The Italian Renaissance | Renaissance Venice (Lecture 14)

Lecture 14: Its social and political context meant the Renaissance arrived late in Venice. Looking to Byzantium rather than to Italy, having little motivation to make cultural or intellectual connections with other Italian states, and not seeing itself as a city with a classical Roman past, Venice was isolated from the first appearances of Humanist values in the peninsula. Also, the social structure separated the educated members of the chancery, or civil service, from the dominant political families.

Everything changed, however, after 1380, when Venice decided to expand onto the mainland in order to protect its flank, its food supply, and trade routes. Venice conquered the sophisticated cities of northern Italy, such as Vicenza and Verona, and in 1405, Padua, with its celebrated university. There, Venetians confronted and began to adopt Humanist and Renaissance artistic values. Such architects as Sansovino and Palladio worked in Venice to bring the classical style to maturity. Painters, such as Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Titian, developed a unique use of light and color to reflect the atmosphere of the Veneto in which they lived. The wealth of the city meant patronage flourished, and official commissions to adorn public buildings quickly institutionalized this transformation.

Secondary Sources:
Manfredo Tafuri, Venice and the Renaissance.
Patricia Fortini Brown, Art and Life in Renaissance Venice.

Supplementary Reading:
Margaret King, Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance.

Lecture 15: https://rumble.com/v4xlo39-the-italian-renaissance-the-signori-renaissance-princes-lecture-15.html