Italian Renaissance Courts: Art, Pleasure and Power (Renaissance Art)

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Wohl, Hellmut (2003). "Masaccio". Oxford Art Online. Vol.1. Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t054828. ISBN 9781884446054. Hall, Marie Boas (1994-01-01). The Scientific Renaissance 1450-1630. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-28115-5. Popularity throughout Europe [ edit ] The Royal Ballet of the Dowager of Bilbao's Grand Ball, 1626. At the heart of the Papal Court was the Pope, who served as the Bishop of Rome and the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church. As a cultural movement, the Italian Renaissance affected only a small part of the population. Italy was the most urbanized region of Europe, but three-quarters of the people were still rural peasants. [37] For this section of the population, life remained essentially unchanged from the Middle Ages. [38] Classic feudalism had never been prominent in Northern Italy, and most peasants worked on private farms or as sharecroppers. Some scholars see a trend towards refeudalization in the later Renaissance as the urban elites turned themselves into landed aristocrats. [39]

Bayer, Andrea. “Northern Italian Renaissance Painting.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nirp/hd_nirp.htm (October 2006) Burke, Peter. The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. The 18th century was a period of advancement in the technical standards of ballet and the period when ballet became a serious dramatic art form on par with the opera. Central to this advance was the seminal work of Jean-Georges Noverre, Lettres sur la danse et les ballets (1760), which focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. Noverre believed that: ballet should be technical but also move the audience emotionally, plots need to be unified, the scenery and music need to support the plot and be unified within the story, and that pantomime needs to be simple and understandable. [34]Lopez, Robert Sabatino. The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970. Petrarch encouraged the study of the Latin classics and carried his copy of Homer about, at a loss to find someone to teach him to read Greek. An essential step in the classic humanist education being propounded by scholars like Pico della Mirandola was the hunting down of lost or forgotten manuscripts that were known only by reputation. These endeavours were greatly aided by the wealth of Italian patricians, merchant-princes and despots, who would spend substantial sums building libraries. Discovering the past had become fashionable and it was a passionate affair pervading the upper reaches of society. I go, said Cyriac of Ancona, I go to awake the dead. As the Greek works were acquired, manuscripts found, libraries and museums formed, the age of the printing press was dawning. The works of Antiquity were translated from Greek and Latin into the contemporary modern languages throughout Europe, finding a receptive middle-class audience, which might be, like Shakespeare, "with little Latin and less Greek". Baker, Nicholas Scott. The Fruit of Liberty: Political Culture in the Florentine Renaissance, 1480-1550. Harvard University Press, 2013. Main article: Italian Wars Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–1468), lord of Rimini, by Piero della Francesca. Malatesta was a capable condottiere, following the tradition of his family. He was hired by the Venetians to fight against the Turks (unsuccessfully) in 1465, and was the patron of Leone Battista Alberti, whose Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini is one of the first entirely classical buildings of the Renaissance.

The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. A feature of the High Middle Ages in Northern Italy was the rise of the urban communes which had broken from the control by bishops and local counts. In much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the High Medieval money economy whose inflationary rise left land-holding aristocrats impoverished. The increase in trade during the early Renaissance enhanced these characteristics. The decline of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury goods led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods. This atmosphere of assumed luxury of the time created a need for the creation of visual symbols of wealth, an important way to show a family's affluence and taste. Strocchia, Sharon T.; D'Elia, Anthony F. (2006-07-01). "The Renaissance of Marriage in Fifteenth-Century Italy". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 37 (2): 526. doi: 10.2307/20477906. ISSN 0361-0160. JSTOR 20477906. S2CID 165631005. The thirteenth-century Italian literary revolution helped set the stage for the Renaissance. Prior to the Renaissance, the Italian language was not the literary language in Italy. It was only in the 13th century that Italian authors began writing in their native language rather than Latin, French, or Provençal. The 1250s saw a major change in Italian poetry as the Dolce Stil Novo ( Sweet New Style, which emphasized Platonic rather than courtly love) came into its own, pioneered by poets like Guittone d'Arezzo and Guido Guinizelli. Especially in poetry, major changes in Italian literature had been taking place decades before the Renaissance truly began. Ballet performances spread to Eastern Europe during the 18th century, into areas such as Hungary, where they were held in private theatres at aristocratic castles. Professional companies were established that performed throughout Hungary and also toured abroad. The Budapest National Theatre increasingly serving a role as a home for the dancers. [35]Pas De Deux” Figurine of two Ballet Dancers, Ludwigsburg Porcelain Manufactory, c. 1760-63. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art [Public domain]) By the 18th century, ballet dancing could be found in many of the princely courts of Europe. Professional performers emerged, largely replacing the aristocrats who once danced together. Opera houses staged operas conjoined with ballet , but by mid-century this was abandoned in favor of orchestral accompaniment. Inspired by the emerging Romanticism of the second half of the 18th century, the characters portrayed by dancers expanded to include nobles, peasants, and other romantic, almost fairy-tale figures. Ballet began to develop as a narrative art rather than a simple spectacle. The use of steps and body language to express emotion and interaction became critical. Main article: Renaissance dance Engraving of the second scene of the Ballet Comique de la Reine, staged in Paris in 1581 for the French court.

The ceiling depicts scenes from the Book of Genesis, including the famous Creation of Adam. On the altar wall is one of the first Mannerist masterpieces, The Last judgment. Ballerina Marie Taglioni in “Zephire et Flore,” c. 1831. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])The 19th century saw the emergence of a style of ballet which would become familiar to modern audiences. The French Revolution caused a shift in tastes—ballet separated from its courtly roots. Skirts shortened and soft dance slippers were introduced, allowing for greater motion. Dancing en pointe was developed by professional female dancers during the first few decades of the century. Among these early pioneers were the Italian dancers Amalia Brugnoli and Marie Taglioni, as well as the French ballerina Fanny Bias of the Paris Opera Ballet company. During the 19th century, the ballerina became the star of the once male-dominated discipline.With the printing of books initiated in Venice by Aldus Manutius, an increasing number of works began to be published in the Italian language in addition to the flood of Latin and Greek texts that constituted the mainstream of the Italian Renaissance. The source for these works expanded beyond works of theology and towards the pre-Christian eras of Imperial Rome and Ancient Greece. This is not to say that no religious works were published in this period: Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy reflects a distinctly medieval world view. [47] Christianity remained a major influence for artists and authors, with the classics coming into their own as a second primary influence. His most lasting legacy is the Sistine Chapel, the world’s most famous decorated space. It’s renowned for its breathtaking Michelangelo frescoes. The Romantic movement in art, literature, and theatre was a reaction against formal constraints and the mechanics of industrialization.[22] The zeitgeist led choreographers to compose romantic ballets that appeared light, airy and free that would act as a contrast to the spread of reductionist science through many aspects of daily life that had, in the words of Edgar Allan Poe, "driven the hamadryad from the woods". These "unreal" ballets portrayed women as fragile unearthly beings, ethereal creatures who could be lifted effortlessly and almost seemed to float in the air. Ballerinas began to wear costumes with pastel, flowing skirts that bared the shins. The stories revolved around uncanny, folkloric spirits. An example of one such romantic ballet is La Sylphide, one of the oldest romantic ballets still performed today. Dean, Trevor, ‘The Courts’ Link opens in a new window, The Journal of Modern History 67, Supplement: The Origins of the State in Italy, 1300-1600 (1995), S136-51. B.M. Adelson, The Lives of Dwarfs.Their Journey from Public Curiosity Toward Social Liberation. (Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, 2005)

Several popes were leaders in Renaissance patronage. But none was as influential as Pope Julius II. Staged in theaters and opera houses, ballet was becoming more available to audiences outside of the royal court. The art remained dominated by male choreographers, but women did compose and appear on stage as well. Marie Sallé—an early inspiration to her student Noverre—was one such woman. Known as one of the earliest dancers to embrace a truly emotive style, she performed at the Paris Opera and Covent Garden before retiring to teach dance. Her skills were so revered, she was still sought out by nobility in her retirement—she even performed at Versailles. In addition to her dancing, she choreographed her own ballets—including one called Pygmalion, based on the Greek myth of a man who sculpts a female companion.Keele, Kenneth D.; Roberts, Jane (1983). Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomical Drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0-87099-362-3. Rose, Paul Lawrence (1973). "Humanist Culture and Renaissance Mathematics: The Italian Libraries of the Quattrocento". Studies in the Renaissance. 20: 46–105. doi: 10.2307/2857013. ISSN 0081-8658. JSTOR 2857013. The 19th century was a period of great social change, which was reflected in ballet by a shift away from the aristocratic sensibilities that had dominated earlier periods through romantic ballet. Ballerinas such as Geneviève Gosselin, Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler experimented with new techniques such as pointework that gave the ballerina prominence as the ideal stage figure. Taglioni was known as the "Christian Dancer," as her image was light and pure (associated with her role as the sylph in La Sylphide). She was trained primarily by her father, Filipo Taglioni. In 1834, Fanny Elssler arrived at the Paris Opera and became known as the "Pagan Dancer," because of the fiery qualities of the Cachucha dance that made her famous. Professional librettists began crafting the stories in ballets. Teachers like Carlo Blasis codified ballet technique in the basic form that is still used today. The ballet boxed toe shoe was invented to support pointe work. Feuillet concentrated his efforts on the most influencing dance at court, called "La belle danse", or also known as "The French noble style". This kind of dance was popular at balls or courts with more demanding skills. "Entrée grave", as one of la belle danse's highest form, was typically performed by one man or two men with graceful and dignified movements, followed by slow and elegant music. At this time, it's only men that performed la belle danse and entrée grave. Women did perform at queen's ballets and other social occasions, but not at entrée grave, king's ballets, at courts or on Paris' stages, not until 1680s. During this particular time, men were considered to be the champion and master of art, displaying their masculine, dignified and noble dance, a king's dance. This also set the model for classical ballet. [23] Some of the leading dancers of the time who performed throughout Europe were Louis Dupré, Charles Le Picque with Anna Binetti, Gaetano Vestris, and Jean-Georges Noverre. [33] 19th century [ edit ] Polish ballet performers at the 1827 Venice Carnival. The dancer on the left is performing "en travestie" as a woman taking the man's role.