252 Chapter 13
Century. Medieval scholars knew and quoted classical
writers, but the Renaissance that began in Florence in
the generation of the Black Death was far more than
just another in a series of European infatuations with
the antique past. By rediscovering the lost masterpieces
of Greek and Roman literature, by reviving the ancient
preoccupation with history, and by reexamining scien-
tific theories ignored during the Middle Ages, the hu-
manists redefined learning and transformed education.
By the early fifteenth century, the new learning had be-
come the dominant movement in European intellectual
life. Directly or indirectly, it remade each of the arts
and sciences in its own image and changed forever the
way in which Westerners looked at their world.Illustration 13.6
Tombs of Giuliano de’ Medici, Duke of Nemours and
Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, by Michelangelo.
Michelangelo executed this magnificent group in the New Sac-
risty of San Lorenzo, Florence, between 1520 and 1534. The dis-
torted poses of the heavily muscled reclining figures as well as
the dramatic arrangement of the entire piece point away from
classical balance and serenity while retaining a basically antique
frame of reference.