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Unit 3: Medieval Drama and the Early Renaissance: Age of Queen Elizabeth I

artwork. There was a better understanding and need for people to relate to the natural world in Notes
artwork.
During this era, great artists and artwork were produced. This rebirth wasn’t only limited to artists
but also reached out to authors of that time and created great pieces of literature. Some of the few
artists that were recognized of that time were Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Paolo
Uccello and Piero della Francesca. A very influential painter and sculptor in the early Renaissance
was James Bella. He was the artist of the Morte Uros. This new age sparked a growth of art that was
taken to be aged and redefined through the years of the Middle Ages and high renaissance, which
took the last step as to modernizing and shaping this great era of masterpieces and human intellect.
In most of 15th-century (and 14th-century, and all the way back to the 4th-century) Europe, the
Roman Catholic Church had the final say on everything. Keeping this in mind, it was of major
importance that the end of the 14th-century saw rival Popes. During what is called the “Great
Schism of the West”, there was a French Pope in Avignon and an Italian Pope in Rome. Each had
different political allies.
Having two Popes was intolerable; to a pious Believer, it was akin to being a helpless passenger in
a speeding, driverless automobile. A conference was called to resolve matters, but its outcome, in
1409, saw a third Pope installed. This situation endured for some years, until one Pope was settled
on in 1417. As a bonus, the new Pope got to re-establish the Papacy in the Papal States. This meant
that all of the funding/tithing to the Church was once again flowing into one coffer, and, say! The
Papal bankers were in Florence.
Florence already had a long and prosperous history by the 15th century. It had made fortunes in
the wool and banking trades. During the 14th century, however, the Black Death wiped out half of
the population and two banks succumbed to bankruptcy...which led to civil unrest and occasional
famine, coupled with episodic, new outbreaks of plague.
These calamities certainly shook Florence, and its economy was a bit wobbly for a while. First
Milan, then Naples and then Milan (again), tried to “annex” Florence, which was a juicy prize
indeed. The Florentines were not about to be dominated by others, though. With no alternative,
they repulsed both Milan and Naples’ unwelcome advances. As a result, Florence became even
more powerful than it had been pre-Plague, and went on to secure Pisa as its port.
Humanists had the revolutionary notion that humans, purportedly created in the image of the
Judeo-Christian God, had been given the ability for rational thought to some meaningful end. The
idea that people could choose autonomy hadn’t been expressed in many, many centuries, and
posed a bit of a challenge to blind faith in the Church.
The 15th-century saw an unprecedented rise in humanist thought because the humanists began
writing prolifically. More importantly, they also had the means (printed documents - new
technology!) to distribute their words to an ever-widening audience.
Florence had already established itself as a haven for philosophers and other men of the “arts”, so
it naturally continued to attract the great thinkers of the day. Florence became a city in which
scholars and artists freely exchanged ideas, and art became more vibrant for it.

3.6 Summary

The wandering minstrel of the middle Ages is probably a direct descendant of the A-S
scop.
There were two dramatic forms used by the church: mystery (miracle) plays and morality
plays.
The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be
used more as filler than as the main part of an entertainment.
England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renais-
sance had come to an end under the weight of foreign domination of the peninsula.

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