Jonathan Jones
In “Jacob Burckhardt: The Renaissance revisited”, a review of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt, the historian of art and culture who died on this day in history, 8 August, 1897, Jonathan Jones states:
The Civilization of the Renaissance is a disturbing book. It is a vision of modernity – but a dark and haunted one. The first section is titled “The State as a Work of Art”. Burckhardt sees the source of the Italian Renaissance in politics, for in the middle ages, while France and Britain centralised their monarchies, Italy resisted control by either the Holy Roman Empire or the Papacy and instead became a barbed collection of micro-states. “In them,” Burckhardt argues, “for the first time we detect the modern political spirit of Europe, surrendered freely to its own instincts, often displaying the worst features of an unbridled egotism, outraging every right, and killing every germ of a healthier culture.”
