Download Cultural Achievements of the Italian Renaissance

Cultural Achievements of the Italian Renaissance
Humanism was a key movement in the Renaissance and had a major influence on the cultural
changes and achievements. Humanists studied history; they were particularly interested in
Ancient Greek and Roman civilisation, and classical works, as well as in contemporary history
and politics. Although the Humanists were Catholic, their ideas were more secular - "learning
emerged
from
the
cloister...
to
rejoin
the
human
mainstream."
The humanist ideas soon spread into the classroom. Previously, learning had been ecclesiastical
- theocracy and theology were taught a lot - but during the Renaissance, learning became more
secular. It was based upon classical culture so students studied classical authors, philosophers
and mathematicians, for example: Ovia, Cicero, Livy, Plato and Aristotle. More progress could
be made now that learning was not entirely based upon the church. Ideas soon spread due to
the invention of the printing press in Germany in 1469; an ability to communicate to the masses
quickly
and
reliably
was
a
major
cultural
achievement.
Books became much more accessible, and this in turn was a factor in many people learning to
read and write. Before printing, most people were illiterate and very few books were in
existence, as they had to be hand-written. Often the only book available was the Bible, which
was copied out over a long period of time by a member of the clergy. Mass production of books
was a very important development during the Renaissance as it meant that all the new ideas
were obtainable to many more people than would have been the case, had printing not been
invented. Authors of the time include Dante (poetry) and Machiavelli (prose). The famous
"Book of the Courtier" by Castiglione, goes into great detail about the attributes of the ideal
courtier. Some of these attributes had only come to be regarded as important during the
Renaissance, due to the sudden interest in, and ideas about culture: "he should have a
knowledge of Greek and Latin [and be] very well acquainted with the poets... orators and
historians".
The Renaissance was only able to happen due to the large sums of money in Italy at the time.
The Arts had many rich patrons such as the Church, the guilds, local governments and councils,
courts and individuals (such as the Medici family of Florence). The Church frowned upon those
whose job involved making an excess profit out of people; this applied to many trades in the
Renaissance, including banking. In an attempt to be forgiven, the rich tradesmen would offer to
pay for a new work of art (for example, a new chapel) for the Church. Naturally, the Church did
not object to this, and so many beautiful pieces of art were created. As well as "devotion to
God", other reasons why so much money was spent on art were because it could be a way of
boasting about how much money you had, and showing pride, glory and honour, and then
more simply, for pleasure, and because it was "money well spent".
One of the most important cultural developments during the Renaissance occurred in the visual
arts: due to the "Rebirth" of the classics, artists had a new understanding of anatomy, which
inspired them to carve nude figures so as to display how accurately they were now able to
depict muscles and joints. Some sculptures even dissected corpses to discover how the human
body works, just as anatomists had done in Ancient Greek and Roman times. It was a similar
case with paintings of humans - they were infinitely more lifelike than they had been during the
Middle Ages. Many of the artists whom are nowadays considered the greatest of all time, lived
and worked in Italy during the Renaissance. The painter and sculptor, Michelangelo, is best
known for two particular art works. He was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (between 1508 - 1512). He also created the marble statue of
David (Renaissance sculptors copied the style of Ancient Rome by using marble as their
material).
Architecture
also
copied
the
classical
Roman
building
styles.
Humanism also had an affect on music. Music moved away from Catholicism: composers wrote
both sacred and secular music, and hymns were no longer always written in Latin - they had
more appeal to the public when written in their own national language which they could
understand. Patrons decided that they wanted music for entertainment purposes, and hymns
became a lot more cheerful, some of the underlying melodies actually originating from ditties
that
had
been
heard
in
the
local
public
house!
During the Renaissance, the past (specifically during the times of Ancient Greece and Rome)
was studied in detail; after rediscovering the past, we could move on, having achieved many
things culturally: new inventions, new methods and most importantly - new ideas.