Renaissance of classical antiquity – The Renaissance
The Renaissance was a period of great social change in European history from the 14th to the 17th centuries, marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times.
The word “Renaissance” is a French word meaning “rebirth” symbolizing the rebirth of classical antiquity.
The Renaissance embraced the thought, styles, and themes of Ancient Greece and Rome while addressing further learning through the use of modern techniques.
With the advent of the printing press, knowledge was now available to people outside the clergy, aristocrats, and royalty.
The Renaissance first appeared in Italy in the late 13th century with the writings of Dante and the paintings of Giotto.
Increased 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 BC. C. and the 6th century d. C. when ancient Greece and later ancient Rome dominated the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Democracy, philosophy, astronomy, literature, sculpture, theater, medicine, mathematics, and the Olympic Games had their western birth in ancient Greece.
Greek culture influenced Roman culture. Most educated Romans were bilingual in Greek and Latin because Greek was the international language from the Hellenistic period that began in 323 BC to the Byzantine period that ended in 1453 AD.
In the last century before Christ, many rich young Romans went to study in Athens or the island of Rhodes like Cicero, Marcus Antony, and Julius Caesar.
Temples, government buildings, and houses represented the Greek architectural style. The three main styles of column design used in classical Greek temples were Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
The Byzantine Empire
The Greek city of Byzantium in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey) became 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 a series of powerful city-states that were ruled by a large city.
One of the main 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 turn the Tuscan dialect into the national literary language of Italy.
When Italy joined in 1861, Tuscan became the official language of the country.
Florence, Italy
The Renaissance began around 1350-1400 in Florence, Italy, through its writers, painters, architects, and philosophers.
He then transformed Florence, the other Italian city-states like Venice, Milan, Bologna, Ferrara, and Rome.
Then, during the 15th century, the ideas of the Renaissance spread from Italy to France and throughout western and northern Europe.
Florence in the 15th century 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 purchasing 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 indicate the rise of Renaissance humanism.
Giotto
Giotto di Bondone, the “Father of the Renaissance”, was born in Tuscany around 1266 (his exact date of birth and place of birth are unknown).
He was one of the most important masters of Italian painting in the 14th century who introduced the technique of realism that became the new artistic style of the High Renaissance.
Giotto’s most recognized masterpiece are 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 of his Canzoniere is considered one of the greatest love poets in world literature, which includes the well-known odes to Laura.
Renaissance art
Renaissance art focused on human beauty and nature. People were depicted living life and showing emotions.
The 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.
Its 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 it is considered by art historians as the heyday 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 people 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 a member of the Gherardini family of 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 wall painting from the late 15th century found 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 describes 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 sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance 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 Pieta (sculpture, located in St. Peter’s Basilica), his sculpture of David, and his painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.
Various works of painting, sculpture and architecture by Michelangelo are among the most famous in existence.
* Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel depicting spectacular scenes from the Bible between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II.
The masterpiece is considered one of the major 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, started by Parmigianino, an Italian artist, emerged in the last years of the Italian High Renaissance.
Describes the style of bronze paintings and sculpture 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 city, while some of his best portraits are in Naples, in the National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte, including the Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale and the portrait of a woman. young. called Antea.
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture reflected the “rebirth” 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), 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 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 work of Renaissance-style architecture 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.
At the end of the 15th century, numerous wars ravaged the Italian peninsula with Spanish, French and German invaders fighting for the Italian territories causing upheaval and instability.
The Baroque period followed the Renaissance from the early 17th century to the 1740s.