por We explain what the Renaissance was, its origin and historical context, characteristics, artistic disciplines and representative works
What is the Renaissance?
we call Renaissance to the intermediate period between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age (15th and 16th centuries), in which Western Europe experienced a cultural and material renaissance by resuming values and knowledge of Greek and Roman culture.
This reunion with classical culture coincides with the rise of new economic and political forces, and a renewed interest in the development of science and the arts.
It is a cultural phenomenon that affects and inspires a large part of Europe (Spain, France, England, the Netherlands and Germany, among others), but has its epicenter in Italy, especially in Florence. And although his influence affected Europeans in different aspects, he is remembered above all for his extraordinary artistic manifestations.
Historic context
Fewer and fewer historians speak of the period of the Middle Ages (from the 5th to the 15th century) as a “dark” age, although it was indeed a period of evolution that converged with the emergence of the Renaissance in Europe.
Although the Renaissance is usually located between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, for some historians and critics it began in the mid-fourteenth century.
There are several historical factors that feed this cultural movement: the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which displaced many scholars to Italy; the discovery of America, the consolidation of the European states and the emergence of the financial system in Italy.
The Reformation (the division of the Catholic Church, led by Martin Luther and his criticism of the ostentation of the papacy and the clergy), the invention of the printing press and the beginning of the scientific revolution, which displaces the center of the universe to Earth and places the Sun.
In the same way, Renaissance humanism displaces God from the center where he was found throughout the Middle Ages (theocentrism), to place the human being (humanism).
Renaissance Characteristics
A look at Greco-Roman culture
There is a renewed interest in the culture of Greece and Rome, and it is natural that it is in Italy, where numerous ruins of the empire are preserved and some classical studies were maintained, such as Roman law, Latin grammar and rhetoric.
Observation and the natural world
Craftsmen and artists from different disciplines aim to reproduce the natural world, studying human forms and pictorial aspects such as perspective. New representation techniques are developed in sculpture, goldsmithing, painting and architecture.
The artists pay attention to disciplines such as anatomy or mathematics, which coincides with an awakening of science, with multiple practical applications.
The human being as a measure of all things
Renaissance humanism promotes a multidisciplinary human being (the uomo universale), interested in everything, whose maximum example in the Renaissance is the figure of Leonardo da Vinci.
patronage
The arts and artists receive strong support from merchants and representatives of political power. State cities such as Florence and Venice, or the Papal States (part of Italy controlled by the papacy), finance artists and numerous works of art. This phenomenon will be repeated in other parts of Europe.
humanism
The artistic flowering of the Renaissance is accompanied by a similar development in the humanities, with figures such as Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More, François Rabelais, and Nicholas Machiavelli, among others.
periods
The Renaissance is divided into two periods or stages: the Quattrocento, corresponding to the 15th century (and also called the early Renaissance); and the Cinquecento, or full Renaissance.
Artistic disciplines of the Renaissance
The artistic disciplines that developed the most and stood out in the Renaissance were painting, sculpture and architecture.
The painting
During the Cuattrocento (15th century), the rigid forms of the Gothic began to disappear and the knowledge of perspective deepened, in the search for a painting that imitated three dimensions and was more natural.
During the Renaissance religious painting continued (scenes from the Bibleabove all the crucifixion and the Virgin with the Child Jesus), but the portrait is also developed and the references to Greek and Roman mythology are increased.
In the Cinquecento, in the midst of the Renaissance, the figures of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Titian, Raphael stand out, and outside of Italy figures such as El Greco in Spain, or Bosco and Brueghel, in the Netherlands.
Among the most famous paintings of the Renaissance and of art history in general we can mention the Gioconda and the Last Supperby Leonardo da Vinci, The birth of Venus and The Springby Sandro Botticelli, and The Burial of the Count of Orgazfrom Greco.
Sculpture
In sculpture is where the influence of classical art from Greece and Rome is most noticeable, even when the theme of the work is religious. There is a greater interest in human forms and nudes abound.
Stone (specifically marble) displaces wood as the main material for sculpture, and during the Renaissance the classical taste for equestrian statues in public spaces is resumed.
Among the great sculptors we can mention Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Verrocchio and Benvenutto Cellini, among others, but without a doubt the figure that stands out greatly in Renaissance sculpture is Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Three of the most famous works of the Renaissance belong to this artist: the Moseshe David and piety.
Architecture
Interest in the construction of religious buildings shifts to that of civil works and urban development. Medieval Gothic forms become less rigid and classical forms are modernized, as can be seen in the use of columns and hemispherical domes.
The monumentalism of medieval cathedrals is abandoned for simpler structures, less overloaded and made to measure for the human being (remember, the human being is now the measure of all things).
Among the most important architects we can mention Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti. Donato Bramante and Michelangelo.
The architectural style spread throughout Europe, from Saint Peter’s Basilica, in Rome, or the El Escorial Monastery, in Spain, to Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow.
Works of the Renaissance and their authors
The artistic production of the Renaissance is very prolific and of extraordinary quality. Below we mention only some of the most important of this period.
Paint
Sandro Botticelli: Spring (1481-1482), The birth of Venus (1484).
Leonardo da Vinci: The last Supper (1495-1498), the Gioconda (1503-1519).
Miguel Angel: Tondo Doni (1503), Sistine Chapel frescoes (1508-1512, 1536-1541). stand out the creation of adam and The Last Judgment.
Raphael Sanzio: the school of athens (1511), the parnassus (1511).
Tintoretto: The Last Supper (1592-1594).
Jheronimus Bosch (the Bosco): the garden of delights (1500).
Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Babel’s tower (1563).
El Greco: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586).
Sculpture
Lorenzo Ghiberti: gate of paradise (1425-1452).
Donatello: Equestrian statue of condottiero Erasmus of Narni, Gattamelata (1447-1453).
Miguel Angel: The Piety (1496), the David (1501-1504).
Welcome Cellini: Perseus with the head of Medusa (1545-1554).
Architecture
Leon Battista Alberti: Basilica of Santa Maria Novella (1456-1470).
Bramante, Raphael Sanzio, Michelangelo and Bernini, among others: Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome (1506-1626).
Gilles le Breton, Leonardo da Vinci, Philibert Delorme (main architects): Palace of Fontainebleau (1520-1550).
Juan Bautista de Toledo: Monastery of El Escorial (1563-1584).