A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

62 Ch. 2 • The Renaissance

Overall, the Renaissance did not bring about any significant loosening in
the restrictions placed on women, and womens social and personal options
may even have been reduced. In the Italian city-states, women had less of a
role in public life than they had enjoyed in the courts of medieval Europe.
They presided over social gatherings, but for the most part in a ritualized,
decorative role. Although Renaissance authors idealized love and women, the
role of women continued to be to serve their fathers, husbands, or, in some
cases, their lovers. When the education of young women clashed with a
father’s plans for his daughter to marry, marriage won out without discus­
sion. Men’s feelings were the focus of considerable attention by Renaissance
writers; women’s feelings and opinions usually were assumed to be unimpor­
tant. To be sure, women in large, powerful families like the Sforza, Este, and
Gonzaga exerted influence and were patrons to artists. Yet the subjects they
commissioned artists and sculptors to portray were essentially the same as
those of their male counterparts, and, in patriarchal households, their hus­
bands made the decisions.

Renaissance Art

When the German painter Albrecht Diirer (1471 — 1528) visited Venice on

one of his two trips to the northern Italian peninsula, he was surprised and

delighted by the fact that artists there enjoyed considerably more status

than in his native Nuremburg: “Here,” he wrote, “I am a gentleman, at home

a sponger.”

The prestige and support given to the Renaissance artist created a nur­

turing environment for the remarkable artistic accomplishments that char­

acterize that special period’s place in history. Great works of Renaissance

architecture, painting, and sculpture are still studied by specialists and

appreciated by millions of people each year.

Architecture

Despite the Renaissance concept of the “ideal city” of architectural har­

mony, reflected in the first treatises on architecture, Florence, Siena, Peru­

gia, and other Italian cities retained their medieval cores, which contained

their markets and their public buildings, such as the town hall. But during

the fifteenth century, the narrow streets and alleys of many Italian cities

became interspersed with splendid buildings and dotted with works of art

commissioned by wealthy families.

Florence underwent a building boom during the fifteenth century.

Construction of its elegant residences stimulated the economy, providing

employment to day laborers, skilled artisans—brick- and tilemakers,

masons, roofers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, and joiners—and decorative

artists, including goldsmiths, sculptors, and painters. Renaissance archi­