ITALY     NORTHERN EUROPE      FRANCE, SPAIN, GERMANY
 

    The Renaissance was a period of European history that began in 14th-century Italy and spread to the
rest of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.  In this period, the feudal society of the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) was transformed into a society dominated by central political institutions, with an urban, commercial economy and patronage of education, the arts, and music.  The term renaissance, literally meaning "rebirth," was first employed in 1855 by French historian Jules Michelet (Paolucci 14).  Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt, in his classic work The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), defined the Renaissance as the period between Italian painters Giotto and Michelangelo (Paolucci 18).  Burckhardt characterized it as the birth of modern humanity after a long period of decay, although modern scholars have since debunked the myth that the Middle Ages were dark and dominant (Paolucci 18).
    The Italian Renaissance developed in cities such as Florence, Milan, and Venice, which had emerged during the 12th and 13th centuries as new commercial developments allowed them to expand (Paolucci 12).  This mercantile society contrasted sharply with the rural, tradition bound society of medieval Europe.  A significant break with tradition came in the field of history, as Renaissance historians rejected the medieval Christian views of history (Cole 40).  Studies such as the Florentine History (1525) of Niccolo Machiavelli revealed a secular view of time and a critical attitude toward sources (Cole 44).  This secular view was expressed by many Renaissance thinkers known as humanists.  Humanism was another cultural break with medieval tradition; under its ideas scholars valued classical texts on their own terms, not merely as justifications of Christianity (Cole 56).  The study of ancient literature, history, and moral philosophy was meant to produce free and educated citizens, rather than priests and monks (Cole 57).  Classical manuscripts such as the dialogues of Greek philosopher Plato and the works of the Greek dramatists were rediscovered and critically edited for the first time.  These activities and other humanistic studies and artistic endeavors were supported by leading families such as Medici of Florence, and also by papal Rome and the doges of Venice (Cole 60).  From the mid-15th century on, classical form was rejoined with classical subject matter, and mythological scenes adorned palaces, walls, and plates (Cole 61).  The Renaissance ideals of harmony and proportion culminated in the works of Italian artists Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo in the 16th century.
    Progress was made in medicine, anatomy, mathematics, and especially astronomy, with the innovative work of Nicolaus Copernicus of Poland, Tycho Brahe of Denmark, Johannes Kepler of Germany, and Galileo of Italy (Gilbert 36).  Geography was transformed by new knowledge derived from explorations.  The invention of printing in the 15th century revolutionized the dissemination of knowledge.  The use of gunpowder transformed warfare, and in political thought, Renaissance theorists such as Machiavelli contended that the central task of government was to maintain security and peace, and not preserve liberty and justice (Ackerman 122).  Renaissance clergy patterned their behavior after the mores and ethics of lay society; yet Christianity remained a vital and essential element of Renaissance culture (Ackerman 124).  Many humanists applied the new philological and historical scholarship to the study and interpretation of the early church fathers.  This humanist approach to theology and scripture had a powerful impact on Roman Catholics and Protestants.  The Renaissance was a time of intellectual ferment that laid the foundation for the thinkers and scientists of the 17th century, who were far more original than the Renaissance humanists (Ackerman 125).  Above all, the Renaissance produced monuments of artistic beauty that stand as perennial definitions of Western culture.
    Renaissance art first developed in Italy, where examples of Greek and Roman art were readily available (Italian 20).  Italian sculptors led the Renaissance in the early 15th century.  Three Florentines made crucial innovations:  Filippo Brunelleschi developed linear perspective; Lorenzo Ghiberti became known for his bronze reliefs; and Donatello became renowned for his free styling statues (Italian 35).  Donatello, who also worked in many other Italian cities, was instrumental in carrying the Renaissance beyond Florence.  The first Italian Renaissance painter was Masaccio, who made use of both linear and aerial perspective in his frescoes (Italian 37).  His techniques were followed by other painters, including Paolo Uccello, who used devices such as foreshortening (Italian 38).  Another contemporaneous master was Fra Angelico, a monk renowned for his delicacy of color and treatment, particularly in landscapes (Italian 38).  Other early Renaissance Italian painters included Pisanello, Jacopo Bellini, and Piero della Francesca, whose measured, geometric style moved toward abstraction (Italian 40).  Leon Battista Alberti, an artist, humanist, and Latin scholar, wrote important theoretical works on painting, sculpture, and architecture, synthesizing Renaissance innovations and including ancient practices (Italian 41).
    In the subsequent generation, Florentine artists such as Antonio del Verrocchio studied from life the complexities of human anatomy.  This idea was later taken up by Verrocchio's pupil Leonardo da Vinci, whose work in art and science was among the most important of the Renaissance.  In northern Italy, the leading painters of the second generation were Andrea Mantegna, whose trompe l'oeil (fool-the-eye) approach was continued by mural artists during the next two centuries, and Giovanni Bellini, an influential painter and teacher of such pupils Sebastiano del Piombo, Giorgione, and Titian (Cole 68).  Bellini introduced bright, rich colors; was a consummate landscape painter; and began to use oil on canvas (Cole 70).  The lyric, flowing, decorative art of Sandra Boticelli, another second-generation painter, was favored by the ruling Medici family in Florence, an important patron of the arts.
    The following generation encompassed the period referred to as the High Renaissance.  This period was initiated by Leonardo da Vinci, who, when he returned to Florence from Milan in 1500, found the young Michelangelo about to begin his famous statue David, which became a standard against which other works were measured (Ackerman 144).  High Renaissance artists generally reduced their subjects to the bare essentials in order to keep the viewer's attention focused (Italian 54).  The center of the High Renaissance shifted to Rome and the court of Pope Julius II, who patronized the leading Italian artists and architects (Ackerman 147).  Donato Bramate was the outstanding architect of the period, producing temples, private palaces, and the design for the new Saint Peter's Basilica, which Michelangelo eventually took charge of constructing (Gilbert 64).  Raphael became Rome's leading painter, known for his innovative portraits and frescoes, which were contemporaneous with Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (Gilbert 67).
    Painting in Venice flourished as well, with Giorgione setting into motion a poetic school of painting characterized by softened contours, strong colors, and personalized subjects (Paolucci 36).  Titian used warm tones, such as vivd reds and golden yellows (Paolucci 36).  Correggio was known for his enormous fresco cycles; his paintings are characterized by skillful foreshortening, silvery colors, and the portrayal of spiritual and physical ecstasy (Paolucci 37).  While Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael were working in robust figurative style, others moved in a more lyric and decorative direction, beginning the style called mannerism, which was a shift away from the High Renaissance (Italian 60).  Pontormo, influenced by both Botticelli and Michelangelo, based his style on careful drawing, pale unnaturalistic colors, and elongated forms, emphasizing flatter, more decorative surfaces (Italian 61).  By the 1520's, in reaction to High Renaissance clarity and monumental classicism, artists had become anticlassical (Cole 76).  For example, the calligraphic qualities of Pontormo's art were derived, in part, from German engravings (Cole 76).  In the next generation, younger artists began to emulate the deeply individualized qualities found in such artists as Pontormo.  In the period from about 1530 until the end of the 16th century, Italian art developed in a less coherent fashion, continuing along mannerist lines (Italian 66). A combination of rich colors and powerful lines were the main focuses of many of the final artworks of the Renaissance in Italy (Italian 66).  Also important features were optical effects, dramatic foreshortenings, unusual compositions, and renderings of light (Italian 67).
    The earliest northern European works of the 15th century were on a much smaller scale than those produced in Italy, but many revealed a degree of realism and attention to naturalistic detail unknown in Italy (Harbison 12).  Northern attention to landscape detail also was ahead of development in other regions.  Flemish painter Jan van Eyck was the founder of Renaissance painting in Flanders and the Netherlands (Harbison 20).  His style developed from earlier realism and from earlier innovations n the use of light.  Having devised a linear perspective in some of his landscape backgrounds, he made new references to classical antiquity (Harbison 22).  Among the best of the northern painters was Dirk Bouts, who used true perspective along with injecting a personal, emotional quality into his religious paintings (Harbison 28).  Renaissance sculptors of the Lowlands were much less innovative than painters, retaining a closer connection to Gothic art; architectural forms seemed to be unaffected by the Renaissance (Harbison 32).
    French artists did not adopt Renaissance forms until the early 16th century, when King Francis I hired Italian artists to work at his court (Harbison 41).  The Palace of Fontainbleau became the focal point of French Renaissance art.  During the Renaissance, German art retained close connections with its Gothic past, but many artists fused their medieval heritage to the newer developments (Gothic 20).  Albrect Durer, a master of perspective, almost single-handedly brought Germany into the mainstream of Renaissance art (Koerner 25).  His paintings are often crowded with images, rich in detail, and strongly colored, containing an intensity of expression that typifies art north of the Alps (Koerner 26).  Durer's contemporary, Grunewald, continued in a more medieval current, creating a haunting, highly original art (Koerner 28).  German artists also led in the flourishing arts of printmaking and book publishing.  In Spain, artists during the Renaissance never fully achieved the modernity found in northern Europe and Italy; a fully Renaissance structure was not evident until the late 16th century (Harbison 56).

HERE ARE SOME MORE GREAT SITES THAT DEAL WITH THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD!!!

LINK 1       **LINK 2       LINK 3

    Ackerman, James S.  Distance Points: Essays in Theory and Renaissance Art and Architecture.

        Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991.  122-147.

    Cole, Bruce, 1938.  Italian Art, 1250-1550: the Relation of Renaissance Art to Life and Society.

        1st ed.  Icon Editions.  New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1987.  40-76.

    Gilbert, Creighton. History of Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture Throughout

          Europe.  New York, N.Y.: H.N. Abrams, 1973.  36-67.

    Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg, 1300-1550.  Munich: Prestel-Verlag; New York,

        N.Y.: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986.  20.

    Harbison, Craig. The Mirror of the Artist: Northern Renaissance Art in Its Historical Context.

        New York, N.Y.: Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, 1995.  12-56.

    Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture: History Through Art and Architecture.  Boulder,

        Colo.: The Press, 1985.  20-67.

    Koerner, Joseph L.  The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art.  Chicago,

        Il: University of Chicago Press, 1993.  25-28.

    Paolucci, Antonio. The Origins of Renaissance Art: the Baptistry Doors, Florence.  1st ed.

        New York, N.Y.: George Braziller, 1996.  14-37.