Stinger's Influence On The Renaissance

The Renaissance in Rome could be retitled The Renaissance of the Roman Papacy because Charles Stinger’s book does not describe the Renaissance as most laypeople would expect. A renaissance is traditionally thought of as the rebirth of a civilization with accompanying advancements in architecture, art, literature, and music. Stinger’s book is fundamentally about the papacy and the author pays little attention to what lies outside the church walls.
Stinger’s thesis is that the once-great city of Rome was restored during the period 1443 to 1527 by three key influences. The representation of the city of Rome, the restoration of the Roman Church, and the renewal of the Roman Empire are the fundamental themes in the Stinger’s thesis (xiv). His
His bibliography comprises at least seven hundred sources which he frequently refers back to in his sixty pages of notes. Stinger categorizes his book as a work of cultural history. “Mood, myth, and symbol as manifested in its liturgy, ceremony, festival, oratory and art denote the key elements of Rome’s Renaissance aspirations” (xiv). However, papal intrigue and a 15th century obsession with antiquity are his central themes ignoring all other aspects of renewed growth until the last third of his text. In this way Stinger sacrifices much art, biography, music, and
The Renaissance in Rome would have been a far more interesting book if more art, music, spectacle and pageantry were included. While there is mention of Raphael’s tapestries in the Sala della Segnatura (196), and the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo is not mentioned in any detail until page 258 of a 338 page book. Here art and architecture were created by some of the most celebrated artists in the world, specifically Michelangelo, Raphael, Bramante, and Alberti, yet not a hint of their biographies is entered into. On page 268 Stinger sums up all of the Popes’ major building projects in one paragraph. Nevertheless, Stinger mentions the importance of the artists Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo in his final paragraph, inferring that through their works the classical and the Christian can stand conjoined, while basically ignoring these personalities in the body of his text.