Cultural Significance Of The Reformation During The Renaissance - Research Paper Example

This was simply a cultural movement that occurred around the 14th -17th century in Europe. The most remarkable feature about this period is artistic developments. However, there were also some significant cultural reformations that will be discussed in this paper. Initially, Europe had conservative traditions but vital cultural reformations in the renaissance were stimulated by the reformation in music and religious teachings, and the emergence of new artistic ideas. This new culture entailed a lot of freedom and individualism as sparked by the creative works of several musicians and artists during the period.

The emergent creativity led to artists abandoning artistic ways of the medieval era which were strict in nature. This led to the development of artistic improvements for example, realism in art. Giottto di Bondone was the first artist in the renaissance period to treat a painting as a widow into space (Bainton, 1952). Renaissance led to renewal of the desire to bring out the beauty of nature and explore the axioms of aesthetics. This motivated artists to come up with new painting techniques which included studying human anatomy, and light and shadow.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Liza Painting is a good demonstration of the study of the human anatomy. The artistic culture during the renaissance period can therefore be described as being vibrant and this led to development of naturalism in painting. The renaissance period led to reformations in the music industry for example, secular music gained more popularity. This was stimulated by the development of the printing press which enabled music to be printed and spread faster. These songs mainly dealt with military and romantic themes.

The form of the madrigal which was developed in Italy spread fast to Netherlands, England France and Germany (Estep, 1986). The shift to secularism was not only seen in the music industry but the general society as well. This was mainly brought about by the changes that occurred in religion and humanism. For example, a reformation in humanism led to a shift in the focus of life to individualism. This is where each person was supposed to be his or her own priest with the Bible being the only true authority (Smith, 1920).

According to Hillerbrand (1973), renaissance led to a shift in religious inclinations from Catholism to Protestantism. This is because people like Erasmus held to and campaigned on the view that a true religion was an act of inward devotion to God rather than mere outward symbols of ritual and ceremony. The changes were also a result of protest against the evil that people saw in the Catholic Church for example rampant corruption. The people realized that there was a big contrast in the practical lives of the church clergy and the doctrines and teachings they were giving to the people.

The result of criticism against the Catholic Church was a loss in its authority and the emergence of new protestant churches and sects. This led to religious wars and divisions whose driving force was expressions by the people on the need for freedom of expression and tolerance. The renaissance was therefore a successful weapon for countering the fight against pagan civilization by the Catholic Church. The consequence of the criticisms, new religious focus and stand was secularization of fanatical Catholics and the general society (Euan, 1991).

A change in the culture of Christians led to a change in lifestyle from having the church as the center of activity into a materialistic kind of life. In this secular life, the material world became an important part of the life of a person and this encouraged capitalism. People become more concerned with money, worldly pleasures and a general comfort in life. At the same time, religion remained an important part