Renaissance  

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The '''Renaissance''' ([[French (language)|French]]: "rebirth," [[Italian language|Italian]]: "''Rinascimento''"), was a [[cultural movement]] that spanned roughly the [[14th century|14th]] through the [[17th century]], beginning in [[Italy]] in the [[late Middle Ages]] and later spreading to the rest of [[Europe]]. It encompassed the revival of learning based on [[Classical antiquity|classical]] sources, the rise of courtly and [[Pope|papal]] [[patronage]], the development of [[Perspective (graphical)|perspective]] in painting, [[Scientific revolution|advancements in science]], and the arrival of [[print culture]]. The Renaisance had wide-ranging consequences in all [[intellectual]] pursuits, but is perhaps best known for its [[Art|artistic]] aspect and the contributions of such [[Polymath|polymaths]] as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Michelangelo]], who have inspired the term "[[Renaissance man|Renaissance men]]". The '''Renaissance''' ([[French (language)|French]]: "rebirth," [[Italian language|Italian]]: "''Rinascimento''"), was a [[cultural movement]] that spanned roughly the [[14th century|14th]] through the [[17th century]], beginning in [[Italy]] in the [[late Middle Ages]] and later spreading to the rest of [[Europe]]. It encompassed the revival of learning based on [[Classical antiquity|classical]] sources, the rise of courtly and [[Pope|papal]] [[patronage]], the development of [[Perspective (graphical)|perspective]] in painting, [[Scientific revolution|advancements in science]], and the arrival of [[print culture]]. The Renaisance had wide-ranging consequences in all [[intellectual]] pursuits, but is perhaps best known for its [[Art|artistic]] aspect and the contributions of such [[Polymath|polymaths]] as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Michelangelo]], who have inspired the term "[[Renaissance man|Renaissance men]]".
==Overview== ==Overview==

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The Renaissance (French: "rebirth," Italian: "Rinascimento"), was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. It encompassed the revival of learning based on classical sources, the rise of courtly and papal patronage, the development of perspective in painting, advancements in science, and the arrival of print culture. The Renaisance had wide-ranging consequences in all intellectual pursuits, but is perhaps best known for its artistic aspect and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who have inspired the term "Renaissance men".

Overview

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.

Renaissance thinkers sought out learning from ancient texts, typically written in Latin or ancient Greek. Scholars scoured Europe's monastic libraries searching for works of classical antiquity which had fallen into obscurity. In such texts they found a desire to improve and perfect their worldly knowledge; an entirely different sentiment to the transcendental spirituality stressed by medieval Christianity. They did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life.

Artists such as Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, and to improve government on the basis of reason. In perhaps the critical text of Italian Renaissance Humanism Pico della Mirandola, at the young age of twenty-three, wrote a famous text, the Oration on the Dignity of Man, a series of theses on philosophy, natural thought, faith and magic defended against any opponent on the grounds of reason. In addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, Renaissance authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages; combined with the invention of printing, this would allow many more people access to books, especially the Bible.

In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from Antiquity, and through novel approaches to thought. Some scholars, such as Rodney Stark, play down the Renaissance in favor of earlier innovation initially in Italian city states marrying responsive government, Christianity and the birth of capitalism. This analysis argues that, whereas the great European states (France and Spain) were absolutist monarchies, and others were under direct Church control, the independent city republics of Italy took over the principles of capitalism invented on monastic estates and set off a vast unprecedented commercial revolution which preceded and financed the Renaissance.

See also




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