Early European History Part 106

[7] Of the seven or eight million volumes which appeared before 1500 A.D., about thirty thousand are believed to be still in existence. Many of these earliest books were printed in heavy, "black letter" type, an imitation of the characters used in monkish ma.n.u.scripts. It is still retained for most books printed in Germany. The clearer and neater "Roman" characters, resembling the letters employed for ancient Roman inscriptions, came into use in southern Europe and England. The Aldine press at Venice also devised "italic" type, said to be modeled after Petrarch's handwriting, to enable the publisher to crowd more words on a page.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FACSIMILE OF PART OF CAXTON'S "AENEID" (REDUCED) With the same pa.s.sage in modern type: Thenne beganne agayne the bataylle of the one parte/And of the other Eneas ascryed to theym and sayd. Lordes why doo ye fyghte/ Ye knowe well that the couuenante ys deuysed and made/That Turnus and I shall fyghte for you alle/]

IMPORTANCE OF PRINTING

The invention of printing has been called the greatest event in history.

The statement is hardly too strong. It is easy to see that printing immensely increased the supply of books. A hardworking copyist might produce, at the most, only a few volumes a year; a printing press could strike them off by the thousands. Not only more books, but also more accurate books, could be produced by printing. The old-time copyist, however skilful, was sure to make mistakes, sometimes of a serious character. No two copies of any ma.n.u.script were exactly alike. When, however, an entire edition was printed from the same type, mistakes in the different copies might be entirely eliminated. Furthermore, the invention of printing destroyed the monopoly of learning possessed by the universities and people of wealth. Books were now the possession of the many, not the luxury of the few. Anyone who could read had opened to him the gateway of knowledge; he became a citizen, henceforth, of the republic of letters. Printing, which made possible popular education, public libraries, and ultimately cheap newspapers, ranks with gunpowder [8] as an emanc.i.p.ating force.

212. REVIVAL OF ART IN ITALY

ARCHITECTURE

Gothic architecture, with its pointed arches, flying b.u.t.tresses, and traceried windows, never struck deep roots in Italy. The architects of the Renaissance went back to Greek temples and Roman domed buildings for their models, just as the humanists went back to Greek and Latin literature.

Long rows of Ionic or Corinthian columns, spanned by round arches, became again the prevailing architectural style. Perhaps the most important accomplishment of Renaissance builders was the adoption of the dome, instead of the vault, for the roofs of churches. The majestic cupola of St. Peter's at Rome, [9] which is modeled after the Pantheon, [10] has become the parent of many domed structures in the Old and New World. [11]

Architects, however, did not limit themselves to churches. The magnificent palaces of Florence, as well as some of those in Venice, are among the monuments of the Renaissance era. Henceforth architecture became more and more a secular art.

SCULPTURE

The development of architecture naturally stimulated the other arts.

Italian sculptors began to copy the ancient bas-reliefs and statues preserved in Rome and other cities. At this time glazed terra cotta came to be used by sculptors. Another Renaissance art was the casting of bronze doors, with panels which represented scenes from the Bible. The beautiful doors of the baptistery of Florence were described as "worthy of being placed at the entrance of Paradise."

MICHELANGELO, 1475-1564 A.D.

The greatest of Renaissance sculptors was Michelangelo. Though a Florentine by birth, he lived in Rome and made that city a center of Italian art. A colossal statue of David, who looks like a Greek athlete, and another of Moses, seated and holding the table of the law, are among his best-known works. Michelangelo also won fame in architecture and painting. The dome of St. Peter's was finished after his designs. Having been commissioned by one of the popes to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine chapel [12] in the Vatican, he painted a series of scenes which presented the Biblical story from the Creation to the Flood. These frescoes are unequaled for sublimity and power. On the end wall of the same chapel Michelangelo produced his fresco of the "Last Judgment," one of the most famous paintings in the world.

RISE OF ITALIAN PAINTING

The early Italian painters contented themselves, at first, with imitating Byzantine mosaics and enamels. [13] Their work exhibited little knowledge of human anatomy: faces might be lifelike, but bodies were too slender and out of proportion. The figures of men and women were posed in stiff and conventional att.i.tudes. The perspective also was false: objects which the painter wished to represent in the background were as near as those which he wished to represent in the foreground. In the fourteenth century, however, Italian painting abandoned the Byzantine style; achieved beauty of form, design, and color to an extent hitherto unknown; and became at length the supreme art of the Renaissance.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ITALIAN PAINTING

Italian painting began in the service of the Church and always remained religious in character. Artists usually chose subjects from the Bible or the lives of the saints. They did not trouble themselves to secure correctness of costume, but represented ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans in the garb of Italian gentlemen. Many of their pictures were frescoes, that is, the colors were mixed with water and applied to the plaster walls of churches and palaces. After the process of mixing oils with the colors was discovered, pictures on wood or canvas (easel paintings) became common. Renaissance painters excelled in portraiture. They were less successful with landscapes.

THE "OLD MASTERS"

Among the "old masters" of Italian painting four, besides Michelangelo, stand out with special prominence. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 A.D.) was architect, sculptor, musician, and engineer, as well as painter. His finest work, the "Last Supper," a fresco painting at Milan, is much damaged, but fortunately good copies of it exist. Paris has the best of his easel pictures--the "Monna Lisa." Leonardo spent four years on it and then declared that he could not finish it to his satisfaction. Leonardo's contemporary, Raphael (1483-1520 A.D.), died before he was forty, but not before he had produced the "Sistine Madonna," now at Dresden, the "Transfiguration," in the Vatican Gallery at Rome, and many other famous compositions. In Raphael Italian painting reached its zenith. All his works are masterpieces. Another artist, the Venetian t.i.tian (1477?-1576 A.D.), painted portraits unsurpa.s.sed for glowing color. His "a.s.sumption of the Virgin" ranks among the greatest pictures in the world. Lastly must be noted the exquisite paintings of Correggio (1494-1534 A.D.), among them the "Holy Night" and the "Marriage of St. Catherine."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ITALIAN PAINTINGS OF THE RENAISSANCE a.s.sUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN--t.i.tIAN SISTINE MADONNA--RAPHAEL THE LAST SUPPER--LEONARDO DA VINCI MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE--CORREGGIO MONNA LISA GIOCONDA--LEONARDO DA VINCI]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FLEMISH, DUTCH AND SPANISH PAINTINGS OF THE RENAISSANCE THE NIGHt.w.a.tCH--REMBRANDT DESCENT FROM THE CROSS--RUBENS THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION--MURILLO]

MUSIC

Another modern art, that of music, arose in Italy during the Renaissance.

In the sixteenth century the three-stringed rebeck received a fourth string and became the violin, the most expressive of all musical instruments. A forerunner of the pianoforte also appeared in the harpsichord. A papal organist and choir-master, Palestrina (1526-1594 A.D.), was the first of the great composers. He gave music its fitting place in worship by composing melodious hymns and ma.s.ses still sung in Roman Catholic churches. The oratorio, a religious drama set to music but without action, scenery, or costume, had its beginning at this time. The opera, however, was little developed until the eighteenth century.

213. REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND ART BEYOND ITALY

SPREAD OF HUMANISM IN EUROPE

About the middle of the fifteenth century fire from the Italian altar was carried across the Alps, and a revival of learning began in northern lands. Italy had led the way by recovering the long-buried treasures of the cla.s.sics and by providing means for their study. Scholars in Germany, France, and England, who now had the aid of the printing press, continued the intellectual movement and gave it widespread currency.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS 1466(?)-1536 A.D.

The foremost humanist of the age was Desiderius Erasmus. Though a native of Rotterdam in Holland, he lived for a time in Germany, France, England, and Italy, and died at Basel in Switzerland. His travels and extensive correspondence brought him in contact with most of the leading scholars of the day. Erasmus wrote in Latin many works which were read and enjoyed by educated men. He might be called the first really popular author in Europe. Like Petrarch, he did much to encourage the humanistic movement by his precepts and his example. "When I have money," said this devotee of the cla.s.sics, "I will first buy Greek books and then clothes."

GREEK TESTAMENT OF ERASMUS

Erasmus performed his most important service as a Biblical critic. In 1516 A.D. he published the New Testament in the original Greek, with a Latin translation and a dedication to the pope. Up to this time the only accessible edition of the New Testament was the old Latin version known as the Vulgate, which St. Jerome had made near the close of the fourth century. By preparing a new and more accurate translation, Erasmus revealed the fact that the Vulgate contained many errors. By printing the Greek text, together with notes which helped to make the meaning clear, Erasmus enabled scholars to discover for themselves just what the New Testament writers had actually said. [14]

HUMANISM AND THE REFORMATION

Erasmus as a student of the New Testament carried humanism over into the religious field. His friends and a.s.sociates, especially in Germany, continued his work. "We are all learning Greek now," said Luther, "in order to understand the Bible." Humanism, by becoming the handmaid of religion, thus pa.s.sed insensibly into the Reformation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DESIDERIUS ERASMUS (Louvre, Paris) A portrait by the German artist, Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543 A.D.). Probably an excellent likeness of Erasmus.]

THE ARTISTIC REVIVAL IN EUROPE

Italian architects found a cordial reception in France, Spain, the Netherlands, and other countries, where they introduced Renaissance styles of building and ornamentation. The celebrated palace of the Louvre in Paris, which is used to-day as an art gallery and museum, dates from the sixteenth century. At this time the French n.o.bles began to replace their somber feudal dwellings by elegant country houses. Renaissance sculpture also spread beyond Italy throughout Europe. Painters in northern countries at first followed Italian models, but afterwards produced masterpieces of their own. [15]

214. THE RENAISSANCE IN LITERATURE

HUMANISM AND THE VERNACULAR

The renewed interest in cla.s.sical studies for a time r.e.t.a.r.ded the development of national languages and literatures in Europe. To the humanists only Latin and Greek seemed worthy of notice. Petrarch, for instance, composed in Italian beautiful sonnets which are still much admired, but he himself expected to gain literary immortality through his Latin works. Another Italian humanist went so far as to call Dante "a poet for bakers and cobblers," and the _Divine Comedy_ was indeed translated into Latin a few years after the author's death.

THE VERNACULAR REVIVAL

But a return to the vernacular was bound to come. The common people understood little Latin, and Greek not at all. Yet they had learned to read and they now had the printing press. Before long many books composed in Italian, Spanish, French, English, and other national languages made their appearance. This revival of the vernacular meant that henceforth European literature would be more creative and original than was possible when writers merely imitated or translated the cla.s.sics. The models provided by Greece and Rome still continued, however, to furnish inspiration to men of letters.

MACHIAVELLI, 1469-1527 A.D.

The Florentine historian and diplomat, Machiavelli, by his book, _The Prince_, did much to found the modern science of politics. Machiavelli, as a patriotic Italian, felt infinite distress at the divided condition of Italy, where numerous petty states were constantly at war. In _The Prince_ he tried to show how a strong, despotic ruler might set up a national state in the peninsula. He thought that such a ruler ought not to be bound by the ordinary rules of morality. He must often act "against faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion." The end would justify the means. Success was everything; morality, nothing. This dangerous doctrine has received the name of "Machiavellism"; it is not yet dead in European statecraft.

CERVANTES, 1547-1616 A.D.

Spain during the sixteenth century gave to the world in Cervantes the only Spanish writer who has achieved a great reputation outside his own country. Cervantes's masterpiece, _Don Quixote_, seems to have been intended as a burlesque upon the romances of chivalry once so popular in Europe. The hero, Don Quixote, attended by his shrewd and faithful squire, Sancho Panza, rides forth to perform deeds of knight-errantry, but meets, instead, the most absurd adventures. The work is a vivid picture of Spanish life. n.o.bles, priests, monks, traders, farmers, innkeepers, muleteers, barbers, beggars--all these pa.s.s before our eyes as in a panorama. _Don Quixote_ immediately became popular, and it is even more read to-day than it was three centuries ago.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CERVANTES]

FROISSART, 1397(?)-1410 A.D.

The Flemish writer, Froissart, deserves notice as a historian and as one of the founders of French prose. His _Chronicles_ present an account of the fourteenth century, when the age of feudalism was fast drawing to an end. He admired chivalry and painted it in glowing colors. He liked to describe tournaments, battles, sieges, and feats of arms. Kings and n.o.bles, knights and squires, are the actors on his stage. Froissart traveled in many countries and got much of his information at first hand from those who had made history. Out of what he learned he composed a picturesque and romantic story, which still captivates the imagination.

MONTAIGNE, 1533-1593 A.D.