Humanism As The Foundation For The Italian Renaissance

Italian Wealth and the Renaissance (Draft) The Renaissance was an intellectual and artistic movement from roughly the 14th to the 17th century centered around humanism and individualism. After starting in Italy, the Renaissance and its humanistic ideas spread North to places like Germany, Flanders, and England. Italy's wealth, caused by its extensive trade, market economy, and elite-ruled political structure, served as a medium for the dawn of the Renaissance.

Arguably the greatest and longest impacting movement brought about by the forward thinkers of the Renaissance was humanism. Humanism was a cultural and intellectual movement that emphasized the human potential to attain excellence through direct study of the literature, art, and civilization of the classical Greek and Roman societies (Merriam-Webster). The scholars and believers in humanism sought to change the course of society away from the narrow pedantry of medieval scholasticism and utilitarianism. Humanism was a basic desire for every citizen to be able to speak with eloquence and read and write with clarity, so that common citizens were capable of engaging in the civic life of their communities (Gray). The movement also emphasized the value of a human being as well as the importance of rational thought rather than blind faith in spiritualism or superstition. It also pushed people to explore human desires and pleasures while also enriching their minds. The influential nature of humanism was far reaching and most notable for its effects on Renaissance art, literature, and philosophy.

Italy was considered the birthplace of both the Renaissance, specifically the Artistic Renaissance. The Renaissance was a period of rebirth (14th to the 17th century) of learning classical knowledge, which then went more specifically into the formation of ideals and thoughts such as the focus on man and their achievements, man being fundamentally “good”, the use of measurements and science in art and the overall shift into what is more appearance oriented as well as somewhat of a realistic art style. These ideals of the Renaissance were presented through the work that artists of this period were producing.

During the Renaissance, a program of study known as humanism, impacted education, art, politics, and ultimately shaped the Italian Renaissance. Humanism is defined as “a program of study designed by Italians that emphasized the critical study of Latin and Greek literature with the goal of understanding human nature.”[1] Humanism changed people’s views and allowed them to start portraying people in a more realistic and relatable way. Many artists began to drift away from religious subjects and instead, began to focus more on individuals and their lives. In addition, humanism also allowed people to create new architecture that resembled classical constructions. Humanism impacted many visual

The Italian Renaissance was a period in history unlike most others; this was an era of ingenuity, expansion, and enlightenment that would revolutionize both society as the people of the Renaissance knew it to be, and as the future generations of individuals across the globe understand it today. Florence held itself out to be the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, yet the people of this renaissance era never lost sight of the Greek and Roman heritage. The following essay will discuss the varying ways in which Florence was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and will provide the reader with examples that demonstrate Greco-Roman ideas and practices in the Italian Renaissance.

In many ways, Italy had benefits over northern Europe in detaching from the feudal system and accumulating enormous amounts of wealth. I think that above all else, geography was Italy’s anchor in this respect. Being a projecting land mass sticking out into the Mediterranean Sea, and beneficially located between the main part of Europe and the Byzantine Empire, cities within Italy had little choice but to weave endeavors of commerce into every day life while engaging in the market and foreign trade. Therefore, Italy became prone to the extensive continuity of goods and novelties earlier than other European areas. Accordingly,

Start of The Renaissance in Italy During the 15th Century The word Renaissance means rebirth. It was a period when people rediscoverd learning and looking back to the classical civilizations of Rome and Greece for their inspiration. It was an exciting time of new inventions and amazing discoveries, magnificent buildings and beutiful art. My aim in this essay, is to explain why the Renaissance started in Italy during the 15 century.

Beginning roughly around the year 1400 an era in Europe began; one that would shape the ideas and the lives of men. This era of rebirth or renaissance came within the fifteenth century through the revival of classical texts. One central effect of the Renaissance was the production of a new intellectual idea: humanism. Humanism being defined as a, “[t]erm invented in the 19th century. . . [regarding] developments relating to the revival of Classical literature and learning in European culture from roughly 1300 to 1600” left its mark on all of Europe leaving nothing untouched not even the artist. Both northern and southern art would be affected by humanism but in different ways ranging from changes in the human form, new choices of

Although the origins of the Italian Renaissance can be traced to many different locations, it is important to note that different aspects of Italian culture and society remained largely medieval during the time of the Renaissance; the Renaissance did not come into full swing until the end of the century. The word Renaissance means “rebirth”, and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity (Greece and Rome) after the period that Renaissance humanists labeled the Dark Ages. These changes, while significant, were concentrated in the elite, and for the vast majority of the population life was little changed from the Middle Ages.

At the beginning of the 14th century, Italian cities was lands of first and foremost importance in the way of economic and political organization. Italy is the richest merchant country for both Europe and the East. In addition, Italy was fortunate to have a huge repository of classical monuments and artifacts. For examples, Roman architectures and Sculpture were found in most towns and cities, including copies of lost sculptures from ancient Greece, which were familiar in centuries. These are the conditions that made Italy became the first place where the Renaissance began on the Late Middle Ages, then spreading to the rest of Europe at different scales and levels. Renaissance means "rebirth," which embraces the flourishing of Latin as well

The Italian Renaissance was a period of ideas and innovation, a time where fresh thoughts and ideas prospered. It came during the 15th and 16th century, at a time right after Europe had recovered from the Black Plague, a disease spread by misinformation, lack of knowledge, and fear. The need for knowledge was high, and ideas, both independent and based on Classical wisdom, started to spread. Art, politics, religion, architecture, all aspects of the Italian world started to change as people started to question tradition and value their own lives. In the art world, realism became widespread, with dozens of new techniques to create the most believable scenes possible. Art also became a major focus in Italian society, driving up cities economies

To answer this question, it is necessary to explain how the Italian passion for Classical humanism had spread to the urban centers of the Netherlands and Germany, as well as to the burgeoning nation-states of England and France. The North absorbed the secular spirit of the Italian Renaissance, the primary focus of the Northern Renaissance would be religious and Its twin aims were renewal and reform. For years, critics throughout Europe had attacked the wealth, worldliness, and unchecked corruption of the Church of Rome. These circumstances were the breeding ground for the Protestant Reformation.

Although the Renaissance expanded to the furthest reaches of Europe, Italy was the birthplace of this historical time period of revival. The main reason Italy was the starting point of this revolution was because of its large city states. At the time, Northern Italy was exceptionally urban, whereas the other parts of Europe, where the Renaissance later spread to, were more rural. Since these cities had such large populations, there was a chance for people to converse in public forums and exchange ideas. These ideas were thoughts like reintroducing the works of the Romans and Greeks. Many people in these urban cities shared this idea of creating new work based off of what the Romans and Greeks had previously constructed, because they did not like the art and literature created in the Middle Ages. This encouraged them to look further back in time and begin to

The Renaissance encouraged many advances in science, technology, art, literature, mathematics and much more. In Italy the art was enhanced to look more realistic and

The Renaissance began in Italy in the 14th Century, a time of a great crisis. The plague, the hundred years of war and upset in the Catholic Church, that shook people’s beliefs and faith in the Church. This was a time of deprivation and despair. The Italians were surrounded by the remains of the ancient Greek and Romans, with spectacular buildings, Greek writings and art. The Europeans need a change, an injection of life with a cultural change in ideas. A rebirth; A Renaissance.