Renaissance Vs Secularism

The Renaissance is a period in Europe, from the 14th to the 17th century, considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Early Modern Age. The Renaissance changed the view of man on the world from how man viewed the world during the middle ages. The purpose of this essay is to show how the Renaissance changed the way man viewed the world. The world was changed in the views of Art, Literature, and Science.

There are many contrasts in the art and music of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease, such as the Black Death. The Renaissance was revival of art, learning, and literature. The people’s attitude and fervor for religion had tremendous effects on the art and music produced. The Middle Ages also referred to as “The Age of Faith” was God centered and gave power to the church who dictated how the art should appear, and music should sound. The Renaissance was more concerned with individuals and their talents, the church was not the centralized power, the art exhibited influences from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

Another comparison that can be made to the modern era and Renaissance Europe is the field of music. Music has always been a part of the history and served as a form of entertainment for a long time. In early Renaissance Europe, wealthy merchants were able to educate their family in the arts and music. Women from rich families were also involved in music. Music in early renaissance was created in a way to sooth the listener's ears. Music with vocals was predominant and composers documented music for certain instruments. Events that led to changes from 1400 to 1600 (Arkenberg, 2002) led to the major shift in the styles making music, ways of distributing music, neo musical genres and the creation of instrument used in making music. The early Renaissance

Many Historians such as W.T. Waugh found little or no evidence to support the fact that there was a significant difference between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. “It cannot even be said that the Humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries revived the study of the classics. Scholars had been nourished on the classics for centuries…” (Doc. 3) This quote from A History of Europe tells Waugh’s view of no change. He concludes that since the scholars read Greek and Roman classics he felt that the reoccurrence of bringing back these texts was just a high point of the Middle Ages. I further disagree with Mr. Waugh because there was a significant change in both times; in the Renaissance people looked towards religion, afterlife, and luxury. These were humane personalities that were not shown in the Middle Ages. Many scientists, writers and philosopher’s opposed the negative views of people like W.T. Waugh. Ingenious men like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni with their futuristic ideas and burrokh style art preferred to differ from the views of the opposition. Da Vinci was a complex man with artistic and anatomic skills. Da Vinci

The painting depicts real people doing everyday things, like studying. Classical Antiquity was greatly displayed through another painting it depicts a normal person holding a balance. In the Middle Ages this would have been frowned upon because they discouraged the making of realistic paintings (Follett software). Realistic paintings would not have been introduced to the Renaissance without the humanists studying classical antiquity.

There are many contrasts in the beliefs and values of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease. The Renaissance, however, was a revival of art, learning, and literature. Their views of the purpose of life in the present world and man's place in the world was, perhaps, the greatest contrast. However, their views on politics, religion, and education were very different as well.

Individualism and Secularism were ideas that were introduced in the Renaissance and became fairly popular with the citizens who had experienced this time period. Secularism and Individualism though separate terms have a lot in common. They both have to do with separation of church from daily life. Secularism separating the government, and individualism pushing people to look less at what the Bible said and more at what was relative to their day to day lives. The emphasis on these two ideas during the Renaissance affected the way people wrote, drew, and created architecture, by pushing them away from religion and focusing more on day to day life and the people involved with it. So, the ideas of secularism and individualism had affected the

1. I know both the Middle Ages and Renaissance took place in Europe. The Middle Ages were terrible times marked by plagues, primitive agricultural machinery, war and lack of proper sanitation. The Renaissance occurred later in Europe, and that was marked by the rebirth of interest in art and intellectual capability. Art usually intertwined religion.

The shift between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was characterized by great socio-economic, political, and religious changes. Politically, the feudal system of the Middle Ages was exchanged for a more stable centralized republic/monarchy system that gave the people more freedom and input. Religiously, secularism became more important as stability gave people a chance to concern themselves with the “here and now” rather than simply the “hereafter.” Socially, there was a shift from dogma and unshakeable belief to humanism and the ability to interpret things for oneself. The Middle Ages began around 400 CE and lasted until 1400 CE while the Renaissance began around 1200 and continued until 1600. The 200 years that overlap between

The Middle Ages was a time in history where everyone was faithful to religion as well as others. Also, in the Middle Ages, people were encouraged to always try their best; they were encouraged to strive for the highest achievement possible and to never give up. The Renaissance, however, was more focused on becoming matured and finding a way to be successful at everything one does. During this era, people strived to become all-sided men, also known as; renaissance men. This means they are not only successful in one type of art but in all types of art, as well as math, science, and literature. The Renaissance was a distinct period in time that was separated from the Middle Ages and began a new era.

The Renaissance, a term coined by Giorgio Vasari in 1550 , is used to describe the period of cultural and intellectual change which started in Italy and then spread across the rest of Europe. This development in society led to Europe stepping out of the medieval era and becoming a powerhouse on a global scale. The Italian Renaissance is what the majority of people think of when thinking about the Renaissance period but that was just the starting point. The Italian Renaissance changed as it spread across Europe, creating a French Renaissance, an English Renaissance and a Northern Renaissance. The focus of this essay is the Northern Renaissance, discussing why it arrived later to northern Europe and what distinguishes it from the Italian Renaissance.

After looking at the Italian and Northern Europe Renaissances, one can see the many similarities between the arts and cultures, but the differences of these cultures are not

The Middle Ages was all about order. The Church was the center of life and community. Each individual knew and accepted his or her place in society. The Renaissance was all about change. During The Renaissance, everything was challenged including the Church. Artists of great magnitude emerged during this time.

The worldview of the Middle Ages was shaped by religion. The Church had an idea of the world, and others had faith that what the Church said was all true. The Church stated all of the things that they thought were possible, and that God is the only one who is perfect. In contrast to the Middle Ages, the worldview during the Renaissance was shaped by exploration and innovation. Michelangelo, Raphael, and others continued investigating because they knew that humans were capable of perfecting themselves.

The arts during the renaissance were very beautiful and showed lots of beauty, they showed lots of emotion and detail to them. They had lots of color to show the detail as well. The art work during the middle ages was quiet dull and didn’t show much of anything, but the fact of it having to deal with christianity. It didn’t show much emotion, it was hard to see what the painting was trying to show. The renaissance was very vivid and detailed comparted to the middle ages.