Difference between revisions of "The Renaissance"

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The Renaissance holds it roots in the taking of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in the year 1453 A.D. After the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire, the Eastern half continued to flourish as the Byzantine Empire while Europe entered the Dark Ages where most of the learning from the Roman Empire was lost. However, the knowledge continued to pass down in the East until the scholars' flight to Italy as their empire was dismembered.

The Renaissance was a cultural “rebirth” that began in Florence, Italy, but spread to all of Europe from about 1300 to 1600 (1700 in Northern Europe).

During this time period, Europeans experienced a renewed interest in classical Greeks and Roman civilization, and subsequently, in learning science, mathematics, literature, the arts and philosophy. Christianity played a strong role in the renaissance as can be seen in its influence in the birth of modern science. The term “Renaissance man” has come to mean a person who is remarkably well-rounded and learned in every subject, as this is what was expected of men during the Renaissance of the Nobility.

• Renaissance Terms (1300s - 1600s)

The Italian Renaissance

The Duomo of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral in Florence

The Northern city-states of Italy were a perfect location for the Renaissance to occur, as Italian culture was built off of classical Greek and Roman civilization. They had become important and wealthy locations selling and trading during the Crusades, and Muslim and Byzantine learning had been brought to Italy also during the Crusades. Florence in particular was home to wealthy families willing to finance artists, mainly the prominent Medici family. Lastly, the fierce competition that existed between the different city-states brought out the best in people and created an environment in which initiative and creativity flourished.

This quote by Leon Battista Alberti, "men can do all things if they will" sums up the spirit of the Renaissance well. Three philosophies emerged during the Renaissance: individualism, humanism and secularism. All three contained similarities and overlapped with one another to form the main philosophy, humanism.

Artists

The most lasting legacy of the Renaissance was probably the outstanding artwork it produced. Especially in Florence and Rome, master artists emerged who produced astonishing works of art in sculpture, painting and architecture. The competitive spirit of the Italian city-states as well as the enormous wealth of families willing to patronize created a perfect environment for the flourishing of art.

Michelangelo's The Pietà

One of the first artists to incorporate new ideas into his artwork was Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) who brought unprecedented elements of realism in his paintings. Giotto, a typical Renaissance jack-of-all-trades, also designed the innovative campanile (bell tower) for the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedralor simply "The Duomo" in Florence. Flemish artists introduced oil paints, and the technique of perspective was introduced by artists like Tommaso Masaccio and Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi also designed the duomo (dome) for the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, a breakthrough in engineering and architecture that showed Brunelleschi’s deep understanding of mathematics.

Donatello (1386-1466) was an influential painter and sculpture of the early Renaissance from Florence. He sculpted a bronze “David,” the first free-standing nude statue since the days of the Greeks and Romans, and another famous statue of St.George. Titian (Tiziano Vicelli) (1477-1576) was a painter with an unprecedented use of color and loose brushwork, evident in his stunning masterpiece The Assumption of the Virgin. Raphael (1482-1520) also mastered the use of color and painted beautiful frescoes in churches and for private patrons, the most famous of which may be The School of Athens, an interesting painting depicting Plato and Aristotle surrounded by their pupils. He inspired the two greatest artists of the Renaissance: Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Michelangelo (1475) is best known for his statue of David and for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, an astounding fresco including over 300 Biblical figures, that took over 4 years to complete. He also sculpted amazing renditions of Moses and “the Pietà,” a poignant sculpture of Jesus in Mary’s arms after the crucifixion. Following Brunelleschi’s model Duomo in Florence, Michelangelo designed the dome for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Although some say his earlier works (like David) reveal a humanistic outlook, later works (like the Pietà) reveal his deep and devout Christianity.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) embodied the “Renaissance man.” He was an architect, anatomist, sculptor, scientist, mathematician, musician, and painter. He created masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He kept notebooks full of drawings such as Vitruvian Man, and his observations from dissecting human corpses. It is said that Leonardo could draw with one hand while at the same time painting with the other, and he wrote backwards in his notebooks, so they would have to be held up to a mirror to be read. He was way ahead of his time and created conceptual designs for many devices such as a flying machine and an armored tank. He was the first to come up with the ideas of the calculator and the use of solar power for energy.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa

Authors

Many authors produced influential literary works during the Renaissance. Dante was the writer whose works some historians date as marking the beginning of the Renaissance, and he is called the father of the Renaissance. He was an Italian writer who wrote in the vernacular, or common language, so his works gained popularity among ordinary people as well as scholars. His most famous work is The Divine Comedy, which describes in vivid detail the author’s journey through hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio) and heaven (Paradiso). Although called a “comedy”, the book is anything but funny. This is because Dante was using the classical meaning of “comedy”, in which a story is not necessarily humorous, but ends happily and according to the divine will of God. In The Divine Comedy, Dante blends Greek philosophy with Christian theology, in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas. Dante’s guide through Hell is Virgil, and the greatest sinners present in Hell are Judas Iscariot (Jesus’ betrayer) and Brutus (Caesar’s betrayer).

Along with Dante, Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) is considered a father of the Renaissance. He wrote beautiful poetry in Italian, but his books were written in Latin. His works and their focus on the classical philosophers inspired the humanism of the Renaissance.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote The Prince, in which he explored the means by which a monarch can gain, retain, and increase his power. A prince must recognize the needs of the people, Machiavelli declared, and although his consensus was that it is better to be feared than loved, he

Michelangelo's David ...Men can do all things if they will.

additionally stated that it is ideal to be both feared and loved. Machiavelli served under Lorenzo Medidi of Florence, but was exiled. It was during his exile that he wrote The Prince. Today the word “Machiavellian” has come to mean any unreasonable philosophy by which “the end justifies the means.”

See also

• Painting Masterpieces
• Painting Schools
• Fra Angelico