CC201 Final Study Guide

Renaissance
1300s-1600s
characterization: re-birth
o revival of Greco-Roman antiquity
tribute and imitation (improvement) of the past
how to reconcile the classical past with Christianity
o new emphasis on the individual -> self improvement
creations and proliferation of autobiographical works
mock-humility topos
o increased study of the natural and physical world
vs. Middle Ages
o MA characterized by gothic art
Figures are elongated and draw attention up to God
vs the Renaissance is about proportions
Linear perspective to create a sense of depth
and reality
o Harmony, symmetry, balance, and
confidence
o
Petrarch: Canzoniere
Background
o
Letter to Posterity
o exemplifies the mock-humility topos
You may, perhaps, have heard tell of me, though
even tis is doubtful, since a poor and insignificant
name like mine will hardly have travelled far in space
or time (opening line)
I was in truth one of your own, a poor mortal
my friendship was sought out by prominent men.
Why, I do not know. (5)
And although, as is the way of youth, I was a most
indulgent judge of my own work, I was still uneasy
about accepting my own estimation of myself as well
as the verdict even of such men as those who
summoned me, despite the fact that they certainly
would not have honored me with such an offer, if
they had not believed me worthy (7)
The Ascent of Mount Ventoux
o supplements the mock humility topos through the plot

Petrarch claims he chose his brother as his partner

for the climb because hardly any of [his] friends
were suitable (11)
Quasai-argument
Pretense to take the brother (whos a monk) ->
useful to the story and a convenient plot
device for the spiritual realization that Petrarch
illustrates in the rest of the piece
Exploits that character of his brother to illustrate
humility -> used as a foil for Petrarch to speak ill of
himself on the climb
My brother chose thecourse straight up the
ridge, while I weakly took an easier one (13)
o spiritual realization: What you have experienced so often
today in the ascent of this mountain certainly happens to
you [on the] journey toward the blessed life. But this is
not so easily perceived by men for the movements of the
body are out in the open while those of the soul are
invisible and hidden (14)
learns that taking the easy way will usually lead to
failure and wasted time
learned as he kept trying to take easier routes
up that didnt work, while his brother went for
the more straightforward though originally
harder routes
Then, having seen enough of the mountain I turned
an inward eye upon myself (17)
Canzoniere
o song book characterized by sonnets
love poems to a Laura
o 128: political poem
let all your truth be heard through me, unworthy as I
am (p.43 lines 15-16)
***Machiavelli: The Prince
genre: Mirror for Princes (or rather a political philosophy under
the pretense of being a mirror for princes)
o gives advice to rulers
Background
o Italian government -> city-states
No hereditary monarchy or centralized government
o Time period: period of war as Italy was being invaded by
France and Spain
Couldnt unify itself and had a hard time defending
itself

Rulers werent ruling virtuously like other works in

the genre wrote
o Medici

Machiavellis politics
o Originally supported republicanism
In From Discourses on the First Decade of Titus
Livius, he wrote the multitude is wiser and more
constant than the prince
In the Prince pg. 7, he admits hes written on
Republics
I will leave behind me
ch. 7 and ch. 8 characterized by morally apprensive
ways to consolidate powers as a Prince (to a modern
reader) -> p. 25
vs. ch 9s advice to citizen rulers -> p. 33
d
Content
o Machiavelli to Lorenzo de Medici (opening)
Machiavelli presents himself as useful because of his
experience of contemporary politics and study of
the classics
I have not ornamented this book with rhetorical
turns of phrase
not interested in affirming official societal virtues like
Petrarch (who proposed the idea that city-states
should be governed by those who pursue glory
through virtuous actions)
o presents political realism and ethical pragmatism
separation of ethics and politics
o
Virt: drive skill, or ability directed towards the achievement of
certain goals; the most important quality for a prince
o Relationship between virt and fortune (things that happen
outside of individual control)
o Machiavelli proposes that a Prince can use his vit to make
fortune fo his will

Michelangelo: Sistine Chapel

believed that art should improve the natural world though
idealization -> god-like figures

o displaying the human body akin to God -> an image made

in Him
o believed his images could be poetic through color,
composition, etc.
Sistine Chapel
o Themes:
Role of the Catholic church in the redemption of the
people
Emphasis on the power and importance of the Pope
Beauty of the human body as displayed in the
classical past
o Commissioned b Pope Julius
o Sistine Chapel has the same dimensions as the Temple of
Solomon and Noahs Ark
Theme of the sacred proportion and dimension
o
Giornata- section of the plaster you paint before it dries on a
fresco
Disgeno- drawing; concept of rendering ideas through contours
***Montaigne: Essays
Historical context
o Media revolution through the printing press
Perpetuates the culture wars through smear
campaigns, images, and texts
Question of how language can be
responsible/irresponsible
o Rhetoric as an index of morality
o Commerce with the new world
o Wars of Religion -> political and social conflicts
16th century France: social mobility, political debate,
Reformation, the New World
St. Bartholomew Days Massacre (Aug 23/24 1572)
Mob violence on a grand scale directed at a
particular group in society -> pagrum
Catholics massacre the Protestants
Great influence on Montaignes work
Relationship between man and humanity
o What is the nature of the responsible, personal behavior in
a time of social crisis?
Themes
o 1) boundries between the public and private
o 2) civilization based on Roman ideals
o 3) anxieties of public life (reputation)

***Cervantes: Don Quixote

Lecture Notes (Nelson)
o Journey is the goal of the book
o Appropriates the themes of epics
o Possibly parallels Columbus journey to the new world
o Written during a time of golden age in Spain
Intellectual disruptions: Christian v Classical
Religious disruptions: Islam and the Reformation
Economic disruptions: from feudalism to enclosures
nd
o 2 part: more focus on the characters as if theyre writing
the novel themselves
o ectrasis (sp?): can insert into a work of literature another
reality
often describing another work of art moving you from
one level of reality to another
ex. Shield of Aeneas; the Odyssey (Odysseus
giving account of his adventures -> moving
back in time)
o what does it mean to discover something new that you
were never looking for
what does it mean to create a novel through
wandering
parallels Columbus journey in which he found the
New World while trying to find India
Themes
o Book 1: The world upside down
Problem with authors

Starts with saying I dont know the author ->

find out his real name in Ch. 5
o What is the value of the narrative:
multiple authors and a translator, etc

Question of authority
o Introduction: I am ultimately not subject
to authority -> metaphor of a clock
o Cervantes takes the self-fashioning
heroes and undermines the whole
question of authority
Printing-press -> can read yourself
Don Quixote -> can have his own
library
o Undermines the whole idea of one
exclusive reality and one exclusive
authority
o Inversion of hierarchy
Is Don Quixote a mad sane person
or a sane person mad
Cant distinguish between
literature and reality
Sancho: a very wise fool or a
foolish wise for

Festivals and subversion

Competing realities: juxtaposes different
realities/adventures with his own story of Don
Quixote
The fair Marcela
The Tale of Inappropriate Curiosity
The captives tale/Cervantes: Battle of Lepanto;
slavery in Algiers
o Cervantes autobiography: Cervantes
fought in The Battle of Lepanto against
the Muslims -> lost the use of his left arm
and on his way back to Spain he was
captures by Algerian pirates for 5 years

Takes his autobiography and puts it

into the most romantic and least
realistic element of the novel
Juxtaposition of reality -> what
happens when you read a novel?
You get so carried into the world of
that novel that it becomes part of
you (Nelsons lecture)
2: madness goes viral
Enchanters
Sancho, Sanson Carrasco, the Duke and Duchess
The other Don Quixote
Going sane, and Cide Hamete

o Book

Plot

Shakespeare: Hamlet and Sonnets

Hamlet
Appearance vs reality: is Hamlet actually mad or just pretending
to be so
Sonnets
Lecture
o Anti-Petrachian
Petrarchs love for Laura is abstract vs.
Shakespeares
Ideal love vs real love
o Sonnet 18
Immortalizes the subject because summers day is
transitive/fleeting
substantiates Shakespeares argument of
subject being better/longer than a summers
day
o Shakespeare tries to authenticate his metaphors
Vulnerability in Sonnet 17 -> question/insecurity of
whether people will believe him in his poems
o Theme of equvivation

Descartes: Meditations
Lecture
o Reason for the Meditations: provide demonstrative and
philosophical arguments concerning the nature of God and
the soul

doesnt rely on theological authority or divine

revelation
new view of nature and the material world
end game: provide a metaphysics according to two
substances that create the world: mind and matter
(dualism)
Meditation 1: What can be called into doubt
Discusses whether ones beliefs are real
Usually focus on the senses as sources of
authority, but you cant always trust them
o 2 arguments against the senses
1) senses sometimes decit -> can
never place complete confidence in
it
2) dreams there exists no
certainty/mark that youre not
reaming
Method: eradicate any beliefs that cannot hold up
against the strongest and most withering criticism

Meditation 2: Nature of the human mind

Gap between how things appear to be and how they
are
How to find something without a conceivable
gap -> appearance v reality
Knowing the nature of something and the existence
of something are two different things
Body: anything that occupies space or can be
extended into space
Cognito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)
I have conscious cognitive activity therefore I am
something
A modest claim that sets up things that we can
be absolutely acquainted with -> theres a
realm of consciousness experience
Summary
Rebuild knowledge from the ground up in which true
claims are only those which are absolutely certain
Cant trust senses because at any moment you could
be dreaming or being deceived by God or an evil
demon
Concludes that he exists; a thing that cannot be
doubted because in order to doubt or think there
must be someone doing the doubting or thinking

Screenshot

Can conclude that since his existence follows

from the fact that he is thinking, he is a thing
that thinks
God exists because the idea of God in his mind
cannot be created by bum since it is far more perfect
than he is
Because He is perfect he would not deceive the
Meditator about anything
He also derives a second proof for the
existence of God from the fact that, while
bodies are essentially extended, God is
essentially existent. A God that does not exist
is as inconceivable as a body that is not
extended.
The body: the essence of the body is extension and
the essence of mind is thought
Puts into doubt the Aristotlian philosophy that
knowledge comes from the senses
Works to persuade the Aristotelian readers to
purche themselves of their prejudices and lead
the mind away from the senses that Aristtle so
heaily relies on
summaries

Milton: Paradise Lost

Bach
Lecture (James Johnson)
Explored what could be conveyed through music life,
experience, passion, triumph, glory, faith, despair
One of the most prolific composers and artists of all time
o Wrote for every conceivable music genre
Born a generation after the 30yrs War (1618-1648)
o Bachs life: 1685-1750
o War touched everyone in its path -> Catholic vs Protestants
Came at a time of massive plague, famine, and
disease
Religiously driven
Entire populations were psychically traumatized from
the experience and memories of the war -> daily
rememberence of death, cruelty, and suffering
Right after Martin Luther (1483-1546) and the
Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther -> Pope is not necessary to have
a relationship with God
Cantata: small orchestra and a choir; 15-20 minute pieces every
Sunday
o Bach wrote about 300 cantata pieces
The existence of music in the sphere between human life and
God
o Could capture the intelligible harmony of Gods creation
o Music can capture the perfection of creation r
Has the potential to give us a glimpse of something
higher than ourselves
Fugue: a contrapuntal composition in which a short melody or
phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively
taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts.
Magnificat: a composition Marys words to Elisabeth (Luke 1:4655)
o Opening can be described as rising, frank, joyful
Arpeggio : the notes of a chord played in succession, either
ascending or descending.
Rembrandt
Lecture Notes:
o goes by first name
o signs his work with just his first name like the
Renaissance/Italian predecessors

o Renaissance painters in his day were still revered and were

idols alluding to that group of immortal artist old masters
other artists at the time used their first and last name
very specifically modeling his grand self-portrait in
dialogue with Titan (Tishen) and Raphael
adapting their works in his own image/self-portrait
into self-portraits
o wears 16th century Renaissance clothing in his portrait; not
17th century clothing
o announcing that he is a Titan/Raphael reborn
never actually went to Italy
ambitious artists work
classical/religious subject mattes
significant texts
didactic and moraly significant characters vs
Dutch (Protestant) society muted a lot of the great Christian art
work prevalent in Catholic society
Rembrandt needed patrons who were interested in this subject
matter since there was no sovereign/royal court or Catholic
patronage (institutional patronage) (who were into Biblical subjects)
o Rembrandt needed urban patrons
o rich merchants; not noblemen
o important in portraiture
in the Nights Watch there are different levels unlike n other
group portraits which are equally illustrated
energy, action, movement, fluidity

emulative reivalry
o inserts himself into the pantheon of Great Renaissance
artist (uses his first name)
self-portraits emulate Raphael and Titan
2015 FINAL EXAM ESSAY QUESTIONS FOR CC201

Part III of our final exam will ask you to complete two out of three essay questions, each worth
25 points. The three questions included on the exam will come from the list below. You can
therefore maximize your chances of developing thoughtful responses during the exam by
reviewing these questions and preparing ahead of time how you would respond. Take care to
avoid discussing the same work twice and be sure to include examples of visual art and/or music
in at least one of the essays. Present your answer in the form of a well-structured essay, one that
includes details of historical context, medium, and/or form, and avoids repeating material from
your seminar essays.

Note that you may not bring notes or drafts with you to the exam.
1. THE CLASSICAL PAST: In terms of its responses to Graeco-Roman
antiquity, the Renaissance can be described as a culture of
emulation. At the same time, however, the Renaissance is a period
marked by new artistic concerns and technologies and the desire to
break with past traditions. How do the major creative figures we have
explored this semester engage in dialogue with the classical past, as
they seek to recover, reanimate, or challenge it? Your essay should
include examples from two or three works on our syllabus.
a. Michelangelo
b. Petrarchs explicit emulation
i. I have devoted myself to the study of antiquity, for I
always disliked our own age-so much so, thatI would
have preferred to have been born in any other time (3)
ii. endless references it contains to Roman antiquity, which
I admired so (5)
c.
2. THE SELF: Consider why the self and the shaping of self are important
subjects in the Renaissance and how the preoccupation with selfhood
is demonstrated in two or three works encountered this term.
a. Rembrandt
i. Emulating the works of Raphael and Titan wirh regards to
self-portraits
ii. Wearing Renaissance clothing
iii. Going by his first name
iv.
3. KNOWLEDGE: In all of the works weve read, listened to, or looked at
this semester, knowledge plays a crucial part: it is both rejected and
desired, both seductive and destructive, both expansive and
constrictive, both divine and all-too-human. Write an essay on the way
in which any two or three works we have studied this semester explore
the complexities of knowledge.
a. Hamlet
i. Learns knowledge of his fathers murder
ii. Wants to know more about where Cladius absoltley killed
his father
b. Paradise Lost
i. Adam wants to know more about Heaven
ii. Satan wants to know more about creation
iii. Eve is seduced into eating from the Tree of Knowledge
c. Descartes
i. Knowledge of absolute truths

d. Montaigne
i. What do I know? Even more than Socrates, he believed
that the awareness of ones own ignorance is the basis of
wisdom
4. APPEARANCE AND REALITY: Several of the works we have studied this
semester are concerned with distinctions between appearance and
reality. Discuss how this concern informs any two or three works on the
syllabus.
a. Hamlet
i. Theres nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so
b. The Prince (real politics vs the ideal)
c. Don Quixote

5. AUTHORITY: Renaissance thinkers and artists could be profoundly

ambivalent in their attitudes toward authority. Many artists and writers
sought to establish or legitimate their own authority by not only by
drawing upon, but also deviating from prevailing orthodoxies (artistic,
religious, political, or social). Compare the way in which two or three

Renaissance works display their creators' ambivalence towards

powerful institutions, forms, or ideas.
a. Milton
b. Machiavelli
c. Petrarch
i. Letter to Posterity
1. mock humility topos
2. name drops his homis
a. I spent many years in the house of Giacomos
brother, Cardinal Giovanni Colonna
d. Montaigne
i. To the Reader
1. You have here, Reader, a book whose faith can be
trusted, a book which warns you from the start that I
have set myself no other end but a private family
one (opening line)
2. Here I want to be seen in my simple, natural, own
self that I am painting. Here drawn from life, you will
read of my defects and my native form so far as
respect for social convention allows