A Treatise on Painting

and a brilliant gathering of artists and poets. The fantasies of Pulci and Ariosto Luigi Pulci (1432–1484) and Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533) were famous epic poets whose works reflected the courtly culture of the Renaissance. reflected the carefree life of those Courts, which had nothing of the feudal about them, unlike the Courts of France and Germany original: "Alemagna"; but, having arisen in the cities from the more or less consented-to supremacy of powerful citizens, they had preserved a civil The author uses "civile" to imply both "civic" and "refined," contrasting it with the martial nature of Northern European feudalism. character and were open to all men of talent without privileges of caste, without the dominance of the sword. Even Christianity seemed to have relaxed its austerity and its terrors, and the Court of the Popes was entirely filled with the spirit of the age. And this spirit was so civil and so innovative that it does not seem reckless to think that perhaps, if it were not for the theological reform of Martin Luther, many claims of liberty in Italy could have been achieved solely through the effect of universally diffused culture, and of the power of talent universally recognized.

But why did the Renaissance, with such a splendor of efforts, beyond the miracles of art, produce nothing great in political institutions? Why did it consume itself without leaving behind anything but poems, paintings, and statues? Why did Italy emerge from it more miserable, more enslaved, and more corrupt?

Among the many reasons that could be brought forward for this most capital fact in our history, we stop at this one alone which encompasses many others. The Renaissance lacked a high moral idea that would make the work of so many geniuses aim at a worthy goal; it lacked the concept of a great homeland The author refers to the lack of a unified Italian state or national identity at the time. that would make operative in the field of facts the forces that were lost in vain speculations.

Those generations educated in elegance did not have the feeling of the strength that produces action, nor a high goal to reach that would ennoble the products of genius. Michelangelo was a solitary giant in the midst of ruins, pensive on the destinies of the world; Torquato Tasso, perhaps the only true poet of the Renaissance, sang in earnest