This question originally appeared on Quora, the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. Show Answer by Tim O’Neill, head inquisitor against bad history: What people refer to as the Renaissance (as opposed to the earlier Carolingian, Ottonian, and 12th-century renaissances) was a movement in art, architecture, and literary writing that began in Italy in the 14th century and spread to other parts of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. It was in many ways a curiously conservative and backward-looking movement based on apeing an idealised version of ancient Greco-Roman culture. As history writer James Hannam puts it: “It was a time when, in order to be up to date in writing or architecture, artists had to model their work on a prototype that was over 1,000 years old.” The term Renaissance was first coined by the French historian Jules Michelet in the 1850s but did not gain popularity until its use by Jacob Burckhardt in his book The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy in 1860. It was Burckhardt who propagated the idea of the Renaissance as a great “renewal” of Western culture, where people broke free of the supposedly stultifying medieval world and established a bright new civilization based on the wonders of the Greek and Roman past. Modern historians have modified this picture considerably and no longer regard the Middle Ages as a “dark age” but rather as a period of considerable innovation and change, but the idea of the Renaissance as a good thing and the Middle Ages as bad seems to remain fixed in the popular imagination. This is despite the fact that the post-medieval period in Europe was just as religious (perhaps more fanatically so) and in many ways even more superstitious and violent than the Middle Ages. The reasons for the Renaissance’s obsession with the Greeks and Romans that the question presents as a cultural rebirth were varied. To begin with, the idea that ancient classical culture was worthy of admiration and emulation had been around for centuries. Throughout the Middle Ages, scholars looked back at the Greeks and Romans as the highest possible authorities apart from, perhaps, the Bible. Even when an ancient writer seemed to contradict the Bible, medieval scholars strove to reconcile the two and find a synthesis, because they found it hard to imagine that the great ancient authorities could have actually got something wrong. The 12th-century rediscovery of hundreds of ancient texts that had been lost in the West via Arabic translations had been stimulated by this great admiration of and desire for the work of these ancient greats. The main difference between the attitude of medieval scholars to the Greeks and Romans and that of the scholars, artists, and architects of the Renaissance movement was that the medievals considered themselves to be inferior to the ancients, whereas the Renaissance humanists considered themselves to be the ancients’ equals. So while the late 11th-century scholar Bernard of Chartres described scholars of his day as “dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants,” Renaissance writers and thinkers considered themselves to be giants almost equal or even wholly equal to the ancients. This in turn led to a denigration of their immediate predecessors. Renaissance scholars such as Petrarch scorned earlier medieval writers as inferior to the ancients and strove to emulate Greek and Roman writers instead. Renaissance architects turned their back on medieval styles of building and copied Roman styles instead. Medieval gothic architecture was so-called because the aficionados of the “new” (actually, old) style considered it barbaric, despite the fact that it was not only innovative but also technically superior to anything the Greeks and Romans built. The very terms medieval and Middle Ages were coined by Renaissance writers to belittle the period in between the glories of the classical world and their supposed revival in the Renaissance. Yet despite all this, the Renaissance was actually an outgrowth of the Middle Ages. The revival of ancient learning took place mainly in the Middle Ages, not the Renaissance. The economic rise that made the buildings and artworks of the Renaissance possible was the result of medieval expansion and innovation. And even the Protestant Reformation that was responsible for new ways of thinking (as well as a lot of repression, violence, and war) was in the tradition of earlier medieval reforms of the Church, though the earlier ones had been more successful in that they didn’t result in schisms and fragmentation or war. Essentially, the Renaissance was the result of Western Europe getting over its medieval inferiority complex when it came to the classical world. Many of our modern attitudes were shaped by the Renaissance, which is why the popular idea that it was good and the Middle Ages were bad is so hard to shake, no matter how historians try. Despite more than 100 years of art that is not relentlessly realistic in mode, from the Impressionists onward, most people still see the realist art of the Renaissance as good and find the far more stylized and symbolic art of the Middle Ages much harder to relate to. Classical styles of building are still admired (though few people today would go so far as to describe Chartres Cathedral or Sainte-Chapelle as barbaric). And, in the English-speaking world at least, the Protestant Reformation is still seen as a good thing, though most nonreligious people would have difficulty explaining exactly why. The Renaissance movement was the outcome of centuries of admiration of the ancient world and was a result of that admiration being taken to the extreme whereby the ancients were the touchstone of all that was good. This slightly strange and in many ways retrograde idea was so powerful that it is, in many ways, still with us today. Which is one of the reasons the Renaissance movement is still so widely admired. We are cultural heirs to this idea, even those of us who know that it doesn’t actually make much sense. What is the reason for the cultural rebirth that occurred with the Renaissance? originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Quora:  Classicism, or the reiteration of classical themes, styles and imagery in art, architecture, literature and other cultural aspects, is omnipotent in western society. In fact, democracy itself was born from Athenian dēmokratia, combining the ancient Greek words dēmos and kratos, which mean the body of people and rule, respectively. One of the most celebrated periods of classical revival was the European Renaissance, particularly the Italian Renaissance, which boasts some of the western world’s most famous artistic and architectural masterpieces, such as Michelangelo’s David and Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. This resurgence of Greco-Roman culture in the Renaissance period is called Renaissance classicism, which can be seen in many cultural domains during the time. Renaissance literature and classicismThe rebirth of classicism during the Italian Renaissance partially manifested itself in the rediscovery of ancient Latin and Greek texts by authors such as Cicero, Plato and Aristotle. These works became idealized and regarded as an essential part of the cultural enlightenment and intellectualism following the ignorance of the medieval period. Italian authors also drew on ancient Greek and Roman antecedents in their production of theatre and poetry during the Early Renaissance. Poets Dante and Petrarch are particularly notable in this respect. Dante’s Divine Comedy is written in an ancient Greek style tri-part play structure and continuously draws on classical poetry, specifically Virgil’s Aeneid. It even features Virgil himself as Dante’s guide into the underworld. Petrarch, the Latin scholar, lyricist, author and poet was also a strong proponent of humanism and many of his works draw upon Roman literature and culture. This classical revival spread throughout Italy and into other European countries. Other famous Renaissance authors include Niccolò Machiavelli, Michel de Montaigne, William Shakespeare and Giovanni Boccaccio. Renaissance architecture and classicismOne of the most important and defining elements of the European Renaissance period was Italian Renaissance architecture. Italy underwent a marked shift from the Gothic style, associated with the Medieval period, into the Renaissance style, associated with the ancient Greco-Roman periods. This transition can be seen in some contrasting aspects of each architectural style. One of these was the transition from the Gothic pointed arch to the Romanesque Renaissance arch. Additionally, Renaissance architecture mimicked the ancient Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian style columns as well as the Roman dome and tunnel vault. Sign up to our Free Weekly Newsletter Early Renaissance architecture was known for displaying classical facades while still incorporating Gothic elements in its structure. The Santa Maria Novella cathedral (1420) in Florence, Italy exemplifies the transition from Gothic to Renaissance architecture. While the earlier-built portion of the cathedral incorporates the sharper, darker elements of Gothic architecture, the facade, designed later by Leon Battisti Alberti, is decorated with Romanesque arches and represents a Roman temple with pillars and a traditional pointed pediment roof. As the Renaissance style spread throughout Italy and Europe, the architecture also changed, representing a more ornamented, traditionally classical style. The 15th and 16th centuries, known as the ‘High Renaissance’, featured famous architects such as Raphael and Michelangelo. The Tempietto (1502) at San Pietro in Montorio, designed by Donatello, exemplifies the classical style with a Roman dome and Doric pillars. It also has Roman arches, Greco-Roman style statues and triglyph details in the interior. Renaissance art and classicismRenaissance visual artists also reiterated classical styles. One of the most prominent mediums for this appropriation was painting, which had classical imagery and used ancient masterpieces as subjects for art pieces. Notable artists such as Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Titian, and Leonardo da Vinci all produced artwork during the Renaissance period. Classical themes were prevalent in painting during the Renaissance. While Catholicism remained a prominent subject, there was a rise in mythological details and narratives in works during the time. Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1484-1486) from the Early Renaissance pictures a naked Venus, a prominent goddess from Roman mythology (Greek Aphrodite) rising out of the sea. Raphael’s Academy of Athens (1509-1511) fresco from the High Renaissance pictures several ancient Greek philosophers amongst other figures. The piece is set in what appears to be a combination of Athenian and Catholic temples, as it features many classical elements and has a cross shape. In the background are Greek gods Apollo and Athena. Painting was not the only medium that was affected by this fervor for the classics. Sculpture, too, began to embody classical realism and idealism. There were numerous Renaissance recreations of Greek and Roman statues or new pieces that were made in the ancient Greco-Roman style. The most famous example of such is Michelangelo’s David (1504). David exemplifies numerous elements of the classical realism, standing in the archetypal contrapposto position against a log (used for support) with a chiseled figure, strongly resembling a Greek god such as Apollo. Classicism in other periodsIt is important to recognize that, while classicism was very prominent during the European Renaissance, it also extended into periods after the Renaissance and into Neoclassicism. In fact, many aspects of modern western society draw on ancient Greco-Roman culture. The Italian Renaissance may have been the ‘rebirth’ of classicism, it was not the only period that it existed in, and it is possible to see elements of classicism in many artistic, architectural and cultural realms today. |
The Renaissance was a rebirth of these two classical cultures
zusammenhängende Posts
Urheberrechte © © 2024 wiewird Inc.
