The Revival of

Greek and
Roman Culture
in the
Renaissance:
Humanism and
the Arts

World History
History 100
October 9, 2010
Prof. Re
 Jamiline Marie C. Lebrilla

INTRODUCTION

The Renaissance meant rebirth, a time of transcendence for Europe. It was a

transformation from a restricted collection of traditions and values to something … freer.
It was filled with rampant energy. Some would call it a singularity point; wherein for a
short number of years, the Europeans achieved more advances in all fields, than they did
for centuries. It was a time when they were gluttonous, as if starving and finally freed,
they fell like a pack of wolves, unto a sea banquets.
And this is no false picture, for what were the Dark Ages but a starvation of the
mind. Knowledge was restricted to monasteries and private collections. The church was a
frightening specter of fear and violence. At a time when plagues, like the Black Death fell
upon man again and again, when death was found in every corner, and where themes of
morality and the end of times figured well in poetry and literature, where else could men
find solace but in God?
But the starving time did end, and the banquet began. The Church lost power as
the corruption within it grew more entrenched. No doubt its lowest point came when
papal power was broken and there were not two, but three popes all claiming that they
had received divine direction from God and were the “genuine” heirs to St. Peter’s
throne. Kings grew more powerful as they realized they need not depend on their lords
and knights. An elite merchant class appeared that opened doors of opportunity for
themselves, only once reserved for the nobles and royalty.
 It was a time rife for discovery, when men were rich, and too much money
allowed men to have the leisure to look for something more. They searched, and they
found it, inspiration in the form of art, culture, and literature from the past…the long dead
civilizations of Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
They found something awe-worthy, in the remnants of the old. From the teachings
of several Greek and Roman scholars such as Aristotle and Cicero, came the philosophy
of Humanism. From the sculptures of Grecian gods and goddesses, came a desire to copy
the human form in the natural way. From their buildings, came a new understanding of
the importance of symmetry and style. From Grecian myths grew inspiration for fantasy-
like reaches of the imagination not limited to religious iconography. Roman stories
brought new heroes and villains to the fore, such as Alexander the Great and Julius
Caesar.
Grecian and Roman cultures were a treasure trove of new ideas, but nowhere were
they more visible than in the many objects of art which painters, sculptors, and architects
created during the Renaissance. For this reason, the paper only limits itself to the
concepts and ideas related to the areas of painting, sculpting, and architecture. Through
humanism, one will see the importance of Greek and Roman culture to the transformation
of human identity, and how the exploration and research through dusty old tracts of
ancient manuscripts have led humanity to realize the full maximum of possibilities
available to the entire race.
HUMANISM

Humanism was the impetus of the cultural revolution of the Renaissance. It strove
to resurrect and emulate the literature and art of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The
greatest characteristic of humanism was its strong belief in the idea of individualism and
the great potential of human beings. It’s content largely rejected Aristotelian views and
medieval scholasticism in favor of Roman authors such as Cicero, Livy, Virgil and
Quinitilian. It also drew much of its material from Greek writings, especially Plato. You
could say that…“antiquity provided the humanists not only with certain forms of thought,
literary expression and action, but with new norms for determining the suitability and
rightness of the content of thought, word, and deed. The humanists were concerned with
humaniora, or the human studies. The concept of the studia humanitatis, the liberal arts,
was taken over from Cicero, who believed that the poet or orator as best suited to
communicate humane learning. These liberal arts embraced grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
history, and moral philosophy” (Spitz, 1987)

Humanists went into a fervor of studying ancient languages. Initially, Latin of

ancient Rome was the main focus, however, after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in
1453, there was a revival of Greek culture and the language came to be studied
extensively. Petrarch and Boccaccio began what was to become a favorite sport, the
search for ancient manuscripts. They went to great lengths, visiting different libraries and
private collections, ransacking monasteries, discovering and preserving old manuscripts,
all for the sake of their aesthetic value as well as importance for literary and historical
documentation. By 1500, virtually all of the significant ancient Roman and Greek texts
that have been rediscovered were translated and printed.

Humanism invaded all aspects of Renaissance life, and was even intensified
further when there came about a strong focus on educational theory. Humanists believed
in a liberal arts educational program that included grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history,
politics and moral philosophy. Civic Humanism believed that education should prepare
leaders who would be active in civic affairs. This attention on education involving arts
and letters, only reinforces further more the importance of the individual and the potential
heights that man could reach through his effort and creativity.

ART AND ITS AUDIENCE

Humanisms influence was represented when their came an increasing change in
the content of paintings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In the Renaissance,
there was a focus on the individual. Self-portraits came into being. Sculptures and
paintings were produced which showed the ordinary individual. Noblemen, Royalty, even
wealthy merchants and their families were depicted in these paintings. This is so
revolutionary because during the Middle Ages, paintings were done strictly for religious
purposes. By painting or sculpting an object or an entity, the artist signifies that such an
object or entity is deserving of being preserved for all eternity. During the Middle Ages,
preservation of religious people and symbols, was seen as worship for the greater glory of
God. With the coming of the Renaissance, religious content was replaced by the
individual because humanism taught that man is worthy of being respected and
remembered. Humanism induced individuals to have a high opinion of their selves, which
brought about a yearning on their part to leave some symbol of their lives for all eternity.

ART AND ITS CREATORS

Between the artists in the Renaissance and the artists during the Middle Ages, the
most significant difference was on how they were treated. Anonymity is the word one can
best use to describe the life of an artist during the Middle Ages. Painters, sculptors, and
architects were mere craftsmen. They were talented servants, but servants nonetheless,
seen as no different from farmers, carpenters, and other livelihoods having to deal with
the use of one’s hands. In direct contrast to this, people’s reaction to artists in the
Renaissance was entirely different. They were like rock stars. They weren’t mere
craftsmen anymore; they were geniuses, men of a class apart. They were respected
because their unique creativity to produce objects that no ordinary individual could
create. During the Renaissance, there snobbery still occurred when people of the noble
class met members of society who did labor in order to earn money. Artists, however,
were exempt from this snobbery because what they did wasn’t seen as labor, it was
something unique in which only they could do. Some even say that their talent was a gift
from God.

RENAISSANCE ART

In the early stages if Renaissance art artists studied the Greek and Roman
techniques of light color and space. Because there was virtually no ancient painting as yet
discovered during the Renaissance, the artists had to either emulate other classical
painters, or copied Greek and Roman statues by reconstructing classical paintings from
contemporary ancient descriptions, a complex discipline known as ekphrasis. The faces
of subjects expressed more unique individual characteristics, embodying the Renaissance
ideal of “individualism”. By contrast, medieval paintings tended to be lifeless and dull.

A new concept of art came to be known which was called Realism. Artists shifted
their focus from the painting of heavenly creatures to the painting of the human body. In
this endeavor they went beyond mere suggestions of the human form as was done by
medieval artists. Instead they studied the musculature of the body even going so far as to
buying cadavers to dissect them.
SCULPTURE

Donatello – Saint Mark (1411-1413)

St. Mark is a prime example of the realism to
which artists were going towards during the
Renaissance. Master sculptors during that era
focused much on the human form. It’s said that the
technique artists’ employed during that time was to
make a small clay figure of the body of their
sculpture and then cover it with clothing. This is
what makes the folds of cloth seem so fluid as if St.
Mark would leave that niche in the wall any second
now.

Like Masaccio who painted religious themes,

the sculptures of Donatello were also religious at
times, but as seen in St. Mark, they are given natural
expressions, where common people’s clothes and are
depicted to be carrying on with their ordinary day to day

duties or activities. This is also one of the first free-

standing statues created. It shows the Greek and
Roman influence of proportion and balance as the set of the shoulders and the position of
the legs produces a statue which can stand on its own.

David - Donatello
Still by Donatello, this shows the study on
musculature beneath the skin and dynamic
posing. Cosimo de' Medici owned this statue and
placed it in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici in
Florence, it is now in the Bargello.

Lorenzo Ghiberti - The story of Joseph,

Gates of Paradise, Baptistery,
Florence.

Experimentation on perspective
among Renaissance artists produced such works of art as this. Ghiberti used high relief
and lateral lines to show a gradual receding of space into the distance.
 Michelangelo - Pieta
Michelangelo studied so much on the
workings within the body that he even
carved on the veins and tendons on his
sculptures.

PAINTING
Bronzino – Portrait of a Young Man

This is an example of a Renaissance portrait.

Renaissance artists always went for the
elusive combination of beauty. Raphael once
said, in a letter he wrote to his friend,
Baldassare Castigilione, that in order to “paint
a beautiful woman, I would have to see
several beautiful women … but because there
are so few … I make use of a certain idea
which comes into my mind. Whether it carries
any excellence of art I do not know, but I
work hard to achieve it.’

Giogorne - Sleeping Venus (c.

1510) Gem ldegalerie Alte
Meister, Dresden
Giorgione was an
Italian painter of the High
Renaissance in Venice.
There are currently six
paintings attributed to him, and I have chosen this painting and the one below to show the
Renaissance artists propensity to mimic Grecian freedom in sculpting and painting nude
forms. In these paintings are shown further transition as they now show that not only is
the figure given attention, but the scene as well. The attention given to the background of
the painting Pastoral Concert is even more detailed compared to Sleeping Venus. Such
paintings as these were the progenitors of landscape paintings.

Giorgione - Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Concert). Louvre, Paris.

ARCHITECTURE

After the discovery of De architectura, the only surviving treatise by Vitruvius,

an ancient Roman architect, a new way of thinking about architectural techniques and
principles was embraced. The beauty of the buildings that were designed encouraged
churches, rulers, and other civic leaders to spend vast sums of money in constructing
edifices that are esteemed as monuments the world over. Influence was taken heavily
from the Greeks and Romans when it came to Renaissance architecture as architects
utilized the ancient forms of Greek columns, Roman aches, and domes. An example of
this is the Pantheon in Rome.
The watchwords were
simplicity, symmetry, and
balance, a far cry from the
highly-ornamented gothic
style of the middle ages with
their pointed arches.

Of the three
watchwords, the most
important architectural principle was symmetry. Renaissance architects sought to achieve
harmony in their works by integrating various parts of their structures while avoiding at
the same time, mixtures of designs that did not fit well together. So saying, architects
generally sought to find a harmonious merging of different styles like Doric, Corinthian,
Ionic, and Tuscan without losing the beauty of the symmetry the wanted to show.

Architects of this
period were very fond of
domes that could be seen
from every point of a
city when contructed.
Pilasters, or decorative
columns that adorned
walls without providing
any real support were
also a favorite of
Renaissance architects,
as were traditional
Roman columns that did support the building. The rounded arch that was used in ancient
Roman architecture was likewise incorporated into Renaissance design. St. Paul’s
Cathedral (as shown above) is a perfect example of the use of pilasters, Roman columns,
and a dome.

CONCLUSION
The Renaissance, represented here in the paintings, sculptures, and architecture, is
an expression of human possibilities and human potential given form. Because of the
freedom of thought and imagination which became possible through the lessening of the
power and influence of the Church, and the rise of power and influence of the wealthy
merchant-class, art was not restricted only to certain areas. Art was given the full
opportunity to blossom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Weinstein, Donald. 1965. Renaissance and the Reformation: 1300 – 1600.

Canada: The MacMillan Company.
• Spitz, Lewis W. 1987. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements: Volume I
The Renaissance. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
• Stokstad, Marilyn. 1995. Art History Volume One. New York: Harry N. Abrams,
Inc.
• Burckhardt, Jacob. 1956. “The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy” Home
Course Appreciation. Classics Appreciation Society: Grolier Incorporated.