Renaissance – What it is, Characteristics, Works and more

Renaissance Time Period, Work and Meaning: We explain what the Renaissance was, its characteristics, its historical context and its periods. In addition, its main works in each discipline.

What is the Renaissance?

The Renaissance was a broad and important cultural movement that took place in Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries, which involved a profound transformation of thought, the arts and sciences, and represented the transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. It was characterized by the return to the cultural forms of classical antiquity (8th century BC to 5th century AD), which meant a revaluation of the myths, discourses and philosophy of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, after centuries of Christian rule.

This movement was very heterogeneous and disparate, both chronologically and geographically. It emerged in Italy in the 15th century, from there it spread in a diverse and complex way to the rest of Europe, and then to the newly colonized regions of America. You must read about Marxism once!

The political and social changes that occurred during this period generated drastic transformations in the culture and ways of life of the West. With the Renaissance, the medieval religious way of life and the feudal system came to an end, a new social class emerged, the bourgeoisie, and the conditions for the emergence of capitalism were created.

Great artists and thinkers, such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), El Greco (1541-1614), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) and Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), were part of the Renaissance, and some of their works became icons of modern Western culture. In some ways, the world we know today began to take shape with the Renaissance. Maybe you should definitely read about Slavery once!

Origin of the term: The origin of the term Renaissance is a matter of debate, although it is clear that it was given much later. While there is no consensus on this, the Italian writer and architect Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) is often cited as the first person to use it, in his 1550 work The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors, in which he refers to “Rinascita”.

KEY POINTS

1. The Renaissance was a cultural movement of great importance in the history of the West.
2. It occurred between the 15th and 17th centuries, and significantly transformed the way of seeing the world, philosophy, arts and sciences.
3. It replaced the Christian God with the human being and prioritized reason over faith, thanks to the influence of humanism.
4. It marked the beginning of the modern world and introduced new inventions and scientific discoveries.
5. It rescued the aesthetic and philosophical values ​​of classical antiquity.

Characteristics of the Renaissance

The Renaissance was a period of profound cultural changes and transformations, which founded the pillars of the Modern Age and determined the course of Western culture. Its main characteristics were the revaluation of classical antiquity, the questioning of the Church, the incorporation of new themes, the notion of artistic genius and the introduction of new scientific discoveries.

1- Return to the values ​​of classical antiquity

The Renaissance aimed to rescue the values ​​of classical antiquity. The study of the works of Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the Stoics, passed into the hands of secular (i.e. non-religious) thinkers, who valued their concepts of ethics and politics. In turn, Greco-Roman sculpture, architecture and painting, with their mathematical proportions and idealized representation of the human figure, became the references of beauty, perfection and harmony. Mythology was also an important source of inspiration.

2- Questioning the absolute power of the Church

During the Renaissance, access to reading and knowledge became widespread, thanks to the invention of the printing press. This generated an opening towards critical thinking, which allowed the questioning and debate of religious dogmas that had predominated during the Middle Ages. Thus, faith was replaced by reason as the supreme value and the human being was affirmed as the centre of the universe, instead of the Christian God. This worldview, known as humanism, represented the beginning of a new relationship with nature, mediated by science.

3- Exploration of new artistic themes

A new social elite of merchants and nobles with great fortunes dedicated themselves to patronage (that is, to sponsoring and acquiring works of art). This financed a significant number of artists and allowed them to move away from Christian themes, which had dominated until then. Thus, portraits, everyday and mythological scenes, landscapes and allegories (illustration of abstract ideas, such as justice or goodness) began to be represented.

4- Development of the concept of the individual artist

During the Middle Ages, the creator of art was an anonymous craftsman in the service of the Church or the nobles. The Renaissance brought about a profound change in this perception: it recognised artistic work as an individual work and conceived the artist as a creative genius, with distinctive and unique abilities. Thus, individual names appeared (such as Leonardo, Michelangelo or Raphael), who were able to express themselves through their works and were required by their particular art.

5- Introduction of new scientific discoveries

The criticism of religion and the new model of thinking based on science led to new discoveries and scientific advances in areas such as astronomy, anatomy, physics and cartography. Among these discoveries, the replacement of the geocentric astronomical model (centred on the Earth), in force since the 2nd century AD, by the heliocentric model of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), who proposed that the Earth revolved around the Sun, together with the rest of the planets, stands out.

Historical context of the Renaissance

The Renaissance took place at the end of the Middle Ages, beginning in the 15th century. However, many historians date its early antecedents to the 13th or 14th centuries. Its starting point was marked by the loss of power of the Catholic Church, due to the Protestant Reformation and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. In addition, a deep economic crisis developed that revealed the end of the feudal mode of production, which also affected the arts and sciences.

In the midst of medieval decline, many European centers of power sought a new model of State based on monarchical authoritarianism, while the arts focused their interest on the previous historical period, Classical Antiquity.

Furthermore, the development of cartography and navigational instruments allowed European figures such as Christopher Columbus (1401-1506), Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) and Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) to make great geographical discoveries. The exploration and knowledge of new lands and cultures not only broadened the world view, but also opened new markets and trade routes, which gave increasing power to a new rising social class, the bourgeoisie, which laid the foundations of capitalism.

The Renaissance began in Italy, specifically in the city-republics of Florence and Venice, but also in monarchical cities such as Milan and Naples. In Rome, Popes Julius II (1443-1513) and Leo X (1475-1521) were important patrons of the new art.

Renaissance art

Renaissance art was divided into three historical and aesthetic periods:

• Quattrocento or Early Renaissance (15th century): It marked the beginning of interest in classical culture, the search for harmony in proportions and the development of new techniques, such as perspective. The city of Florence occupied the central place of the artistic avant-garde, while medieval Gothic art remained in force in the rest of Europe.
• Cinquecento or Full Renaissance (16th century): Also known as the High Renaissance, it was the truly classicist period of Renaissance art, which cultivated balance, the idealization of the human figure and formal perfection. The greatest artists of the Renaissance emerged (Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael), and the apogee of painting and sculpture of the time took place.
• Mannerism or late Renaissance (16th century): This was an anti-classical reaction, that is, a rejection of the sober forms and rigidity of classicism, which developed between the middle and end of the 16th century. It was characterized by the exaggeration of gestures, shapes and poses, as well as by a more complex use of color, which anticipated the excesses that would later be brought about by the Baroque.

Renaissance literature

Renaissance literature revolved around humanism and, as in the other arts, it recovered myths, motifs and the classical Greco-Latin tradition. Many of the Platonic and Aristotelian ideas were initially recovered to be put at the service of Christianity. Idealized love, the search for knowledge as a path to truth, reason, logic, ethics and politics were important themes that gave rise to great works.

Renaissance literature was widely disseminated thanks to the invention of the printing press and was born under the influence of three great predecessors: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375).

During the Renaissance, new genres and metrical models for poetry were developed (such as the sonnet and the hendecasyllabic verse). Furthermore, authors such as Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), with his work Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605), and François Rabelais (c. 1494-1553), with his work Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532), laid the foundations of the modern novel.

On the other hand, the Commedia dell’Arte (a type of popular Italian theatre) and Elizabethan dramaturgy (the English theatre developed during the time of Queen Elizabeth I) stood out, especially under the pens of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), among others.

The birth of the essay was of particular importance, since it allowed the dissemination of the ideas of humanism in didactic and explanatory writings. Important authors of this genre were Martin Luther (1483-1546), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) and Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527).

Renaissance architecture

The Renaissance generated an important break in the history of architecture, especially with respect to the Gothic style, which predominated in the Middle Ages. Like other forms of art, it sought inspiration in classical forms, but introduced numerous innovations in terms of techniques, construction materials and architectural language.

Renaissance architecture was characterized by its emphasis on the human being, as proposed by nascent humanism. It was based on order, symmetry, harmony and anthropometric proportions (that is, the mathematical relationship between the parts of the human being).

Architects went from being anonymous craftsmen to public figures, thanks to the professionalization of the discipline. Unlike what happened in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, Renaissance architectural works began to be documented under individual names.

The main Renaissance architects were Jacopo Vignola (1507-1573), Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Michelangelo Buonarotti himself.

Renaissance Works

Some of the best-known Renaissance works of art are:

Painting

1. The Birth of Venus (1484-1486), by Sandro Botticelli.
2. The Mona Lisa (1503-1519), by Leonardo da Vinci.
3. The Vault of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
4. The School of Athens (1509-1511), by Raphael Sanzio.
5. The Gentleman with his Hand on his Chest (c. 1580), by El Greco.

Architecture

1. Basilica of San Lorenzo (1418-1470), by Filippo Brunelleschi, Michelozzo Michelozzi and Antonio Manetti, in Florence.
2. Dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (1420-1436), by Filippo Brunelleschi, in Florence.
3. Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1444-1484), by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, in Florence.
4. Monastery of the Hieronymites of Belém (1501-1502), by Juan de Castillo, in Lisbon.
5. Villa Capra (1566-1585), by Andrea Palladio, in Vicenza.

Sculpture

1. Pieta (1499), by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
2. David (1501-1504), by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
3. The Four Seasons (1548-1550), by Jean Goujon.

Literature

1. In Praise of Folly (1511), by Erasmus of Rotterdam.
2. The Prince (1532), by Niccolò Machiavelli.
3. Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534), by François Rebelais.
4. Essays (1580-1592), by Michel de Montaigne.
5. Hamlet (1603), by William Shakespeare.
6. Othello (1603), by William Shakespeare.
7. Don Quixote (1605), by Miguel de Cervantes.

Renaissance and Humanism

The spirit of the Renaissance was shaped by humanism, a philosophical and cultural movement that took up classical Greco-Latin values ​​to reinvent European culture, after the collapse of medieval thought.

Humanism questioned the central place of faith and placed emphasis on human reason as a source of knowledge and truth. Through the emerging sciences, it proposed a different conception of the world and the place of the human being, and paved the way for the Enlightenment and the French Revolution of 1789.

The humanist spirit opposed the inequalities of medieval society, which granted economic and educational privileges to the noble classes and the clergy, while the rest of the population was mostly illiterate and lived in poverty.

Humanists reinterpreted some classical values ​​such as reason, equality, freedom and justice to move towards a world in which human beings were the creators of their own destiny, instead of divine authority.

The humanist project aimed to limit the power of the Church and to build, based on new discourses and values, its own morality and ethics, which gave shape to what is known as modern philosophy. With the appearance of humanism, the medieval world came to an end and the Modern Age began in the West.