Biography and Autobiography

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Biography and Autobiography

Renaissance authors did not recognize biography as a specific genre* of writing. However, they produced many written works about people's lives. A "life" of a famous person was more like a portrait than a detailed story. In fact, the arts of "life-writing" and portrait painting shared many similarities.

Biography. Renaissance life-writing had its roots in the ancient world. Many Greek authors had written lives of famous people. The most famous was Xenophon, who included biographies in his historical writing. Collections of biographies by the Roman authors Suetonius and Plutarch were popular in the Renaissance. Suetonius stressed his subjects' deeds. Plutarch, by contrast, focused on his subjects' personalities. These classical* works became important models for later writers. Ancient and medieval* Christian authors followed their style in creating hagiographies, or lives of holy people.

In the 1300s, ordinary people began to record their lives in diaries. The best known of these are the ricordanze (remembrances) written in Florence, Italy. At the same time, humanist* writers created a new form of life-writing called the exemplary* life. In these works, writers used their subjects as models for others. The first example of this style was Life of Dante (1348) by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Boccaccio was more concerned with using Dante as a model than with portraying his life accurately. In 1436, Italian historian Leonardo Bruni wrote another life of Dante to eliminate the fiction in Boccaccio's work.

In the mid-1300s, Italian writer Petrarch created a form of biography called collected lives. His On Famous Men is a series of biographies gathered into one volume. Collected lives became a common Renaissance form. Boccaccio published two collections in the mid-1300s, The Fates of Illustrious Men and On Famous Women. They became very popular outside Italy, particularly in England. One of the most famous collections was Lives of the Artists, published in 1550 by Italian artist and historian Giorgio Vasari. It combined biography with the new field of art history.

Later English biographers followed the style of exemplary biography. Instead of trying to portray their subjects accurately, they tried to show them in a particular light. An example is the harsh life of King Richard III written around 1513 by English statesman and author Thomas More. This work may have had a political motive. More supported the Tudor family, which had taken control of England after defeating Richard. William Roper, a friend of More, wrote Life of Sir Thomas More around 1556. This book resembles a hagiography more than a balanced perspective. The Life and Death of Dr. Donne, Late Deane of St. Pauls London (1640), by English biographer Izaak Walton, focuses on the religious life of English poet John Donne. However, it ignores Donne's love poetry.

Autobiography. Renaissance autobiographies also drew on ancient models. Confessions, by Augustine of Hippo, influenced many later writers. Dante imitated its style in The New Life (1293–1294). Petrarch also copied it in a letter called "The Ascent of Mount Ventoux," written around 1352. Confessions also formed the basis for the spiritual autobiographies created by Protestant authors of the 1600s. Commentaries, by Julius Caesar, also influenced some writers of the 1400s.

Renaissance autobiographies were diverse. Some took the form of collections of letters. Petrarch introduced this style, and it became popular with female authors of the 1400s and 1500s. Other women recorded their lives in poetry. French writer Michel de Montaigne closely examined his own existence in his Essays, written between 1572 and 1588. These pieces offer strong opinions on a broad range of topics. Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) focused on his spiritual and intellectual thought. The most famous autobiographer of the Renaissance was Benvenuto Cellini, an Italian artist, soldier, and writer. He wrote his autobiography between 1558 and 1566. It portrayed him as a mysterious and fantastic figure who could do absolutely everything.

Portraits. During the Renaissance, formal portraits served the same goal as biographies. A portrait provided a permanent memorial to a remarkable individual. Group portraits presented the lives of various individuals in one grand image. In Italy, for example, two artist brothers, Taddeo and Francesco Zuccaro, created detailed frescoes* showing the lives and famous deeds of the prominent Farnese family.

Advances in printing enabled artists to share their work with the public. For example, the image of German religious leader Martin Luther appeared in pamphlets distributed widely during the 1500s. German artist Albrecht DÜrer reproduced portraits of himself using a method called copperplate engraving. This and other new methods helped bring images and text closer together. In some cases, portraits appeared in printed biographies.

* genre: literary form

* classical: in the tradition of ancient Greece and Rome
* medieval: referring to the Middle Ages, a period that began around a.d. 400 and ended around 1400 in Italy and 1500 in the rest of Europe
* humanist: referring to a Renaissance cultural movement promoting the study of the humanities (the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome) as a guide to living
* exemplary: serving as a model or example; worthy of imitation