The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance - Essay Example

ESSAY- The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance Both these Renaissance periods were important stages in the world of art. The many artistic missions showed the way for civilization. The term ‘Renaissance’ refer to a period between the 15th and the 16th centuries. The Italians identified this period to be the best time to introduce and show their civilization, including art, graphics, literary work, and music. This was aimed at defeating the classic art of Rome and Greece. There was a renewal of artistic values and aesthetics in Northern Europe. However, they were not as obvious as they were in Italy. Commerce introduced the artistic ideas in the Northern Europe region. The similarities of the Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance art Both regions used the guild system, which was based on lessons on craft. This involved painting and sculptures. According to Earls, the guild system was a regulatory system for any artistic work (34). In this regard, every artistic presentation had to be in agreement with the Guild. This is to make sure that the artwork produced was of high quality. Essentially, this meant that the rehearsals on various forms of art had to be tireless and time consuming. After accepting the art works, the Guild still continued to measure the artistic practices and standards. Another similarity is that both the north and Italy had unique artistic centers in their regions.  In this regard, the Italian’s center was the Republic of Florence while the center for the North was Flanders. This was a section of the Duchy of the Burgundy. The Florence City, which was the center of art for the Italian Renaissance was controlled by the Medici family. The members of Medici family were responsible for bringing wealth to Florence. According to Nici, Cosimo de’ Medici, established a library, which was full of the Greek and Roman manuscripts (Nici 47). This legend noticeably involved Italian artists and philosophers. This group helped in the changing of Florence to a cultural center. The Italian Renaissance was focused on individualism. An example of this was ‘Masaccio’s Trinity with the virgin’, which was highly recognized with the Italian Renaissance.  The other likeness of Italy and the North was their use of religion in their artistic works. Incidentally religious scenes were always displayed to show the love of religion. The artworks of the religious scenes from the Italian Renaissance were “the last supper” and “the creation”. The northern Europe Renaissance examples are “Adam and Eve”, and the “Mystic Lamb”. Both renaissances were sharp in their artistic works. This made them successful and showed the way for many forms of civilizations such as design, painting, and graphics. Skillfulness was also a common factor in the two renaissances. This feature made the presentations lively and pleasant to various types of audiences of art work. Additionally, this helped in making the audience understand the livelihood and the culture of the early people. The Differences between The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance art Religion is a distinctive factor for the two renaissances. This is because the majority of the people, especially during the Italian Renaissance were Catholics. Later, there were separate groups like the Protestants, who disapproved most of the Catholic Church practices. The other difference was that the relationship between culture and art for the Italians was based on humanism, rather than on God. In this regard, humanity was the main focus of the Italians. The relationship of culture to art also was affected by knowledge and truth. This involved the design of the human body according to the true image so long as it was culturally acceptable. According to Gardner and Fred, the Northern Europe destroyed all the artistic work, which was established by the Italian Renaissance (51). This was because of iconoclasm, which is the ‘unselective destruction of all religious relics’. The meaning of these artifacts were supposed to be different to the beliefs of the Northern Europe believes. In this regard, the Italian artifacts were supposed to be a form of idol worship.  The other difference between the two renaissances is that the Italian Renaissance had more religion paintings and music compared to the Northern Renaissance. This suggests that the European Renaissance had less religious illustrations of art than the Italian Renaissance. Earls says that the European Renaissance had distinctive techniques, which were applied in their artistic mastery and creativity (Earls 54). This included the metal plate engravings and the creative painting. During the northern Renaissance, there was a general focus on simple lives. One example of artists was Peter Brugal, who specialized in the paintings of people in the haymaking activity to illustrate the simple lives of the ancient people. On the other hand, Italian Renaissance mostly focused on the graceful society members. This showed autocracy because a few rich people were considered important. In this regard, paintings, which were done by the Italian Renaissance artists, showed the lifestyles of the wealthy population of that period.  Most of the wealthy people derived their wealth from the active trade carried out during that time. This wealth contributed in the political extent of some of the people. Nici argues that the Italian Renaissance presented Roman Catholicism unlike the European Renaissance (60). The popes of the Catholic Church were often painted in order to show the elegance of the popes. In addition, The Italian Renaissance also focused mainly on human anatomy. The chosen artists and philosophers were encouraged to perform artistic explorations to raise the artistic career to the next level. The other aspect is the portrayal of the life-size donors. This described individualism because this aspect increases the self-esteem of people. The cultural differences between the two renaissances changed the development of art forever. The Italian Renaissance improved the creation of desirable artwork; the most recent is Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’. This example of art is famous in the modern-day world.  On the other hand, the Northern Renaissance focused on the art of the middle-age period. There were few commerce centers compared to the Italian Renaissance. This is the reason why this Renaissance was associated with the poor people. According to Benton and DiYanni (2012), the art was practiced in nations like German, the Netherlands and France, which form part of the Northern Europe region. This Renaissance had few economic activities due to the limitation on trade unlike the Italian Renaissance, which had active trade. This allowed Italy to invest more funds in the arts. The Dukes of the Northern Renaissance mostly involved on furnishings and tapestries. In contrast, the Italian Renaissance’s Dukes are interested in paintings, architectural art and sculptures. The Italian Renaissance were interested in the specific principles behind their artistic work, whereas the Northern Renaissance were involved on the physical qualities of their art. Works Cited Benton, J. R. and Di Yanni, R. Read More