Shandrika Shreves
Professor Alexandra Hill
HUM 2232
16 October 2012
Renaissance
Besides the horrific natural disasters of the plague, the signs of intense human creativity flourished in all the arts. The deep-rooted scholastic approach to learning increased interest in Classical literature. Therefore, people began incorporating new ideas to political systems, economics, and trade. The ideal Renaissance man and woman wanted a better understanding of life. The passion for enlightenment changed the culture and scholasticism of this period. Francis Petrarch, Christine de Pisan, and Lavinia Fontana contributions to the Renaissance are the signs of intense human creativity, and created a new perspective on life.
Men during the Renaissance controlled of everything. They had a voice in the political and social systems. Social categorizing of the Renaissance people depended on a person classification of wealth. Men were supposed to be loyal to their king and the Church. Learning from outside sources other than the Church became popular. They did not reject the church, but people started to question the traditional history and teachings. In this era, people started to focus back on their history and began to have a strong passion for investigating and learning more about their past. Education became paramount. The more educated, the more a person understood about life as a whole; it became a necessity to become well rounded and successful. Social status played a huge role during these times, reputation, wealth, and knowledge made it easy to either earn respect or lose it. Also according to Renaissance thinkers, learning from your history by reading works from the past, was the main key to success.
One of the main contributors to the Renaissance period was the father of humanism Francis Petrarch (page 241). He was born in Arezzo and died during the Plague. Petrarch was obedient to his parents and began studying law which changed to literary works (page 242). Petrarch became very curious. He collected ancient classics and copied old works. Petrarch urged others to do the same and wealthy Italians all over Italy began their own libraries. One of Petrarch's legacies was his belief that the recovery and study of the works of antiquity could restore virtue, culture, and social order (page 243). During Petrarch's lifetime, he was famed primarily as a poet and scholar. Petrarch philosophical works are an effort to resolve this conflict between earthly and spiritual needs. Petrarch could perceive that humanistic and individualistic qualities actually brought him closer to God which is not a common viewpoint to his time and is one more indication of his closing the gap between medieval and Renaissance thinking (page 243).
During the Renaissance, women did not have quite the opportunity to contribute to the Renaissance like men. In today's society women have the same respect and opportunities that men have, and it is mostly taken for granted. Women in the Renaissance did not have active rights or own companies. In addition, political roles only consist of men because of the notation that a woman was not intelligent enough to control an official job. The ideal Renaissance woman duties included being obedient to their husbands and the church. Some women who held a higher living class could be more involved by helping to run family business. Women social status was most likely dictated by the clothes they wore. Single women did exist but was very unusual to during this period. Most women during the Renaissance played a subservient role.
Only a few women had the luxury of being exposed to learning. Christine de Pisan is one of the first professional writers to make her own living with the power of her pen (page 245). Christine’s father allowed her to obtain an education which she wrote a book called The Book of the City of Ladies that demonstrates women possessed virtues precisely opposite to those vices imputed to women (page 245). Christine de Pisan argues for the equality of women saying that women should have the same rights as men. She gave women the courage and platform to work from to support their forays into a society dominated by men. She also provided an education plan that pointed out reasonable and realistic reasons in why women of different classes should be educated in certain subjects, to be as proficient as the men (page 451). Christine also provides sound, reasonable advice on how to maintain your status, to be as respected as your male counterparts in the professional fields (page 452). All of these things added together over the course of centuries greatly influenced feminism and used it to motivate women get an education and enter the workforce despite the traditional roles of women. During the High Renaissance, Lavinia Fontana was the daughter of a painter, and skilled enough that she went to Rome and gained patronage at the level of papal court (page 315). Lavinia had a successful career as a portrait painter her husband Giano Paolo Zippi gave up his career to aid and manage hers (page 315). Although, only a handful of women expressed their intellect showing that women were capable of learning and could sometime do task a lot better than some men if only they were given the opportunity.
Men and women during the Renaissance started to take a different approach on just accepting old teachings and started revising them. Men began becoming obsessed with learning from the past to understand the humanistic nature. Having wealth and intelligence was the ideal accomplishment. Although, the women did not have a lot of spotlight during the Renaissance, few women started branching out by getting education, and being productive. Petrarch, Christine, and Lavinia contributed to some of the most creative periods in human history their input to the Renaissance established a whole new way of thinking.
Works Cited
Cunningham and Reich. Culture and Values. VCC ed. Vol. 3. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2009.
Print 18 September 2012.