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36. The Late Middle Ages:

Petrarch and the Rediscovery of Classical Humanism
A Time of Calamity, a Time of Awakening

Plague and War

Plague: 1/3 of Europes 70 million wiped out by Black Death Wars devastate much of Europe
Turks in Balkans and Central Europe French and Spanish in Italy Italians against each other Hundred Years War between England and France

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The Spread of the Plague in Europe

Religious and Philosophical Divisions

Great Schism
After the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy at Avignon, the Church was split between Rome and Avignon Council of Pisa leads to three popes, Council of Constance finally ends split Many turn to private devotion, pietism

Philosophical divisions
Via Antiqua: Thomas Aquinas vision of reconciliation of faith and reason Via Moderna: complete separation of biblical beliefs and rationalism

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Late Gothic and the International Style

Churches smaller but taller, wider, and more ornamented Style becomes prevalent throughout Europe, but there were regional styles
French Flamboyant English Perpendicularemphasis on verticality, fan vaulting Late Italian Gothic

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36. Late Middle Ages and Petrarch

French Flamboyant
Flamelike effects, sky-piercing spires, lacy decorations that obscured exterior structural element St. Maclou at Rouen, France

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English Perpendicular

Emphasis on verticality, fan vaulting Gloucester Cathedral, Bath; Westminster Cathedral, London
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Late Italian Gothic

The Cathedral at Siena Affinities with Romanesque, lacks many Gothic features Propensity for using colored stone for effect

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The Duomo, Milan

Developments in Sculpture

An awareness of the past

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Father and Son: Nicolo and Giovanni Pisano

Nicolo Pisano

Giovanni Pisano

Detail of pulpit in Pisa baptistry The elder Pisano modeled figures on sculpture from Roman sarcophagi heavier figures but Classically spaced

Detail of pulpit in Pisa cathedral The younger Pisano returned to Late Gothic: manneristic, swaying figures

Giovanni Pisano, Octagonal Pulpit in Pisa Cathedral

8 Corinthian columns naturalism, emotionalism, use of space

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Italian Painting: Cimabue

culmination of old Italo-Byzantine 2 dimensional, other-worldly

Italian Painting: Giotto

break with Italo-Byzantine searching for perspective and new expression 3 dimensional, naturalism fully-expressed human emotions non-mathematical perspective, illusion of depth
Madonna Enthroned (with Cimabues); Arena Chapel, frescoes (lives of the Virgin and of Christ, meeting of Joachim and Anna, Lamentation); Franciscan basilica at Assisi

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Cimabue and Giotto compared

Giotto. The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1305

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Giotto. The Meeting of Joachim and Anna, 1305

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Francis Petrarch
Like Dante, Petrarch was a political exile from Florence His Father was employed by the Avignon pope A younger contemporary of Dante, rather than embracing the Middle Ages, he distanced himself from what he considered the Dark Ages
Dedicated himself to the recovery of Classical learning Precursor to the Renaissance

Remember Dante and Beatrice? Petrarchs love was Laura.

She died young, and was both a real person and an allegorical figurea theme in his poetry Laura represented Petrarchs struggles between his spiritual aspirations and his earthly desires Compared with Beatrice, who led Dante to paradise, Lauras role was never quite clear. She was both a divine guide and an earthly temptress
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Petrarch, Classical Humanism, and Virt

A.D. 1333, Petrarch found a copy of Ciceros Pro Archia Roman defense of poetry and a call for a liberal education

He was a proponent of the idea of Virt

Intrinsic force and power of man Outwardly recognized as his fame and reputation Cf. with Homeric time

His reputation recognized

While leading a leisurely existence in this region, I received, remarkable as it may seem, upon one and the same day letters both from the Senate at Rome and the Chancellor of the University of Paris, pressing me to appear in Rome and Paris, respectively, to receive the poets crown of laurel. (Letter to Posterity = packet, 165-166) A lover of the Classics and a good Roman, he chose to be crowned in Rome!
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Letter to Dionisio da Borgo San Sepolcro

[Ascent of Mount Ventoux]
Today I made the ascent of the highest mountain in the region . . . My only motivation was to see what so great an elevation had to offer . . . The idea took hold upon me with especial force when reading Livys History of Rome . . . An old shepherd tried to dissuade Petrarch and his brother from the attempt
No one, so far as he or his companions knew, had ever tried the ascent before or after him . . . Symbolic of transcending Medieval constraints . . .

Petrarchs brother chose a straight path, he tried to avoid the effort by a circuitous route Reading Augustines Confessions at the summit: continued struggles with his Medieval worldview
And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not. I was abashed . . . Cf. with Augustines chastisement of Cicero for worldly attachments in My Secret (packet, 168-169)
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Classical Conversations: Africa and Letter to Cicero

Inspired by Vergil, Petrarch endeavored to write a Classical epic in Latin
Never completed, it was called Africa (see packet, 167) Chose as his hero Scipio Africanus (remember Ciceros Dream of Scipio), the model of Roman virtues He has the Roman poet relate a prophetic dream of a new poet Petrarch himself!

More telling is a letter that he wrote to Cicero

Imitated the style of Cicero rather than writing in Medieval Latin Through his writings, Cicero had become a real person to Petrarch
Franciscus sends his greetings to Cicero. I have been hunting for your letters long and persistently. I discovered them where I least expected to and avidly I read them. I could hear your voice, Marcus Tullius . . . Now, wherever you are, it is your turn to listen, not to good counsel but to the laments inspired by the true love of an adorer . . . (packet, 167-168)
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