Renaissance: It's Beginning In Italy (1957)

[Music] the great achievements of the Renaissance were the discovery of the world and the discovery of man [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] the Stone Cutters of the work in the marble quaries of Monte fat and carara [Music] [Applause] Stone Cutters and the sons of stone cutters they were to Fashion with a painters philosoph and art which historians have called the [Music] Renaissance all the great nations of Europe shared soon or late in the new age but the true Renaissance began in Italy in the City of Florence above the city about the year 1,000 unknown Florentine stonemasons began the building of a church the church of San Minato alonte [Music] [Music] within the city itself some 300 years later a Florentine artist depicted the life of St Francis the artist's name Jondon rude figures want the reality of life let it be remembered that he was the master by whom the true art of painting was recovered after it was lost during the Dark Ages [Music] [Music] in the year 1521 two centuries later the medi family the rulers of the city commissioned to work by the great Renaissance artist mik Angelo [Music] [Music] thus in three Florentine examples we trace the gradual Awakening over five centuries of the spirit of the Renaissance the year 1,000 the early [Music] 1300s 1521 mikelangelo giant of the high [Music] renaissance renaissance means New Birth what was this new birth and why did it first take place in [Music] Italy the fall of the Roman Empire marked the end of one great period of civilization and the beginning of that period which historians call the Middle Ages in northern Europe during the Middle Ages life was walled within City and Castle medieval man's refuge in a hostile world [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] change over a period of long centuries came slowly or not at all [Music] glor life and art was a meditation on the glory of the next world [Music] hallelu we on [Music] and then in the 14th century day of day [Music] of in the 14th century in Italy a joyous Awakening of the human imagination [Music] for might [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] here in Luca delar Robia singing children we find perfect expression of the joyous Spirit of the early [Music] Renaissance life in Italy during the Middle Ages had taken a course different from that of Northern Europe for one thing Italy stood across the rout of the Crusades and Italian ships carried the Crusaders to the holy land at a profit later the merchants of Venice and Genoa transported a rich Commerce to and from the Orient and Northern Europe thus great wealth was accumulated in Italian cities and with wealth came Leisure and magnificence in addition the old Roman world had never been quite destroyed the people had kept Ancient Memories of an earlier time Italy was a fallow field beneath which lay buried the civilization of the ancient [Music] world all the great cities of Italy participated in the drama of the Renaissance Venice brought to a recep of people the influence of the East Milan with the most brilliant Court in [Music] Europe Sienna was the proud rival of Florence Padua the loyal Ally of Maritime Venice but the greatest city of Renaissance Italy was Florence and the florentines sounded the dominant chord in the harmony of the new age that of discovery Discovery in the first place of the ancient world in the year 141 a competition was announced by the senority of the city Florentine artists were invited to submit designs and bronze for the north doors of the baptistry 70 years earlier a great Master had completed the South doors in this year 1330 was begun on the metal doors of San joani marous workmanship and value and they were molded in clay and cast in fire of furnaces by Venetian Masters and the figures gilded by a master named Andrea Pizano [Music] when the trial pieces for the new doors were placed on disp hesitates of two Flor Lio brunesci and Lorenzo giberti the palm of victory was conceded by all the experts to me Lorenzo giberti brunelli the loser left Florence determined to of sculpture he traveled to Rome during the Middle Ages this once great City had fallen into ruins but to brunelli its ruined civilization spoke with a resounding voice the Senate and the people of Rome dedicate this Arch to the deified Titus vespasianus thus the Italians of the Renaissance discovered the civilizations of ancient Rome and Greece their architecture poetry philosophy when thales was asked what was difficult he said to know oneself the short period of life is long enough for living well and honorably cry is given the name virtue honest folk become the slaves of villains might is right and fear silences the Lord Caesar said to the SS the eyes of March are come [Music] we are mad not only individually but n we check manslaughter and isolated murders but what of War and the much wanted crime of slaughtering whole people when asked from which country he came diogenes replied I am a citizen of the world to the Italians of the 15th century the classics brought the Breath of Life said one scholar in Search of Lost Greek manuscripts I go to awake the dead fipo brunes Rome and returned once more to Florence where he became one of the great architects of the Renaissance Lorenzo giberti labored for 21 years on the North doors of the baptistry and then for another 27 on his doors of paradise observing the laws of vision I succeeded in giving the figures an appearance of such reality that if seen from a distance they seem to be in the full real as in ancient Greece so in Renaissance Italy art and the artist assumed first place in the culture of the nation it was an age of Splendid dress of pageantry and Festival from the pope upon St Peter's chair to the clerks in the Florentine Counting house every Italian was a judge of art and literature it was an age too of sudden [Applause] [Music] violence the mety the ruling family of Florence had been the victims of a conspiracy y Juliano deedi pale and Ill was struck down Lorenzo the head of the family had taken refuge in the new Sacristy for the attack had taken place within the cathedral itself two priests and an Archbishop were among the conspirators and were [Music] hanged this drawing of one of the unfortunate conspirators is by Leon o DaVinci DaVinci's interest in the affair is not to be wondered at for like many Renaissance Italians he was interested in everything this is the real miracle that all shapes all colors all images of every part of the universe are concentrated in a single point the I have perfected a war machine an armored car it will need eight men to work it the sun gives spirit and Life to plants and the Earth nourishes them with its moisture the mechanism of the wing of my flying machine I have dissected more than 10 human bodies removing the very minutest particles of Flesh by which the veins are surrounded begin with the conception of man and describe the nature of the womb and how the fetus lives in it thus leonado DAV Vinci he embodied within his vast nature the most profound impulse of the Renaissance to understand man and the world through science in The Old City Records of Florence the sculptor is described as a master of living stone with Michelangelo it was said the very rocks seemed to live he maintained that the form dwelt within the stone and that his chisels served only to reveal it [Music] Michelangelo now received letters advising him to return to Florence and thus obtain a piece of marble which the senori of the city had talked of giving to Leonardo rinci this marble was nine braa high and Michelangelo when it was given him permitted no one to see his work until the figure was brought to Perfection David the Slayer of Goliath signifying that the rulers of Florence should defend the city with courage [Music] [Music] [Applause] for 3 Days according to an old Legend mik Angelo's giant was dragged in triumphant procession through the streets of Florence whether the legend of the David procession is true or not and historians differ Michelangelo's statue was erected in the most prominent part of the city a symbol of the free spirit of the new age and of the florentines high regard for great art the Italian Renaissance had no exact beginning or end historians look upon it as a period of transition which brought a close to the Middle Ages and opened the modern era during the Middle Ages classical civilization had been unknown or imperfectly known Renaissance Scholars initiated a Revival of learning recovering the art The Poetry the philosophy of ancient Rome and Greece [Music] modern science was conceived with the Renaissance the art of the Middle Ages was a meditation on the other [Music] world the art of the Renaissance was an art of this world it spoke with a clear voice of a New Freedom