Renaissance Artists Intellectual Life
Before attempting to answer the question it is important to consider what we mean by 'early Italian Renaissance. Unlike many periods in history the Renaissance has no obvious start and end dates, for the purposes of this assignment I will define the approximate period within which to look as about 1390 to about 1520. 1390 represents the time when the Carrara court in Padua was gaining an intellectual reputation of excellence, as well as this being about the time that two Roman coin like medals were cast of Francesco II and his father. This represents a typically renaissance trait of looking to antiquities for inspiration, as will be discussed later. The time around 1520 represents when Raphael died this was followed closely by the death of Pope Leo X, the second High Renaissance pope. It is after their deaths that the creative and optimistic mood in Italy began to fade. The decade ending 1520 saw Leonardo da Vinci leaving for France and then dieing there in 1519. There are many other examples that could confirm these dates as significant, and also many more that would dispute them, but for the purposes of simplicity we will take these as a guide. In the beginnings of the Renaissance painting was seen very much as a craft performed
" This statement is not a true reflection of his standing in Germany, he, in few years after this was written, was accepted to sit on the Great Council in Nuremberg, it does however highlight the growing status of artists in Italy and particularly in Venice. During the early Renaissance much more focused archaeological attitudes were developed towards the classical past. There was a great degree of difference in the educational expectations of the art theorists and the artist concerned with studio practice of his art. The majority of artists were unable to read Latin; it was later translated into vernacular so it could be used as a guide to painters. It was in the presentation of their arguments that they were given the opportunity to demonstrate their intellectual prowess in both discourse and works of art. If painting were a liberal art then it would be a pursuit worthy of courtiers and so bolster the artist's social and intellectual level. He succeeded in the literary world almost as much as he did with painting and sculpture. The early attempts were not very well received but by the first decade of the sixteenth century some of the poetry was very respectable. At the beginning of the period in question we can see the artist as a craftsman and member of the artisan class. It was perhaps to aid in this debate or just to gain a better social standing that many Renaissance artists aspired to write poetry. The size and scholarly character of it was unheard of amongst his contemporaries. "# The argument about the importance of painting, especially with regard sculpture raged for over one hundred years. When Pietro Lorenzetti needed a text of the life of St Savinus for his alter piece in Siena Cathedral; he paid a grammar school teacher to translate the text from Latin for him.
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