Renaissance , is called the great social and political artistic phenomenon that took place during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and that consisted of a cultural transformation abandoning the norms of the Middle Ages and adopting a new conception of life.
This phenomenon has the name of Renaissance, because there was the belief that humanity during the Middle Ages lived in a time of backwardness. The Greek and Roman cultures have been the most advanced, it was said, and therefore they must be revived, they must be reborn. Therefore, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Greco-Latin spirit predominated.
Causes of the Renaissance
Among the main causes of rebirth, are the following:
- The new commercial and cultural relations of Europe with the East, as a result of the crusades; and with the West, as a result of the discoveries.
- The flight of many Greek artists to Europe, after the Taking of Constantinople by the Turks.
- The invention of the printing press, which spread culture.
- The protection given to artists and writers by some wealthy lords.
Precursors of the Renaissance
The Renaissance properly began at the end of the Middle Ages and the artists and writers who anticipated this great movement were the so-called Precursors
The most notable precursors of the Renaissance in Italy were four:Dante Alighieri, Francisco Petrarca, Juan Bocaccio and Juan Giotto.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1322)
He was one of the most famous renaissance writers in literature of all time.
His masterpiece The Comedy , which posterity rightly calls «The Divine Comedy «, is an extensive fantastic poem, divided into three parts:Hell (34 songs), Purgatory (33 songs), and Paradise (33 songs).
This work became famous, because:
- He contributed to the perfection of the current Italian language.
- He satirized the customs and characters of the third century, since many great great lords appear in the first canto occupying the cells of hell.
- It demonstrated the insurmountable fantasy of the author of it, since all of his songs are so heartbreakingly realistic that they seem more lived than dreamed.
Francis Petrarch (1304-1374)
Francisco Petrarca was a poet who was crowned with laurel in the Capitol of Rome, he wrote numerous poems inspired by a lady named Laura de Noves . He is considered the creator of the sonnet, a beautiful form of poetry that still exists and consists of 14 lines divided into 2 quatrains and 2 triplets.
He also wrote an epic work titled Canto al Africa.
John Bocaccio (1313-1375)
He was a brilliant Florentine writer of the Renaissance whose light and cheerful style has remained a model of naturalness and sound burlesque criticism. His work The Decameron , is a collection of funny stories, written as a result of a vacation in a place near Florence, where some ladies and gentlemen fled to get rid of the plague that plagued the city.
John Giotto (1266-1336)
He was the most notable Renaissance painter of the late Middle Ages. The naturalness of his figures and the splendidness of his colors make him be considered a true master of painting. The frescoes of him in the Basilica of Assisi and the frescoes of him in the church of Padua on the Life of the Virgin, have immortalized his name.
Renaissance Humanism
The philosophy of the Renaissance was Humanism, a great renovating movement that moved all of Europe. The writers of the 16th century said that Art and Science during the Middle Ages had taken on an inhuman, artificial and antiviral character. Philosophy had become scholastic, that is, subject to invariable and rigid rules of reasoning. The Art had lost all the grace it had in the days of Greece and Rome, to acquire a Mystical Tendency , with the exclusive purpose of making cathedrals and figures of saints. Science had stagnated in the laboratories of the alchemists and the doctors of the church denied any truth that was opposed to Catholic dogma. Therefore, the culture had to be humanized:
- Freeing philosophy from the Scholastic tendency, so that the spirit could follow all the paths of speculation.
- Freeing the Art from Mysticism, to make it more realistic.
- Returning all its freedom to science, so that it could investigate any phenomenon, even if it was contrary to religious beliefs.
This was Humanism and the writers who spread it were called humanists. They stood out among all the humanists Erasmus of Rotardam (1467-1563)