The historical context of the Renaissance, beginning and end
Historic context
The term rebirth derives from the Italian expression "rinsecita", a word used for the first time by the Petrarca writer that reflects his admiration for Greco -Roman antiquity. It is a rebirth, of a life again to the ideals that those peoples had inspired, to the free contemplation of nature after centuries of predominance of a more rigid and dogmatic type of mentality established in the Europe of the Middle Ages of the Middle Ages.
The cultural and artistic movement that emerged in Italy between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is considered the transition stage between the Middle Ages and modernity. It extended throughout Europe (especially in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, Spain and Portugal).
While in Italy the Renaissance was developing, in the rest of Europe the Gothic is maintained in its late forms, a situation that will be maintained, except for specific cases, until the beginning of the 16th century.
Thus, during this period, the global expansion of European culture begins, with Portuguese trips and the discovery of America by the Spaniards, which breaks the medieval conception of the world, fundamentally theocentric.
It was during the Renaissance that there were a series of fundamental changes in culture and society that indicated the passage to the Modern Age, of the old theocentric culture to a new more intellectual and less sacred or religious order. Development is focused on man and nature.
Causes of the rolling
Based on the available literature, we can highlight several causes for the emergence of this period and cultural movement, among the 5 most important are:
- The cultural expansion that originated thanks to the emergence of new universities during the 12th century.
- Due to the fall of Constantinople, great sages and Greek thinkers arrived in Italy.
- The invention of the role and printing.
- Expansion of humanism, which intended to discover, study and venerate man (anthropocentrism)
- The richness of the bourgeoisie that allowed the financing of new artists.
Main characteristics of the Renaissance
This new stage raised a new way of seeing the world and the human being, based on a transformation of all aspects of human culture, the fields of arts, politics, philosophy and science. An outstanding characteristic of this era is the separation between civic and religious and replacement medieval teocentrism for a certain anthropocentrism.
Education begins to collect primary importance and, as medieval standards do not work, the classics of antiquity are used, who act as models and stimulus.
The main engine of expression and expansion for these knowledge has been the language, which was reflected in writing thanks to the invention of alphabetical writing, perfected by the Greeks and adapted by the Romans, which allowed the literacy and transmission of other writing systems plus complex and, therefore, and the dissemination of knowledge and arts.
Another relevant characteristic of this period, and starting from the base that man became the center of things, and in that unattainable search to explain everything, scientific research was cable for this time. Now, the human being has self-consciousness, it stands as a principle and as a center, what we know as anthropocentrism. As a consequence of this new perspective, one begins to think of a full and more autonomous individual freedom. Individual freedom is presented as a basic principle of each individual to legitimately direct his own life, leaving aside the obligations and bonds of the medieval world.
In the Renaissance mentality it is possible to see a strong defense of the dignity of the human being. This dignity is the product of intellect and technique, not of the rational soul as considered in medieval times. The human body ceases to be shadow, sign and cause of sin, and it gives way to an optimistic, open and enthusiastic vision of the human being.
With the wars in Italy, there was an exodus of artists for which this new period was disseminated throughout Western Europe.
Art submits to the laws of mathematics as it translates into the adoption of three principles:
- Particular conception of proportion
- Perspective
- Predominance of linear and geometric aspects.
Thus we see in their compositions symmetrical and apiramidad. This is claimed for painting, architecture and sculpture the range of liberal arts (such as optics, geometry or mathematics).
Main inventions of the Renaissance
The printing press, which allowed knowledge, as well as humanistic currents, to be available to everyone and spread rapidly.
Berbiquí, useful mechanism used in obtaining wood. They were built in different sizes and their gears allowed to give special use in the fields of carpentry and cabinetries.
Jacob’s rod, an instrument specially used by astronomers (bully -shaped scale that allowed the measurement of the stars of heaven).
Compass, it is necessary to clarify that it had already been created by the Chinese, the model of these was rudimentary and its use had to do with the prediction of the future. Europeans created a model called "Dry Compass" and used it when starting long trips and locating the north point.
Helicopter and bicycle, inventions by Leonardo da Vinci. In his drawings he left the two designs of these objects with the minimum details they needed to work. Although the helicopter was not a reality, until the modern era, his prototypes were a great contribution to the future.
End of the Renaissance
Already in the second half of the 16th century, a decline for the Renaissance explained at first begins with a rigid formalism, evolving in the artistic style that emerged in Italy and after this, the Baroque begins to end this period of cultural transition and scientist settling the basis for subsequent progress and an attempt to modernize focusing on classical culture.
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