Why did the Renaissance occur - Essay Example

?Why did the Renaissance occur? Introduction The era that has been defined by the historians as the Renaissance spans from the 14th century to the 16th century in Europe. It was an era of all around political, economic, artistic and intellectual revolutions in Europe starting from Italy where it was originated. About this era, historians hold two different opinions like it was either extension of Middle Ages or dawn of a new era. The Renaissance age is known for new thinking and creativity. Between 1350 and 1550, the classical period of Europe was revived to a large extent. The cultural activities that occurred during Renaissance were mostly motivated by the Greco-Roman civilization. The Italian Renaissance was not just limited to the accomplishment of Italians artists and intellectuals but rather was reflection of the upper classes that comprised only small proportion of the European population. However, the impact was equally strong on the common people especially in the cities where the cultural movement was most prominent (Spielvogel, 340-341). Birth of Renaissance As already mentioned, Renaissance is essentially a literary movement of the upper classes. Writers from that era especially Petrarch, had held an indomitable passion for ancient Rome including classical architecture, art and especially the Latin language. He attempted to emulate ancient Rome’s literary men like Cicero who was highly fluent in the language. His passion for the classical era was so engrossing that he even tried to dismiss the span of hundred years between the Ancient age and Renaissance era. According to Petrarch, that era that he belonged was more an awakening of new age than Renaissance which means rebirth. In order to study ancient Rome, Petrarch introduced curriculum termed as studia humanitates which included humanism as philosophy. Humanism is not just a philosophical or religious concept, but basically “an attitude toward learning and toward life” (Wiesner et al., 248). This new approach slowly spread from Italy to other parts of Europe like France, Germany and Spain, and this was the birth of the Renaissance era. Renaissance was not a singular event like the French revolution and occurred over a period of two centuries in various parts of Europe (Wiesner et al., 248-249). The impact of Renaissance is not only restricted to literature and art, but also equally on language with humanist schools adopting Classical languages like Latin, Greek and Hebrew in their curricula. In northern Europe, humanists focused on bringing back the faith and morality in the values of the Church which got lost mainly after the Black Death tragedy. For many historians, Renaissance era was continuation of the Middle Ages like family remained the most important social recognition of an individual. Moreover, in spite of people becoming more materialistic, religion remained an important aspect of lives of both elite class and the common people. For instance, although artists began to get their true recognition worthy of their skills, they were still expected to pay taxes like other common people of the community (Wiesner et al., 269-270). Slavery which was a common practice in the Early Middle Ages but ceased in the eleventh century was revived during the Renaissance era more because of lack of workers after Black Death. The import of foreign slaves was legalized in the Italian city Florence (Spielvogel, 345). Renaissance happened as a result of reverence for the classical era mainly ancient Rome, and in the fifteenth century the humanists began to focus on Greek philosophy, art, architecture and literature. Renaissance culture was essentially a result of product of emulation of the classical philosophy and literature (Wiesner et al., 249). The birth of Renaissance era also happened from a shift of social perspective. In the medieval age, family was considered the smallest unit of society, and it was the group efforts and accomplishments that emerged as popular rather than individual successes. Even objects of art were attributed to group activities, and many paintings and sculptor remained unsigned by the creators (Wiesner et al., 249). The Renaissance age emerged with the spirit of individualism. Individual talents and knowledge were given more emphasis than group efforts. People began to give importance to self uniqueness by hiring painters to make their portraits. Artistic skills were begun to be recognized as individual genius rather than good training. The concept of individualism involves “a belief that the people and objects of this world are important, at least important enough to warrant a picture or verbal description” (Wiesner et al., 250). The humanist authors believed their era as resurrection of classical culture. Therefore, their approach was to teach the common people to imbibe the values of this era and perform activities according to those values. The core material of humanist prescriptive literature was to instruct people what to do instead of what not to do (Wiesner et al., 252). The major characteristic of the Renaissance era is the flourish of artistic culture. The purpose of the Renaissance artists was not only to make people appreciate the authenticity of their creation, but also to emphasize human beings as “the center and measure of all things” (Spielvogel, 373). This new form of perspective developed more prominently in Florence. However, towards the end of the fifteenth century, reflection of Roman culture in art resulted in Renaissance art entering a new phase during this period (Spielvogel, 373). The three artistic geniuses of Renaissance era were Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo (Spielvogel, 361. Conclusion The Renaissance age was more specifically an era of revival from the calamities of the fourteenth century since this era started immediately after the devastating affects of Black Death that killed a huge proportion of the European population. Also, it was a recovery era from political chaos and economic crisis, and was supplemented by the reasserting of the Classical culture (Speilvogel, 341). Since it was the upper class that mostly participated in the cultural activities during the Renaissance era, therefore the impact on the common people was more because of the economical changes and religious beliefs. For some historians, the era was more a neutral phase between medieval age and modern era than Renaissance (Wiesner et al., 270). References 1. Spielvogel, Jackson. Western Civilization. 8th ed. Vol. 1: To 1715. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012 2. Wiesner, Merry E., Julius R. Ruff, and William Bruce Wheeler. Discovering the Western Past: A Look at the Evidence. 6th ed. Vol. 1: To 1789. Boston: Houghton, 2008 Read More