The Renaissance was a period of great social change in European history from the 14th to the 17th centuries that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times.
The word “Renaissance” is a French word meaning “renaissance” symbolizing the rebirth of classical antiquity.
The Renaissance embraced the thinking, styles, and themes of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, while also drawing on further learning using modern techniques.
With the advent of the printing press, knowledge was now available to people outside of the clergy, aristocrats, and royalty.
The Renaissance first appeared in Italy at the end of the 13th century with the writings of Dante and the paintings of Giotto.
The increasing interaction between different cultures, the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts, the rise of humanism, and different artistic and technological innovations all contributed to the rise of the Renaissance.
greek classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is the period of cultural history between the 8th century B.C. C. and the sixth century AD. C., when ancient Greece and then ancient Rome dominated the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Democracy, philosophy, astronomy, literature, sculpture, drama, medicine, mathematics, and the Olympic Games all had their Western origins in ancient Greece.
Greek culture influenced Roman culture. Most educated Romans were bilingual in Greek and Latin because Greek had been the international language since the Hellenistic period beginning in 323 BC. C. until the Byzantine period that ended in 1453 AD.
In the last century BC many rich young Romans went to study in Athens or on the island of Rhodes like Cicero, Mark Antony and Julius Caesar.
Temples, government buildings, and houses represented the Greek architectural style. The three main column design styles used in classical Greek temples were Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
the byzantine empire
The Greek city of Byzantium in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey) would become famous as Constantinople and the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
It was from Constantinople that Greek literature and culture reached Western Europe, helping to contribute to the advent of the Renaissance.
When the Byzantine Empire was destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, many Byzantine Greek scholars fled to Western Europe, bringing with them their cultural heritage and many original Greek manuscripts.
Italian city-states
At the beginning of the Renaissance, Italy was divided into several powerful city-states that were ruled by one great city.
One of the major city-states was Florence, which was a republic, like ancient Rome.
The Italian language developed in the early 14th century through the works of the Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, who helped make the Tuscan dialect the national literary language of Italy.
When Italy joined in 1861, Tuscan became the country’s official language.
Florence, Italy
The Renaissance began around the years 1350 to 1400 in Florence, Italy through its writers, painters, architects, and philosophers.
It transformed Florence then, the other Italian city-states like Venice, Milan, Bologna, Ferrara and Rome.
Then, during the 15th century, Renaissance ideas spread from Italy to France and throughout Western and Northern Europe.
Fifteenth-century Florence had a strong economy with political power in the hands of wealthy merchants.
The largest and most respected bank in Europe was the Medici bank, established by Giovanni Medici in 1397.
The powerful Medici family ruled Florence for more than 60 years and helped artists financially by buying their paintings and sculptures.
dante
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was the leading poet of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
His use of Italian instead of Latin in The Divine Comedy is considered to mark the rise of Renaissance humanism.
Giotto
Giotto di Bondone, the “Father of the Renaissance”, was born in Tuscany around 1266 (his exact date and place of birth are unknown).
He was one of the most important masters of Italian painting of the 14th century who introduced the technique of realism that became the new artistic style of the High Renaissance.
Giotto’s most recognized masterpiece is the biblical scenes that adorn the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
His representations of human figures would be emulated by other artists.
Petrarch
The Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (Petrarca 1304 – 1374) (Petrarca) who was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, is the “Father of Humanism”.
He has been called the first modern man whose writings were also used to shape the modern Italian language.
Petrarch had a passionate interest in rediscovering lost manuscripts from ancient Greece and Rome and had Greek works translated into Latin.
His lyrical poetry in his Canzoniere is considered one of the greatest love poets in world literature, including the well-known odes to Laura.
Renaissance art
Renaissance art focused on human beauty and nature. People were depicted living life and showing emotions.
Light and shadow techniques made the paintings appear more three-dimensional and realistic.
* early renaissance
Masaccio (1404-28), an important Florentine painter, was the founder of early Italian Renaissance painting with his works in the mid to late 1420s.
His frescoes adorn the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.
Donatello and Alberti also developed Italian painting, sculpture, and architecture, naturalistic styles, and humanistic theories.
*High Renaissance
From around 1495 to 1520, art historians consider it to be the height of the Renaissance period.
This period was dominated by:
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) has become a world cultural icon and is considered one of the most talented individuals in history.
Among his many great works, two of his most famous paintings are:
*The Mona Lisa
The model for Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, was a real person. The image of the Mona Lisa was Lisa del Giocondo (1479 – 1542), an Italian noblewoman and member of the Gherardini family from Florence and Tuscany. She married a wealthy Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned the painting for her new home and to celebrate the birth of her second child, Andrea.
*The Last Supper
The Last Supper is one of the most recognizable paintings in the Western world. It is a mural painting from the end of the 15th century that is located in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his Apostles from the Gospel of John, 13:21 and shows the feeling of anxiety that arose among the Twelve Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.
Miguel Angel
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 – 1564) was an Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who was born in the Republic of Florence.
Michelangelo had a powerful influence on the development of Western art. His most famous works are the Pietà (sculpture, located in St. Peter’s Basilica), his sculpture of David, and his ceiling painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.
Several of Michelangelo’s works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are among the most famous in existence.
*Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with spectacular scenes from the Bible between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II.
The masterpiece is considered as one of the main artistic achievements of human civilization.
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483 – 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect.
Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the trinity of great masters of the High Renaissance.
His most famous paintings include Madonna in the Meadow, School of Athens, Sistine Madonna, The Transfiguration, and Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione.
* late renaissance
Mannerism, pioneered by Parmigianino, an Italian artist, emerged in the last years of the Italian High Renaissance.
Describes the style of bronze paintings and sculptures derived from their emphasis on contradicting all traditional laws of proportion.
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (1503 – 1540), also known as Parmigianino (“the little one from Parma”), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his hometown of Parma.
His works include two large frescoes in a church in Parma and a palace in a nearby town, while some of his best portraits are in Naples, in the National Museum and the Gallery of Capodimonte, including the Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale and the portrait of a young woman. called Antea.
renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture reflected the “revival” of classical culture and replaced the medieval Gothic style.
The five classical columns used were the three Greek, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian and the Italian, Tuscan and Composite.
Three important figures in Renaissance architecture were Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, and Andrea Palladio.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), an Italian architect, designer, and sculptor, is the founding father of Renaissance architecture. He is best known for designing the dome of the Florence Duomo, an iconic work of Renaissance architecture.
The dome of the Florence Cathedral has become an enduring feature of Renaissance churches.
*Basilica of Saint Peter
St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican is the most famous Renaissance-style architectural work and the largest church in the world.
The Basiica was designed by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
End of the Renaissance
The demise of the Renaissance was the result of several factors.
In the late 15th century, numerous wars plagued the Italian peninsula with Spanish, French, and German invaders fighting over Italian territories, causing upheaval and instability.
The Baroque Period followed the Renaissance from the early 17th century to the 1740s.