Discussion 3:
Readings on Rome and its culture
Ingrid
D. Rowland “Cultural Introduction to Renaissance Rome” Rome
pp.
1-13
&
Loren
Partridge “Patronage and the Popes: Saints or Sinners?” The
Art of the Renaissance in Rome pp.
8-17
Both of these
readings explain the rise of Rome due to the inalienable right of the
Popes, sanctioned by God to reside and reign there. Loren Partridge
tells us that “in transferring his (Emperor Constantine's) capital
to Constantinople, it was believed that Constantine donated the city
of Rome, the western empire, and the imperial regalia to the pope,
although already in 1440 Lorenzo Valla (1407-57) had demonstrated the
document recording this famous donation to be an eighth-century
forgery” (15). Glancing over this minor fallacy,
popedom kept calm and carried on with it's pursuit of Rome and
overall became a success and a major reason why the Renaissance
occurred. “When the popes returned permanently to Rome in
the early fifteenth century, the city began to grow and prosper”
(Patrdige, 16).
As Ingrid Rowland
blatantly states “what actually fueled the Renaissance in Rome, was
money” (5). Also the idea of Rome as the sanctioned city of God
powered the Renaissance, for without the power and money of the popes
the Renaissance would not have happened. “For Martin V, patriotic
Roman pope, the idea of Rome as head of the church gained a
gloriously timeless perspective with its fifteenth-century
reinvention: This was the moment that gave life to the idea of Rome
as Eternal City, not for a season but for all time” (Rowland, 2).
The Eternal City and the pope's powering it guide the Renaissance
with a mainly Humanist ideal.
“Rome lagged
behind until the mid-fifteenth century” (Rowland, 3). It is in the
fifteenth century that rebuilding the city (it had been sacked
numerous times) became of great importance to the papacy and
humanists. “The rebuilders believe that their work of restoration
answered the call of God. The urgent image of rebirth that underpins
the very idea of the Renaissance (not to mentions the term itself)
was forged, not in Florence, but in Rome-- and when that rebirth was
conceived, its audacity was staggering” (Rowland, 4). The
rebuilders of Rome recognize the importance of rebirth in the
thoughts and practices of their forefathers. “For them (humanists),
the ruins of the Eternal City seemed to reveal traces of God's plan
just as clearly as they laid bare the details of ancient construction
methods” (Rowland, 4). The humanists and scholar-popes begin to
study and encourage the lost antiquities. To humanist artists of the
fifteenth century “and their contemporaries, the Columns and
statues strewn among the ruins seemed to encode a secret lore of
perfect proportion, known to the ancients and lost in the later eras,
a perfection based on harmony with the human body” (Rowland, 4).
Through the reconstruction and revival of Rome; artists, architects,
and others regained lost knowledge, and then were able to add to it.
Actually because of this rebirth (the Renaissance!), “the city of
the popes, from the fifteenth century onward, classical style became
the preferred instrument for spreading a gospel” (Rowland, 9).
Money catapults
Rome to a higher status as Rowland states that, “in the fifteenth
into the sixteenth century Rome's economic standing began to improve
dramatically as popes invested huge sums of money in tangible
improvements for the city” (6). Humanist educations must have
encouraged the preservation and public study of ancient texts because
educated popes like Nicholas V began the first papal library.
“Nicholas V, elected in 1447 understood with particular clarity
that art, architecture and city planning could do their own part to
advance the image of Rome as the papacy's proper, divinely sanctioned
home” (Rowland 9). Nicholas V, provided the first nucleus for an
official, public Vatican Library just like the Ancient roman
libraries of the collections of Alexandria and Pergamon that were so
famous. It was “a library of all books both in Latin and Greek that
was worthy of the dignity of the Pope” (Rowland, 9). After a brief
stint of non-activity with adding to the library, in 1475 the
library was re-started by scholar-pope Sixtus IV. “Sixtus made it
clear that like Nicholas before him, this growing collection of books
was an essential element in any grand plan for the city's spiritual
and physical renewal” (Rowland, 10). Rowland believes that “in a
real sense, the library served as the brain of the Renaissance Rome,
its articulate memory and its nerve center” (10). The Humanist
ideal of public knowledge was encouraged and endowed by the papacy
due to the construction of this public library. “Pope Sixtus
ordered that Greek authors be translated from Greek to Latin so that
their works would be available to a greater number of readers; in
this sense, too, the library truly lived up to its designation as an
apostolic institution, an explicit instrument of Christian mission”
(Rowland, 10). It is known that “from 1475 onward, the Vatican
Library's importance to Renaissance Rome would remain fundamental,
[due] in part for the richness of its holdings” (Rowland, 11).
Popes came and
went, and with these rotating regimes came changing ideas and ideals.
Artists and architects depended on the patronage of the popes, but
also were able to gather and begin new ideas. One idea (that remains
today) from this time period is that of The Academy, which would
teach the arts (instead of apprenticeships). “The prelates,
artists, bankers, and courtiers who depended on the papacy for their
livelihood learned to adapt quickly to changing regimes; at the same
time, they maintained a certain degree of diffuse independence from
the city's one dominant figure by forming their own associations;
learned academies, religious confraternities, gatherings of friends”
(Rowland, 6).
The papacy's
determination to make Rome the capitol of their religious empire was
essential to the Renaissance. These powerful popes were raised and
educated in a Humanist way, and therefore had a great sense of civic
pride. This lead to the reconstruction of Roman antiquities and the
preference of the arts resembling the classical. In order for the
artists and scholars of the period to incorporate these ideas, a
public library was erected by the papacy to instill ancient knowledge
upon them. According to Rowland this library served as the nervous
center or brain of the city. The money and sanctions the church threw
into revitalizing Rome literally helped coin the term “Renaissance”.
Essentially from the readings I took to understand that without the
power and money from the papacy in Rome, along with humanist
educations and ideals, the Renaissance probably would not have
happened. Great things rarely happen without the backing of large
sums of money.
A
question:
In
the fifteenth century, did “they” refer to the time already as
The Renaissance? Or is that a term only used in hindsight?
