Discussion 3: Readings on Rome and its culture

Discussion 3: Readings on Rome and its culture

Ingrid D. Rowland “Cultural Introduction to Renaissance Rome” Rome pp. 1-13

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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?