Saturday, March 16, 2024

Marcel Duchamp, Leonardo da Vinci, and Challenging Aesthetic Traditions of Art

By putting a moustache on the Mona Lisa, Duchamp, along with the Futurists and the DaDaists of the early 20th century, questioned the authority of the elite and the prevailing dominant groups in society to set the rules about what can be considered "art" or "high culture."  This questioning had started in the 19th century, with the Realists daring to challenge the established conventions by putting poor people (the gleaners, for example) on a large canvas - a size reserved for "historical" scenes -- heroic or religious.  The Impressionists continued the interrogation of tradition (and the hegemony of "royal societies" and other organizations to dictate what was considered to be "good" or "real." 

 

What I think is a bit ironic of the public's reaction to Duchamp's questioning of the dominant culture's stranglehold on "taste" and "beauty" and what it means for something to be considered "art" is that Leonardo himself was an iconoclast and not a paragon or the apotheosis of conservative, elitist ideas about art, and the appropriate subjects of art.  

 

If you take a close look at his famous painting, "The Last Supper," you will see significant deviations from earlier work, say, from medieval times.  Through his placement of Jesus, the disciples, the sacraments, etc. and his use of light and color, he is incorporating Renaissance and humanist values, moving away from the rigid iconography of the medieval cosmology (derived from strict, hierarchical relations).  If you want to see the perfect illustration of a medieval mindset, and notions of hierarchy (and hence legitimacy), think of the Great Chain of Being, or the layers in Dante's Inferno (and similarly, the rounds in Purgatory and Paradise). 

 

So what could possibly have been subversive about Leonardo’s “La Gioconda / The Mona Lisa” at the time he painted it? First, let’s take a look at what Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the silk merchant and the mother of his five children, known now as La Gioconda, is wearing. It was the norm for a wealthy man who was commissioning a painting of his wife to make sure she was adorned with all the best family jewels and pearls in their possession.  After all, this painting was intended to document their prosperity and well-being. So, let’s take a look. Do you see any jeweled hair pieces, dangling pearl and garnet earrings, bejeweled necklaces, rings, or bracelets? No. Neither do I.  Do you see fancy furs, fur trimming, plush velvets, or fancy gold embroidery?  No. Neither do I.


Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (image from Wikipedia)

Finally, where is Lisa Gherardini, La Gioconda, sitting?  She’s not in a palatial garden in front of an elaborate fountain, and nor is she in a room or an alcove where you might see ponderous Doric columns suggesting she is in a palazzo or a large villa. Instead, she is seated in front of a landscape so complicated that it seems to be a dreamscape or even something from a medieval notion of reality, even something you might imagine as a part of Dante’s Purgatory – winding roads requiring the presence of a virtuous woman, Beatrice, to guide you to eventual portals of Paradise.

 

Wives were to be the repositories of virtue in the Renaissance household.  As such, they needed to behave in a certain way. Renaissance theorist Leon Battista Alberti asserted that young women should maintain self-restraint and a “grave demeanor.”  Mona Lisa’s smile flies in the face of that admonition.

 

Nor is the Mona Lisa beautiful.  Beauty was related to virtue, following not only Greek ideals, but also those of Petrarch and other Renaissance writers.  The woman’s beauty was assumed to lift a man up and unite him with the sphere of all beauty and perfection, which was God. La Gianconda has regular features, but she looks nothing like the paintings of other Renaissance artists, such as Botticelli, whose paintings of “A Young Woman” and of Aphrodite rising from the sea, perfectly represent the kind of transcendent beauty capable of lifting up the mind and spirit of a man and achieving unity with the divine sphere (and the source of divine knowledge, the making of intuitive knowledge).

 

So, the Mona Lisa’s smile is subversive, and her plain looks do not elevate. In that sense Leonardo subverts the notion of what kind of emotion a painting of a woman is supposed to elicit – either a serious regard for the embodiment of virtue, or a vertiginous flight of the mind to ideas of eternal, divine beauty, and by extension, knowledge and understanding.

 

How is the Mona Lisa posing?  She is not seen in profile or looking straight on to the painter or viewer. Instead, one shoulder is ahead of the other, and she’s seen in three-quarter view. This pose, new in the Renaissance era, draws the eye in, and makes the subject seem more approachable. The Mona Lisa was one of the first to have the sitter relaxing with her hand resting on her arm, which is on the arm of a chair.

 

There is a rare intimacy in the portrait, to the point that it is almost as though she is asking you to talk to her, and also accompany her as she takes you though life’s winding pathways, depicted in the fantastical landscape behind her.

Thursday, December 22, 2022

A Conversation with Rochelle Owens about Patterns of Animus (2022)

Audio Recording of interview with Rochelle Owens over Patterns of Animus: http://www.zenzebra.net/audio/rochelle-2022-12-07.mp3 

Rochelle Owens Patterns of Animus
Rochelle Owens:  Patterns of Animus

Speaking to Rochelle Owens is always a pleasure because she sheds insight on her work and discusses some of the themes and philosophical constructs that animate it.

Welcome to an interview with Owens, where she reads from her new long poem, “Patterns of Animus,” and chats with Susan Nash about her work and interests now and in the past. “Patterns of Animus” appears in her collection of the same name, which also contains a series of essays written about her earlier work. To purchase Patterns of Animus or to read free on Kindle, click here.


Wednesday, December 21, 2022

A Conversation with Rochelle Owens on The Aardvark Venus (2020)

 Audio Recording:  http://www.zenzebra.net/audio/rochelle-2022-12-08.mp3

Rochelle Owens has been writing and publishing poetry since the early 1960s, and now her early work is available together with recent work (from 2020) in a single volume, The Aardvark Venus: Selected Poems 1961 - 2020. 

Welcome to an interview with Rochelle Owens, who chats with Susan Nash about her work, the philosophical ideas that have influenced her. 


To purchase a perfect-bound paper copy, or to read it on Kindle, please click here


The Aardvark Venus, by Rochelle Owens



Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Oklahoma Sanitarium Company, 1895 - Reputed to be VERY haunted

HOPE HALL: First Episode - Oklahoma Sanitarium Company -- Fire: April 13, 1918

13-year-old Julieta Klehrmorgan

Moved to Norman, Oklahoma

Dad is an engineer, mom a geologist –

both love Julieta, but are chronically worried and self-absorbed

Julieta likes to explore

Mysterious traffic circle at the end of Main Street

Twirl  twirl

take the second outlet

Follow the road, weeks pushing up from cracked asphalt

The block-long three-story red brick Prairie Corinthian

An abandoned psychiatric hospital, an “asylum”

Boarded up, a time capsule shivering

with its own knowledge -

Julieta peers into windows, sees the

No Trespassing Sign on door…

but the door opens,

a boy around 12 waves to her to come in.

Slender, wearing khaki pants,

sky blue button-down shirt

(or chambray)?, leather shoes

Dark, straight hair, round face –

Walks through the door … slips down stairs –

now in new dimension

new wood building, smells like oil

She touches the wood – it feels like a candle

Windows have metal bars

Through the window, she sees tall, uncut prairie grass,

cedar trees, and a large pond

A couple of people are on horseback

An apple orchard is in bloom

In a room, boys are seated around a table

Sorting colored blocks to put in small boxes

They seem to be wooden toys of some kind

The boys are sorting, grouping

Some are able to move smoothly

Others have limited range of motion

One is making grunting noises

Another, round face, lashless eyes,

a perfect “O” for a mouth

Partial to the red blocks

A small blonde boy keeps standing up on his chair

Another, pensive, hunched-over,

sorting, sorting, sorting

Julieta picks up a block

Wonders, does it, too, feels like a candle?

She thinks “no” –

Just a regular block of wood, sanded smooth

Painted even smoother…

Through the window, the sun is starting to set…

Night

Night

Evening prayers. Pray for today

Pray for the fading memory of a mother’s embrace

Pray for roommates sleeping in iron cots, boys

sleeping under identical wool blankets

soft, crisp white sheets

4 am, Saturday, April 13, 1918

The boy gestures to Julieta,

Look through the barred third-floor window

Thunder growls in the distance

Flash of lightning, crack and rattle of thunderclap

Old, twisted, half-dead cedar tree bursts

Showers of sparks and crackling flames

Gust front in a savage Derecho

Bends the limbs, strips the blossoms from the tree

Fans the sparks like bellows into a small flame

On a dark, cold night

Flames tear through the dry pampas grass

Eating their way to the dormitory building

The walls feel like candles

The floor sealed in wax

Screaming, shouting, rattling of keys

Windows open, but bars built into the frame

Doctors, nurses, night guards screaming, shouting

Boys run down the only corridor

To the only stairwell

Paraffin snapping, sparking, crackling

Yellow-orange unstoppable passion

L.T. Hawes running through flames

Unlocking doors, hoping against hope, and

The guard shielding two little boys with his body

One boy clasping a block from the day before

The ones able to talk sobbing for their mothers

The deaf-mute wide-eyed

The Downs Syndrome boys suffocating while they slept

Another guard with blanket over hands on fire-hot bars

Trying to worry them out of the wood frame

But then the smoke

Acrid wool, cotton, paraffin and oak

Clouds inside

Clouds outside

The deadly Derecho with its drenching rain

Put out the fire with water

From the same anvil clouds that hammered

and sparked the cedar with a jagged streak of lightning

Days later after paper telegrams and letters delivered

Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters

Mute with guilt and grief: silent, heaving shoulders

Regretting believing Dr. Griffin’s promises – a brand new treatment

For their child who could not mentally advance,

Or the ones who would not speak, would not look in the eye

Long, protracted tantrums, hour after hour

Riding on their wooden rocking horse

Or simply rocking, rocking, rocking back and forth

Could they have been helped after all at home?

More prayers? More pleading? More bargaining with God?

Night

Night

But by day the headlines:

“Three paraffin-soaked wooden fire traps kill little boys!” 

No more words needed

Julieta looks up

She is seated on an old park bench

North of the red brick Corinthian buildings

Clipped grass, concrete silhouettes of building foundations

The air smells like wet dirt and impending rain

Cardinals and robins chirping

The boy is back

 

“What is your name?”

 

November 27, 2022

 

Poetry of the Present: Fox on the Run

POETRY OF THE PRESENT (D. H. LAWRENCE)

November 6, 2022


FOX ON THE RUN


8:45 pm, a November full moon Sunday, crisp air

Soft light from the skies and my Honda Passport headlights

I see an industrial duster appended to a lean, little wolfish body

Scampering across the green space just beyond the iron gates

Bolt, bolt somewhere off in the direction of the winterized pool

And the backyards with offering plates of dry dog food 

Semi-urban fox, opossum, raccoon, rabbit

Easier pickings here than the cotton fields across 48th Avenue

Fox? Coyote? The yip-yips I hear in the fields toward the South Canadian River

Suggest coyote, not fox, not dog, not caterwauling feline (that would be me, at least 

in my own idea of self years and years and years ago… so glad that’s in the rearview mirror)

To all wildness, I support you

I leave a special Seventh-Heaven Pumpkin Spice muffin (well, half – I ate the muffin top)

Broken into chunks and tossed behind my Knock-out Roses and red & white periwinkles

And the bushes in front of the hail-pocked weathered cedar privacy fence. 


Tuesday is mid-term elections day. 

I’ll vote. Perhaps this time I’ll do detailed research 

Instead of simply voting “Throw the bums out.”


The coyote’s not a fox

Nor is it an opossum, rabbit, raccoon, or semi-feral cat

Too bad. 1976 Norman High School Spanish Club Spring Break

Trip to Mexico City, Taxco, Cuernavaca and then down winding Sierra Madres

Acapulco Hotel disco “La Tormenta” dancing after straining to see 

The famed cliff divers included in our package deal; 

Couldn’t wait to get out of there; who wants to see self-immolation?

Who wants to pay to see the poor risk their lives just for entertainment? 

Couldn’t wait to dance, dance, dance 

Popular still “Fox on the Run” by Sweet, memories bring a 

Return to innocence – where the poor do not mutilate themselves to entertain the rich

Return to purity –Spanish Club Spring Breaks do not unwittingly play into the old paradigm

Or simply dance to 1975 “Fox on the Run” by Sweet

Coyote tail Pony tail run run run dance

The full moon away

I’m here today

My eyes full moons

The cool picnic table air

I’ll never give up

And nor should you; sweet brushtail bush coyote



November 7, 2022


Wet leaves on the patio

Turn the card

A nest of beetles, or a smaller leaf over a smaller leaf over a smaller leaf

Matrochka fall


Five Russian textbooks, dictionaries, glossaries of verbs

Unboxed and placed on my pristine white bookshelves

Near Erik Satie’s A Mammal’s Notebook

After he died, they found 100 umbrellas in his cramped Parisian rooms

Not too thrilled about this

The velvet eccentric had a dozen identical suits, 

to alternate day by day by week; 

Yet after he died, they found a half dozen of those 

untouched, unworn


Inventories of the “raw” vs the “cooked” 

It’s all symbolic – the unworn velvet suit: 

potential for rebirth, a new “skin” and a new being

The worn-out suit: 

Experience, prior knowledge, scaffolding (but to where…?)



Saturday, November 05, 2022

How to Read D. H. Lawrence’s “Coming Awake”

(Audio recording) It is very hard to interpret D. H. Lawrence’s “Coming Awake” without a clear understanding of his notions of poetry as expressed in his 1919 essay, “The Poetry of the Present,” and a conceptual framework for Imagist Poetry and the Imagist Movement. 


How to Read D. H. Lawrence's "Coming Awake" 

D. H. Lawrence begins by saying that we need a new kind of poetry because most of the genres of poetry currently used either propel the reader into a projection of the future, or pull them back into the a nostalgic past.  The problem with poetry that focuses on the future or the past is that it has to be perfect.

If you focus on the present, however, there is no idealizing gaze and there is no force-fitting a grandiose “message” or meaning. 

If you focus on the present, you tend to chronicle the concrete images and things that are happening around you. In that case, instead of being grandiose, you’ll be closely observant. 

By being in the moment, you can create a “poetry of the immediate present,” and it will capture a part of the present – like a still pictures from a video of reality. 

In addition, the poetry that captures what is happening in the present is, as Lawrence puts it, “like the wind,” and there is “a sheer appreciation of the instant moment.” He cites Walt Whitman as a wonderful purveyor of the “poetry of the present.” 

In contrast, for Lawrence, poetry that attempts to adhere to or conform to “any externally-applied law” would be “mere shackles and death.”  For this reason, he prefers free verse. 

So, if we apply this concept to “Coming Awake” (1916), it is possible to appreciate it as an example of “poetry of the present” which seeks to imbue the poetic space with a sense of immediacy and of heightened powers of the senses and observation, so that what poetry does for you is to intensify your experience of everyday life. It amplifies, intensifies, and magnifies everything you perceive with your waking and awakening mind.  

In “Coming Awake,” the poet’s observations are of minute, delicate details – ones often overlooked by the person whose mind is in the clouds or in a fog of the past. Lawrence begins by observing the characteristics and qualities of light that often go unnoticed: “lake-lights were quivering” and “sunshine swam in a shoal.” The personification encourages the reader to feel the elements of the poem because the language suggests a human body. 

The poet’s intense attention to tiny details makes the reader perceive it as though looking through a magnifying glass and seeing the “hairy, big bee” with “his body black fur.”  The bee “hung over the primulas” which are later described as “airy primulas.” Primulas are also known as primrose, and they consist of clusters of tiny petals and delicate little stamen. The sense of looking at everything as though it were magnified many times, and frozen in time is what the poet’s language has done for us.  It puts everything in super-sharp focus, freezes it in time, and then magnifies it. 

Thus, the process of awakening can be said to be akin to reading the poetry of the present which functions as a tool to bring everything into extremely sharp focus and to put the reader in the very center of what is being described. The result is an experience so intense that it could also be depicted as shrinking to the size of a bee or a primrose and walking around in the garden and observing a gigantic, hairy, furry bee buzzing loudly, triggering your senses into extreme awareness. 

The careful reader will see an influence of Zen Buddhist thought and the poetic ideas of the haiku and other minimalism. 

Lawrence’s concept of the “poetry of the present” is deeply democratic. It basically proposes that everyone can and should write poetry because it is a tactic for living a happier, fuller, more vibrant life. Anyone can write a poem, Lawrence might suggest. The key is to slow down, write observations, exaggerate the concrete details so they appear larger than life and generate an emotional response of joy, happiness, appreciation of life. 

Works Cited

Lawrence, D. H. “Coming Awake” in New Poems. London: Martin Secker, 1919; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/128/  .

Lawrence, D. H. “Preface: The Poetry of the Present,” in New Poems, 1919. In The Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69403/the-poetry-of-the-present



Saturday, April 16, 2022

Moodle 4.0 Is Here! What's new about it?

Moodle 4.0 is here! I’m trying to determine just what the advantages are and how much of a step change it is from Moodle 3.11.  I don’t think that Moodle can change the basic architecture for a number of reasons. So, the changes have to come in things like user experience and efficiency.  

 

 If you've worked with Moodle for very long, you know that it can be a place of almost infinite complexity, but also almost Zen-like simplicity. It's also a veritable ant-hill of programming activity, as programmers develop productivity and design apps - some are available for free, others require a download fee.  Moodle and Moodle partners are likewise entrepreneurial, and you can quickly use pre-built templates and hosting and an integrated software-as-a-service solution.

 

Improved User Experience, with modules listed in an easy-to-follow design.

 

MoodleCloud is still in 3.11, so I can’t experiment with it as much as I’d like. However, the “sandbox” is still available, and one can select a role as student, teacher, or manager, to play around with it.  

 

Here are some of my initial thoughts:

 

PROS:

1.  Much improved user experience, in terms of navigation, layout, use of new thumbnails, and course construction (with drag and drop).

 

2.  The default theme being used in the Sandbox (probably either Clean or Boost) is very attractive and easy to use. 

  

3.  Fully responsive interface that works well with tablets, laptops, and phones.

 

4.  Improved navigation – you can tell where you are, and can go back to a previous screen very easily. There may be some AI-based plug-ins that can help refine "smart navigation."

 

5.  One can use the calendar as a dashboard. The "My Courses" screen can display in a number of different options. The “Card” option makes the interface look a lot like the way Canvas displays available courses. 

 

My Courses page

6.  The basic structure of the learning management system is the same, so the same names, arrangement, process and procedure works.

 

7.  Moodle 4.0 is available for download if you’d like to host courses on your own server. That PRO is also a CON if you’re not ready to be a Moodle Administrator.

 

8.  Outside Apps more easily integrate with Moodle 4.0.  Integrating apps has always been fairly easy by means of a link or embedded log-in.  I don’t know to what extent single-sign on is facilitated, and if authentication is otherwise streamlined.

 

9.  There is less content on each screen. Not only is it easier to see with your tablet or phone, it’s much easier to stay focused and avoid distractions due to a busy design. 

 

10.  Moodle is open source, which means that there is an entire industry dedicated to building plug-ins and other features that are useful and needed.  I would not be surprised if there will be machine learning-based apps that can detect patterns in student performance and help administrators and even teachers, see student preferences, gaps in knowledge, and collaborative strengths. 

 

CONS:

1.  If you have not worked with Moodle before, you may feel a bit discouraged. Moodle is not a very intuitive LMS, and one may not know where everything is without going through a pretty thorough training course. 

 

Courses and categories admin screen

 

 

2.  It’s not clear how much Universal Design for Learning was used with the new interface, dashboard, icons, etc.  I did not see multiple modes of content delivery on the sample classes in the sandbox site, but that does not mean that they are not available.

 

3.  Moodle 4.0 is not yet available in MoodleCloud, which is the most popular cloud-based Moodle.

 

4.  Moodle documentation is still at 3.11. 

 

An Initial Chat:

Relatecasts' Rick Zanotti and I have an informal conversation about Moodle 4.0, just hours after its release to the web on April 14.  Please click on the link to hear our conversation on E-Learn Chat.  I'm not as clear as I could be as I respond to Rick's questions -- I think my enthusiasm about the  arrival got the best of me :)  Please click and listen, then share your thoughts.

 

 
E-Learn Chat on the debut of Moodle 4.0 - speaking with Rick Zanotti

 Here's a link to the chat:

https://youtu.be/PqjHqLuWRqg

 

 Please note that an updated version of Packt Publishing's guide to Moodle course development will be published in July 2022, just in time to get courses and programs up and running.

 

 

****

Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D. 

 

 

Sunday, April 03, 2022

The Renaissance: Philosophical Ideas

The Renaissance (1450 – 1600) marked the flowering of culture, science and ideas about the nature of humanity that occurred in Europe, starting in Italy, spread throughout Europe. Characterized by philosophy, art, architecture, and literature, the Renaissance was a cultural revolution fueled by wealth from trade and new technology, along with political consolidations. It began in Italy in the 15th century (the “Quattrocento”) where the wealth banking family, the Medicis, became great patrons of art and learning. 


The Big Question: 

How did the philosophical ideas of Humanism reinforce the cultural and scientific revolution of the Renaissance?


Watch:  The Philosophical Foundations of Humanism

 During the Middle Ages, Aristotelianism reigned. It was a nice, orderly way of thinking of the world. Everything was in its right place, and there was always balance, equilibrium, and symmetry. Perhaps nowhere was this more evident than in Aristotle’s book, Categories, from his Organon. The Renaissance embraced the structure and symmetry of Aristotle as a way of creating beauty, instead of enforcing order in the world and structure, as it was used in the Middle Ages. The renewed emphasis on the philosophy of the Classics allowed investigation into representation of the phenomenal world, which is to say during the Renaissance, it was now acceptable to explore the natural world, and to ask questions about his forms and functions. Finding new ways to represent the natural world was also encouraged, which meant that the Renaissance brought together art, science, philosophy in new ways. As a result, we see the development of 3-dimensional art on a 2-dimensional canvas (thanks to, for example, linear perspective converging on a vanishing point where there are orthogonals, such as large tiles in the floor in a painting). 


Read: Defining Humanism in the Renaissance

Overview: Humanism represented a change of focus. Instead of simply seeking to define the right place of everything within a rigid hierarchy, Renaissance thinkers began to focus on the human being, and human potential for achieving great things, and finding a moment of unity with the good and the beautiful. There was a renewed interest in the philosophical writings of the ancient Greeks, primarily Plato and Aristotle.  In addition to exploring the philosophy of the Classics, the Renaissance thinkers also studied their buildings, sculptures, and other works of art. 


Foundational Humanism

Petrarch: Considered the key philosophical figure in the Renaissance, Petrarch, who was Italian, was driven by the idea of the quest for the ideal. For Petrarch, there was no conflict between realizing human potential and having religious faith. Petrarch was very interested in the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the classics, not just in terms of art and architecture, but also poetry, philosophy, and lost works. He invented the sonnet form, and he wrote love poems for Laura, although he had very little real contact with her in real life. His poetry and prose championed realism and empirical knowledge. 


Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: His “Oration on the Dignity of Man” is considered the Manifesto of the Renaissance. Pico resurrected humanism of ancient Greek philosophy, including Aristotle and Plato. His ideas mainly based on Plato. Through mental struggle, ascends great chain of being towards the angels and communion with God – unity which is very Platonic. 


Thomas More:  Wrote Utopia, an example of an ideal world which represents humanistic philosophy. In it, each person has a place in society that corresponds with their true nature and abilities, and there is communal ownership of property.  


Montaigne:  Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most important philosophers of the French Renaissance.  His essays were explorations of his own thoughts and attitudes, and he mulled over the prevailing philosophies and reflected upon the novelties of the times, such as the tales of travel in the Americas. 


Reformation

Luther: Faith and the Individual

Martin Luther, a German professor, was famous for his “95 Theses” which rested on the main concepts that the Bible is the core authority and that individuals can be saved (achieve salvation) only by faith and not by deeds. The “95 Theses” were published in 1517, and unleashed the Reformation, a religious schism which broke with the Catholic Church and repudiated the pope’s authority, rejected the validity of the sale of indulgences. Instead, he promoted “The Priesthood of All Believers.” Luther was excommunicated in 1521 at the Diet of Worms, after which he used the printing press to create pamphlets that explains the new doctrine.


Calvin:  Break Away from Hierarchy 

John Calvin, a French Protestant, believed in predestination and the omnipotence of God. Calvin was a stern believer in the power of God’s word and the responsibility of individuals to learn to read the Bible directly and to obey the word of God, without intermediaries (priests, bishops, etc.).  The core concept of Calvinism is that God selects those who, through grace, are made capable of believing in God, which is the route to salvation (not deeds, or purchasing indulgences). It was very anti-authoritarian, and was not welcome among the priests, kings, popes, bishops, and others who had benefited from a belief system that gave them privilege, power, and authority. 


The Middle Way

Henry VIII, miffed at Pope Clemente’s refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, decided to create a religion that maintained hierarchies and the divine rights of kings, but which eliminated the Pope. That church was The Church of England, and it instantly made enemies of both Protestants (Calvinists, etc.) and Catholics. Henry VIII sought to replace both with his Church of England, and he did so by burning Calvinists at the stake for heresy, and beheading Catholics.  


Analysis: Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532): The End Justifies the Means


Dedicated to his patron, Lorenzo de Medici, The Prince (1532, but written earlier) contains advice to the prince about how to acquire and maintain power. Much of the focus is on the psychology of the subjects, and so it is often considered a practical guide into the psychology of leadership, and the dynamic between the leader and followers. 


Machiavelli first defines principalities, types of armies, and then moves into the character and behavior of the prince. Written in a pragmatic style, with a tone of scientific inquiry, some of the passages seem almost satirical, such as when Machiavelli concludes that it is better for the Prince to be feared than loved by his subjects, better to be cruel than merciful, but is a good idea to launch large projects in order to create a positive reputation. Enormously influential, but not at all an antidote to political hot water, Machiavelli was accused of conspiracy and tortured in 1513.  


Later, Machiavelli wrote The Prince as well as historical and literary works.  The main point of The Prince is that almost any tactics can be justified in achieving the overall goal (creating a stable princedom), and if the populace is treacherous, then treachery on the part of the leader is justified.  The book was condemned by Pope Clement VIII, but nevertheless became widely adopted and studied. 


Explore:  Scientific Revolution

Francis Bacon: The Scientific Method

Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) was determined to invent a scientific method based on experimentation rather than parsing scriptures for evidence of natural law. He wanted to bring to light all the things that were previously hidden or unknown, and to do it for the good of humanity. His most important scientific writings were in essence writings in the philosophy of science. His book, “Novum Organum Scientiarum” (The New Scientific Method) lays out procedures for scientific investigation. 


Galileo:  The World Is Round, Despite Orthodoxy

1543):  Born in Poland, Copernicus was an astronomer who developed a celestial model which placed the sun in the middle of the planetary system (instead of Earth at the center). The heliocentric solar system was described in “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.” Copernicus was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. 


Galileo (1564 – 1642) was convicted of heresy for his belief that the world is not flat, and barely escaped being burned at the stake, although he did spend time in prison. He was most famous for his work in astronomy and math, and his assertion that the Earth is not flat. 


Discuss:  Similarity and Differences

Discuss the ways in which humanistic philosophy found its way into science, art, literature, and philosophy. What were the similarities and differences across the areas of study? 


Check your knowledge Quiz (5 questions):


1.  The great patron of the arts in Quattrocento Italy was

a) Giovanni de Medici (correct)

b) Pope Clemente VII

c) Niccolo Machiavelli

d) Pantagruel, as chronicled by Rabelai


2.  Machiavelli asserts in The Prince that mercenaries are

a) essential for defense

b) dangerous and can leave one vulnerable (correct)

c) expensive and wasteful

d) useful because they bring new ideas


3)  Copernicus devised a heliocentric planetary model which asserted that 

a) the moon was at the center, and the “Prince of Tides”

b) the planets have moons, and the moons are sometimes more important than the planets themselves

c) the sun is at the center, and the planets rotate around it (correct)

d) the earth is flat


4)  Humanistic thought in the Renaissance includes all except the following:

a) a return to Classical models

b) the human being has infinite possibilities of self-actualization

c) human accomplishment should be celebrated, and it brings together science, literature, politics, architecture, art, and more

d) Literacy is dangerous and all serious works of science, politics, and literature should be written in Latin (correct) 



Glossary

Heliocentric planetary system: developed by Copernicus. The planets rotate around the sun. 


Reformation:  The reaction and reorganization of the church based on Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (written in 1517) which criticizes the Roman Catholic Church. 


Quattrocento:  The 1400s (15th century) in Italian


Petrarchan sonnet: a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd


Elizabethan sonnet: a type of sonnet much used by Shakespeare, written in iambic pentameter and consisting of three quatrains and a final couplet with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg.


Vanishing point: the point at which receding parallel lines viewed in perspective appear to converge


Linear perspective: a type of perspective used by artists in which the relative size, shape, and position of objects are determined by drawn or imagined lines converging at a point on the horizon.


Orthogonal line: A related term, orthogonal projection, describes a method for drawing three-dimensional objects with linear perspective. It refers to perspective lines, drawn diagonally along parallel lines that meet at a so-called "vanishing point." Such perspective lines are orthogonal, or perpendicular to one another.


Key Takeaways

Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to 


1. Define humanism in the Renaissance

2. Explain the political philosophy of Machiavelli in The Prince

3.  List important works of philosophy in the Renaissance

4.  Identify key scientific works in the Renaissance

5.  Describe utopian writing in the Renaissance and its impact


Lesson Toolbox

Renaissance Links


Encyclopedia Britannica:  Renaissance art and architecture. https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance  


Metropolitan Museum of Art: Renaissance. 

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/keywords/baroque-art/


History.com: Renaissance Art: http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art


Art Institute of Chicago: Arms, Armor, Medieval, and Renaissance http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/armor 


Virtual Uffizi Gallery / Florence. https://plus.google.com/u/0/+UffiziFlorence 


Art Museums: Where to see Renaissance Art. https://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Art-Museums.html 


Renaissance Inventions: http://www.inventionware.com/renaissance-inventions/ 


More, Thomas. Utopia. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2130/2130-h/2130-h.htm 

Machiavelli, Niccolo.  The Prince. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232 


Grotius.  The Rights of War and Peace. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46564  


Cortes, Hernan. Letters to Emperor Carlos V. https://archive.org/stream/lettersofcorts01cortuoft/lettersofcorts01cortuoft_djvu.txt  


Lope de Vega. Comedias: El remedio en la desdicha; El major alcalde, el rey. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28408


Calderon de la Barca.  La Vida Es Sueño. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2587/2587-h/2587-h.htm 

Garcilaso de la Vega. The works of Garcilaso de la Vega. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49410 

Montaigne, Michel.  Essays. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm 

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2235 

Petrarch. Sonnets. Triumphs and other Poems. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17650 

Sir Philip Sidney. Astrophel and Stella. https://archive.org/details/sirpshisastroph00sidngoog 


--- Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D. 

susan smith nash, ph.d.
susan smith nash, ph.d.