Hi everyone,
So, I read and reviewed five volumes that I found to be representative of the recent scholarship on Renaissance Imperial power structures in Italy, the works span a range of imperial topics from Italian Cardinals and the Papacy, to the absolutist rulers of Italian cities like Milan and Florence. The works themselves are of course: Jane Black’s Absolutism in Renaissance Milan: A Plenitude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza 1329-1535, Charles Stinger’s The Renaissance in Rome, Gerard Noel’s The Renaissance Popes: Statesmen, Warriors, and the Great Borgia Myth, Margaret Ann Zaho’s Imago Triumphalis: The Function and Significance of Triumphal Imagery for Italian Renaissance Ruler’s, and finally K.J.P. Lowe’s Church and Politics
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Black takes a thoroughly intellectual and social approach to the study, by examining the changing interpretations of ideas and social interactions in Milan. Black writes on the ways in which the families secured their absolute power and legitimized it through legal arguments. Black argued that the Sforza and Visconti were able to legitimize their absolutist rules through the use of their lawyers, and that when the legal rhetoric turned against them, their power waned. This is significant to the study of Italian Imperial Renaissance power first and foremost because it shows how Milanese rulers functioned, and secondly, because it’s argued excellently. Black is in conversation with sources like Kenneth Pennington frequently in her work, she builds off of his and other similar sources on imperial governance and applies legal imperial theory to Milan specifically. Black successfully knocks home her point and simultaneously studies the significance of the Sforza and Visconti ruling families in wider Italy. My only knock on Black is that I would like more on other rulers or cities, perhaps more comparison between the Sforza and Visconti, it is there but it would not hurt the work at all to expand on it, but Milan is undoubtedly the best example of native non-Papal imperial power in …show more content…
Zaho’s work like Noel’s, is in a way classical in nature but for a different reason, she interacts heavily with Dante and Boccaccio, but even more so with Petrarch. Zaho traces the classical roots of triumphal imagery and its relation to Petrarch’s Africa. She argues that the revival of the antique triumph was the most significant tool, propagandistic or otherwise, in legitimizing the rules of Italian Renaissance rulers. She looks at Sigismondo Malatesta, Federico de Montefeltro, and the Duke Borso d’Este for her case studies. She lends a key contribution to the field, in that she argues a point perhaps somewhat contradictory to that of Jane Black who takes a far more legal approach to the topic of Renaissance ruler’s justifications for their
The intertextual perspectives between both texts portray consistent ideas about leadership and political power regardless of their differing contexts. However, both texts offer distinctive ideas towards the notion of leadership and the mannerism in which power should be obtained, which ultimately greatly enhances our understanding of intertextual perspectives of power. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513) utilises realpolitik advice on the maintenance of power and virtu. Contrastingly, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1623) portrays the influence of nobility and the need for stability on leadership. Ultimately, both texts offer us an appreciation through their intertextual perspectives as we engage with their distinctive contexts and values. Both Machiavelli and Shakespeare lived and published their works during the Renaissance, a time where Christianity, once above public criticism and debate, was having its doctrine questioned. This lead
Purity in the Gothic genre can be perceived from so many points of view. It involves sex, beauty, perception, and people's position in society. "The Italian" has many characters that behold either one or more of these traits. In this paper, we will explore how Ann Radcliffe uses purity and the deception and destruction of it to enhance her character's role in the Gothic genre.
The reference article, Filippo De Vivo’s paper Paolo Sarpi and the Uses of Information in the Seventeenth-Century Venice, is structured very much like a standard essay in that it has an introduction, thesis, supporting paragraphs for the points brought up by the thesis, and a conclusion. The title of De Vivo’s paper is an accurate depiction of what the subject matter pertains to which is about Paolo Sarpi and the uses of information in Venice during the seventeenth-century. Background information regarding Venice and its information network start the paper off. It is then established that information that was once only available to the elite classes such as merchants and politicians was then made available to the masses as a saleable commodity in the form of newsletters called avvisi (De Vivo 37). His network expanded beyond that which was available to the common people and he had access to information only available to one with political ties such as his and predictably he made great use of those sources. Besides having written correspondences with ranking officials of other nations, which had severe consequences if caught doing so, Sarpi would regularly meet with both domestic and foreign merchants and other travelers to discuss the happenings abroad, which also frowned upon by the government. The thesis of the article is introduced as an explanation of Sarpi’s use of the newly developing means of information (38). To do this,
When the word "Renaissance" is mentioned, an image of love for antiquity learning and fine arts usually springs to one's mind. Yet this perception, however legitimate it may be in many areas of Renaissance human achievements, shatters in the face of Niccolò Machiavelli's masterpiece The Prince. Unlike his contemporary Baldassare Castiglione who exemplified subtlety, Machiavelli was ruthlessly practical, nonchalantly callous, and admirably seamless in his logics about the bloody art of political power.
In this paper I'm focusing mainly on Renaissance art work, since that was the assignment, but I feel it's important to also mention the other important parts of the Renaissance, architecture, science, politics and religion.
While the feudal system did not disappear for some 30 years after unification, both feudalism and a more modern-day rule of law would always be subject to interpretation. Legal scholar and philosopher Dennis Patterson concisely points out there are two prevailing camps standing at opposites: Those who argue that the interpretation of law is solely objective versus those who see it in terms of subjectivity (671). Assuming that passions during the time of Sicily’s turbulent unification were predicated more on subjectivity than objectivity, it becomes understandable that Don Fabrizio was caught in a historical trajectory not of his own choosing.
In this brief monograph, we shall be hunting down and examining various creatures from the bestiary of Medieval/Renaissance thought. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious, egotistical power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of preening social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks are of the species known as pride, while the lamb is of an entirely different, in fact antithetical race, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we shall be exploring include the diverse expanses, from palace to heath, of William Shakespeare, the dark, sinister Italy of John Webster, and the perfumed lady's chambers of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick.
...Lives In Renaissance Venice : Art, Architecture, And The Family. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2004.
The Renaissance Papacy was a period in which the church was attempting to recover from the effects of the western schism and regain a sense of control and composure within the church itself. After the prolonged period in which the papacy had been based in Avignon, and then the intermittent years in which two popes existed in contention with the other, the Catholic model was being doubted for its ability to function well, and there was a desperate need to demonstrate that the papacy was still a powerful and influential institution, both in the west and in the immediate regions surrounding Rome. Moving along this vein of thought, the papacy turned its sights to the Papal States, and how re-establishing a sense of dominance over these states would
The events that take place in the play are all made possible by the original usurpation against Prospero, the right Duke of Milan by Antonio, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan. The usurpation itself is made possible initially because Prospero has become increasingly more spellbound by his library of books, the same books which he later uses to exact his revenge. This is to say that not only are these books primarily the sole cause of Prospero's loss of power, but they are also entirely responsible for Prospero's dukedom being reinstated, because the magic they grant him gave him the power to do just that. This is one example of how power will always end up back in its rightful place.
Lorenzo De Medici can be considered as one of the most influential men of the 13th century. His work in political affairs and administration were renowned in all Italy and his family could count on him in every aspect. Lorenzo was also a promoter of a new period called Renaissance. He was one of the first “mecenate” to explore this new way of art. In this project, I will concentrate how he developed art in Florence, giving a clear example through an Artist of that period that was working for him: Sandro Botticelli. His work “The Spring” is a well-defined example of what we can call “art in the Renaissance”, in particular for the Italian Renaissance.
The Renaissance period was a cultural and intellectual movement that among the elite. The Papacy played a major part in the politics, art and the overall development of the city-states during the Renaissance. While the Papacy was the home of the Holy Roman Empire, behind the scenes showed examples of dirty politics being played with special attention to Pope Alexander XI and his son Cesar Borgia. The Renaissance Papacy also had great influence in the background with the development of a new form of art, architecture, and literature; the Renaissance was rich in culture. The Catholic Church was the staple for the Renaissance period, bringing in art, politics and upholding tradition through out the change that was
Some of the main economic powers of the renaissance were Italian city states. The first, Milan, was in northern Italy. Milan, the center of trade and money with a large tax, was ruled by Visconti and was later taken over by Sforza. Next was Venice, which was the link of Asia and the western world. Venice was a republic with a doge, or an elected leader, and was ruled by merchants and aristocrats. Lastly, was Florence which became the cul...
Machiavelli uses classical sources to advise a prince on the best way to maintain power. He alludes to Plato’ Republic to illustrate how many men have attempted to advice princes “ A great many men have imagined states and princedoms such as nobody ever saw or knew in the real word, and there’s such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to live that the man who neglects the real to study the ideal will learn how to accomplish his ruin, not his salvation.” Machiavelli also makes various references to classical figures to demonstrate examples of princely leadership. Machiavelli’s classical allusions are indicative of the Renaissance as the renewed study of the ancient classics was an important element of the Renaissance. Machiavelli adopted classical ideas in the hopes that these examples could inspire improvements within Italy. Rafael Major supports this idea in “ A New Argument for Morality: Machiavelli and the Ancients.” He argues, “ Even a cursory survey of classical literature reveals that very little of The Prince can properly be called original.” More also reflects the Renaissance through his classical allusions. He uses his classical sources to criticize certain practices within Europe, while also offering solutions to these problems through the example of the classics. For example, he also alludes to
Alessandro Allori reproduces the view of a young man in 3/4s view in his portrait of Francesco de Medici (c. 1560). Every element of the portrait, from its dominant red key to the intricate gold embroidery of the sitter’s costume connotes virtue.This rectangular composition presents a young virtuous man deserving of his power and wealth. More importantly, it exposes the attitudes of the painter and patron as towards what virtues qualified a man as deserving privilege and power.