running serial of wars between Florence and Milan, whereby the leading figures of Florence rallied the people by presenting the state of war every bit one between the free republic and a despotic monarchy.
• The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty, and after regal house in Florence who were the major sponsors of art and architecture in the early and High Renaissance.

Cardinal Terms

• House of Medici: An Italian banking family unit, political dynasty, and later royal business firm in the Republic of Florence during the start half of the 15th century that had a major touch on on the ascension of the Italian Renaissance.
• Hundred Years' War: A series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of the Kingdom of France.

Italy in the Belatedly Middle Ages

Past the Late Middle Ages (circa 1300 onward), Latium, the old heartland of the Roman Empire, and southern Italia were generally poorer than the north. Rome was a city of ancient ruins, and the Papal States were loosely administered and vulnerable to external interference such as that of France, and later Spain. The papacy was affronted when the Avignon Papacy was created in southern France as a consequence of pressure from Male monarch Philip the Fair of France. In the south, Sicily had for some time been under foreign domination, by the Arabs and then the Normans. Sicily had prospered for 150 years during the Emirate of Sicily, and afterward for ii centuries during the Norman Kingdom and the Hohenstaufen Kingdom, simply had declined by the belatedly Middle Ages.

The Rise of the Merchant Class

In contrast, Northern and Central Italy had become far more prosperous, and information technology has been calculated that the region was amidst the richest in Europe. The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through fiscal skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Heart Ages. A feature of the High Eye Ages in Northern Italia was the rise of the urban communes, which had cleaved from the control of bishops and local counts. In much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the high medieval coin economy, whose inflationary ascension left land-holding aristocrats impoverished. The increment in trade during the early Renaissance enhanced these characteristics.

This change also gave the merchants near complete control of the governments of the Italian city-states, over again enhancing merchandise. Ane of the well-nigh of import effects of this political control was security. Those that grew extremely wealthy in a feudal state ran constant risk of running afoul of the monarchy and having their lands confiscated, as famously occurred to Jacques Coeur in France. The northern states also kept many medieval laws that severely hampered commerce, such as those against usury and prohibitions on trading with not-Christians. In the metropolis-states of Italian republic, these laws were repealed or rewritten.

The 14th century saw a series of catastrophes that acquired the European economy to become into recession, including the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, and numerous famines. It was during this period of instability that the Renaissance authors such as Dante and Petrarch lived, and the first stirrings of Renaissance art were to be seen, notably in the realism of Giotto. Paradoxically, some of these disasters would assist plant the Renaissance. The Black Death wiped out a tertiary of Europe's population. The resulting labor shortage increased wages, and the reduced population was therefore much wealthier and ameliorate fed, and, significantly, had more surplus coin to spend on luxury goods. Equally incidences of the plague began to decline in the early 15th century, Europe'southward devastated population one time once again began to grow. The new demand for products and services also helped create a growing class of bankers, merchants, and skilled artisans.

Warring Italians

Northern Italian republic and upper Primal Italy were divided into a number of warring city-states, the well-nigh powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua, Verona, and Venice. Loftier medieval Northern Italian republic was further divided by the long-running battle for supremacy between the forces of the papacy and of the Holy Roman Empire; each city aligned itself with one faction or the other, yet was divided internally between the two warring parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines. Warfare between the states was mutual, but invasion from outside Italy was confined to intermittent sorties of Holy Roman emperors. Renaissance politics developed from this background. Since the 13th century, as armies became primarily composed of mercenaries, prosperous city-states could field considerable forces, despite their low populations. In the course of the 15th century, the nigh powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbors. Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona, and the Duchy of Milan annexed a number of nearby areas, including Pavia and Parma.

A popular caption for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis, first advanced past historian Hans Baron, that the primary impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running series of wars between Florence and Milan. By the late 14th century, Milan had become a centralized monarchy nether the control of the Visconti family. Giangaleazzo Visconti, who ruled the urban center from 1378 to 1402, was renowned both for his cruelty and for his abilities, and set about building an empire in Northern Italian republic. He launched a long series of wars, with Milan steadily acquisition neighboring states and defeating the various coalitions led by Florence that sought in vain to halt the advance. This culminated in the 1402 siege of Florence, when it looked as though the city was doomed to fall, before Giangaleazzo suddenly died and his empire collapsed.

Baron's thesis suggests that during these long wars, the leading figures of Florence rallied the people past presenting the war as one between the gratis republic and a despotic monarchy, betwixt the ideals of the Greek and Roman Republics and those of the Roman Empire and medieval kingdoms. For Baron, the nigh of import figure in crafting this ideology was Leonardo Bruni. This time of crunch in Florence was the menstruum when the well-nigh influential figures of the early on Renaissance were coming of historic period, such as Ghiberti, Donatello, Masolino, and Brunelleschi. Inculcated with this republican ideology, they later went on to advocate republican ideas that were to have an enormous touch on on the Renaissance.

The Medici Family

The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty, and later royal firm that get-go began to gather prominence nether Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the offset half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Depository financial institution. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, which helped the Medici gain political power in Florence—though officially they remained citizens rather than monarchs. The biggest accomplishments of the Medici were in the sponsorship of art and architecture, mainly early on and Loftier Renaissance fine art and architecture. The Medici were responsible for the majority of Florentine art during their reign.

Their wealth and influence initially derived from the cloth trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Similar other signore families, they dominated their city's government, they were able to bring Florence under their family's power, and they created an surroundings where art and Humanism could flourish. They, along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance. The Medici family was connected to most other aristocracy families of the time through marriages of convenience, partnerships, or employment, and then the family had a central position in the social network. Several families had systematic admission to the residual of the elite families only through the Medici, perhaps similar to banking relationships.

The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe. At that place are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy and Europe. A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the full general ledger system through the evolution of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family unit were among the earliest businesses to apply the organization.

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was the get-go of the Medici political dynasty, and had tremendous political ability in Florence. Despite his influence, his ability was not absolute; Florence's legislative councils at times resisted his proposals, something that would not have been tolerated by the Visconti of Milan, for instance. Throughout his life he was always primus inter pares, or kickoff among equals. His power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control votes. As Florence was proud of its "commonwealth," Medici pretended to accept little political ambition, and did not often concord public office. Aeneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena and after Pope Pius II, said of him, "Political questions are settled in [Cosimo'due south] house. The human he chooses holds function… He it is who decides peace and war… He is king in all just name."

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici: Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici, the constitute of the House of Medici, by Jacopo Pontormo; the laurel branch (il Broncone) was a symbol used too past his heirs.

The Church building During the Italian Renaissance

The new Humanist ideals of the Renaissance, although more secular in many aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, and the church patronized many works of Renaissance art.

Learning Objectives

Analyze the church's function in Italy at the time of the Renaissance

Cardinal Takeaways

Fundamental Points

• The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil, peculiarly surrounding the papacy, which culminated in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to exist the truthful pope.
• The new engagement with Greek Christian works during the Renaissance, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New Testament promoted by Humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, helped pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.
• In improver to being the head of the church, the pope became one of Italian republic's about of import secular rulers, and pontiffs such as Julius II often waged campaigns to protect and expand their temporal domains.
• The Counter-Reformation was a period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Central Terms

• neo-Platonism: A tradition of philosophy that arose in the third century CE, based on the philosophy of Plato, which involved describing the derivation of the whole of reality from a unmarried principle, "the 1." Plotinus is traditionally identified as the founder of this school.
• Western Schism: A carve up within the Roman Cosmic Church building that lasted from 1378 to 1417, when three men simultaneously claimed to exist the true pope.
• Counter-Reformation: A period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

The Church in the Late Heart Ages

The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages was a period of political intrigue surrounding the papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which iii men simultaneously claimed to be the truthful pope. While the schism was resolved past the Quango of Constance (1414), a resulting reform move known as Conciliarism sought to limit the power of the pope. Although the papacy somewhen emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters past the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by connected accusations of corruption, nearly famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism, and fathering iv children.

Pope Alexander VI: Alexander Six, a Borgia pope infamous for his corruption.

Churchmen such equally Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the church building, often based on Humanist textual criticism of the New Testament. In October 1517 Luther published the Ninety-5 Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived abuse, specially with regard to instances of sold indulgences. The Xc-v Theses led to the Reformation, a suspension with the Roman Catholic Church building that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct office in sparking the Reformation, also as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Pope Paul III came to the papal throne (1534–1549) later the sack of Rome in 1527, with uncertainties prevalent in the Cosmic Church following the Protestant Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Angelic Spheres) to Paul III, who became the grandfather of Alessandro Farnese (primal), who had paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, and Raphael, as well as an important collection of drawings, and who commissioned the masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours.

The Church and the Renaissance

The city of Rome, the papacy, and the Papal States were all affected past the Renaissance. On the i manus, it was a time of nifty artistic patronage and architectural magnificence, when the church pardoned and even sponsored such artists as Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Donatello, and da Vinci. On the other manus, wealthy Italian families oft secured episcopal offices, including the papacy, for their own members, some of whom were known for immorality.

In the revival of neo-Platonism and other aboriginal philosophies, Renaissance Humanists did not decline Christianity; quite to the contrary, many of the Renaissance'south greatest works were devoted to it, and the church patronized many works of Renaissance fine art. The new ideals of Humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, specially in the Northern Renaissance. In turn, the Renaissance had a profound result on contemporary theology, peculiarly in the manner people perceived the relationship between homo and God.

Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter'due south Basilica, The holy see: Michelangelo's Pietà exemplifies the character of Renaissance art, combining the classical aesthetic of Greek art with religious imagery, in this case Mother Mary holding the body of Jesus after the crucifixion.

In addition to existence the caput of the church building, the pope became ane of Italy'due south most important secular rulers, and pontiffs such as Julius II often waged campaigns to protect and expand their temporal domains. Furthermore, the popes, in a spirit of refined competition with other Italian lords, spent lavishly both on individual luxuries and public works, repairing or building churches, bridges, and a magnificent arrangement of aqueducts in Rome that still role today.

From 1505 to 1626, St. Peter'due south Basilica, maybe the most recognized Christian church, was congenital on the site of the old Constantinian basilica in Rome. This was a fourth dimension of increased contact with Greek culture, opening up new avenues of learning, particularly in the fields of philosophy, poetry, classics, rhetoric, and political science, fostering a spirit of Humanism–all of which would influence the church building.

Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation, also called the Catholic Reformation or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, get-go with the Quango of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648). The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive try equanimous of four major elements—ecclesiastical or structural reconfigurations, new religious orders (such as the Jesuits), spiritual movements, and political reform.

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper preparation of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Castilian mystics and the French school of spirituality. Information technology likewise involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition. 1 primary emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was a mission to reach parts of the earth that had been colonized equally predominantly Cosmic, and also try to reconvert areas, such as Sweden and England, that were at one time Cosmic just had been Protestantized during the Reformation.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/italy-during-the-renaissance/