What is the significance of the italian renaissance

Generally speaking, there are many reasons why the Renaissance is an important area of study. Not only is the period highly engaging, but it also offers us several lessons by which we can approach the world today.

Here are a few reasons why the Renaissance is worth studying. Have you ever looked back to history with admiration, excitement, or nostalgia? We might think that those who came before us lived in more interesting times, or maybe that they lived in cultures which were superior to our modern culture. During the Renaissance, people also looked to their past with a sense of admiration and in search of guidance.

They did not look to the previous century, but instead to the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose civilizations existed more than a thousand years earlier. Patrons, scholars, artists, and engineers of the Renaissance looked back to their ancient ancestors in order to help them craft their world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is really not surprising that this started in Italy, since many of the old ruins still standing in the Renaissance period would still have been considered engineering marvels — the products of some advanced people who once occupied the land.

While the challenges that each generation faces differ from those faced by previous generations, many of the same basic issues persist.

How do we approach issues that we face today, whether they be political, economic, or social? By looking to the past for guidance today, not only can we find potential sources of answers, but also ways to address current challenges that previous societies have faced.

While the Renaissance is mostly considered in light of the historical thinking that went on in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, leaders of that time could be very forward-thinking in their approaches. The Scientific Revolution was still centuries away, but we can still find in the Renaissance a push towards using new means to address problems. In the world of art, principles of perspective were explored which allowed for the creation of more and more realistic illusions in painted and sculpted images.

Engraving showing workers transporting an obelisk near St. Donatello became renowned as the greatest sculptor of the Early Renaissance, known especially for his classical, and unusually erotic, statue of David, which became one of the icons of the Florentine republic. Humanism affected the artistic community and how artists were perceived.

While medieval society viewed artists as servants and craftspeople, Renaissance artists were trained intellectuals, and their art reflected this newfound point of view. Patronage of the arts became an important activity, and commissions included secular subject matter as well as religious.

In painting, the treatment of the elements of perspective and light became of particular concern. He used perspective in order to create a feeling of depth in his paintings. In addition, the use of oil paint had its beginnings in the early part of the 16th century, and its use continued to be explored extensively throughout the High Renaissance. Some of the first Humanists were great collectors of antique manuscripts, including Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Coluccio Salutati, and Poggio Bracciolini.

In Italy, the Humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the midth century, many of the upper classes had received Humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditional scholastic ones. Some of the highest officials of the church were Humanists with the resources to amass important libraries.

Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion, a convert to the Latin church from Greek Orthodoxy, who was considered for the papacy and was one of the most learned scholars of his time.

Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. The Italian Renaissance. Search for:. Learning Objectives Describe the art and periodization of the Italian Renaissance. Renaissance artworks depicted more secular subject matter than previous artistic movements.

Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Rafael are among the best known painters of the High Renaissance. The High Renaissance was followed by the Mannerist movement, known for elongated figures. Key Terms fresco : A type of wall painting in which color pigments are mixed with water and applied to wet plaster. As the plaster and pigments dry, they fuse together and the painting becomes a part of the wall itself.

Mannerism : A style of art developed at the end of the High Renaissance, characterized by the deliberate distortion and exaggeration of perspective, especially the elongation of figures. Alas, the Italian Renaissance could not last forever, and beginning in with the French invasion of Italian land Italy was plagued by the presence of foreign powers vying for pieces of the Italian peninsula. Finally, in , foreign occupation climaxed with the sack of Rome and the Renaissance collapsed under the domination of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

The economic restrictions placed on the Italian states by Charles V, combined with the censorship the Catholic Church undertook in response to the rising Reformation movement ensured that the spirit of the Renaissance was crushed, and Italy ceased to be the cradle of artistic, intellectual, and economic prosperity. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook.

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