Download RenaissanceArts - Renaissance music 1

RenaissanceArts Home
guest| Join | Help | Sign In
RenaissanceArts




Wiki Home
Recent Changes
Pages and Files
Members
Julie Tervil
HUM 2230
Prof. Harris
04/20/2010
Renaissance art and philosophy in literature
Literature plays an important role in the Renaissance era. In the fourteenth-century, Europeans
manifested an unprecedented preoccupation with differences in class, gender, and personality. Both in
literature and art, there emerged a new fidelity to nature and to personal experience in the everyday
world. Let’s take a view in some different times frame of the renaissance.
Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature, which began in Italy during the 14th
century and spread around Europe through the 17th century. The impact of the Renaissance varied
across the continent; countries that were predominantly Catholic or Protestant experienced the
Renaissance differently compared to areas where the Orthodox Church was dominant as reflecting on
its culture, as well as those areas of Europe under Islamic rule.
The creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg encouraged authors to write in the local
vernacular rather than in Greek or Latin classical languages, widening the reading audience and
promoting the spread of Renaissance ideas. A prime example of the writings of the time are the works of
William Shakespeare, who was fundamental in the spread of Renaissance ideas.
Northern Beginnings
The Renaissance began in Italy, and slowly spread north, to France, Germany, and the Low Countries
of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Eventually it reached the British Isles and Scandinavia.
This Northern Renaissance has very distinct characteristics that set it apart from its Italian counterpart.
By the end of the Hundred Years War, in 1453, changes in art, literature and philosophy were brewing in
Northern Europe. The Renaissance came to Northern Europe via the French King, Francis I. Francis
rebuilt the palace at Fontainebleau, introducing the Italian Mannerist Style, with its dense Roman
detailing to its interior decor. He also brought the famed Italian artist, Leonardo Da Vinci to the French
Court. Da Vinci undoubtedly had a great influence over many local artists.
Latin Literature - the literature of ancient Rome and of that written in Latin in later eras
Very little remains of the ritualistic songs, and the native poetry of the Romans and Latins before the rise
of a literature. The history of the Roman Empire is fundamental to the fabric of this literature: in the first
three centuries of its development, the influence of captive Greece was all-pervasive.
The Development of a Classical Style
The close of the First Punic War (c.240 b.c.) marks the beginning of literary work in Rome with the plays
of the slave Livius Andronicus, adapted from the Greek. The epic poet Gnaeus Naevius also wrote
dramas, but he was far surpassed by the greatest of Roman dramatists, Plautus, a master of comedy. In
his SatiresEnnius introduced the hexameter into Latin; Cato the Elder opposed the hellenizing group, to
which Ennius belonged, and wrote his works in as rude a Latin as possible. However, his efforts had
little effect and the works of Terence, Greek in scene and origin, manifest the tremendous interchange
of Greek and Latin writing.
The 1st cent. b.c., the last era of the Roman republic, produced some of the greatest figures in Latin
literature—the encyclopedist Varro, the statesmen and prose masters Cicero and Julius Caesar, the
poets Lucretius and Catullus, and the historian Sallust. Vergil, the greatest of Latin epic poets,
exemplifies a new atmosphere in the Augustan age, with his celebration—and somber questioning—of
the new empire. In his epodes, odes, and satires, the poet Horace brought the Latin lyric to perfection,
while the elegy was cultivated by Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid. The notable historian of the age was
Livy.
Post-classical Literature
During the first half of the 1st cent. a.d., Latin literature in its classical form was in decline. The works of
Seneca, Lucan, Persius, and Statius typify a period in which the masters, both Latin and Greek, were
imitated. Among the most original poets were Martial and Juvenal, celebrated for their satiric writings.
Petronius, Frontinus, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger (see under Pliny the Elder), and Tacitus were
the chief writers of prose; Suetonius exemplified the richness of historical and biographical writing under
the Principate, while Quintilian brought classical literary criticism to its greatest development.
In the 2d cent. Marcus Fronto distinguished himself as an orator; his pupil Marcus Aurelius gained fame
both as a ruler and as one of the masters of the Latin essay. In the 3d and 4th cent. the writings of
Ausonius and Avienus extended beyond classical studies, developing traditional themes to deal with
everyday life and the world of nature. Claudian is considered the best of the late poets. Ammianus
Marcellinus was a noted historian. The philological scholars of the empire were numerous. These
included Aulus Gellius, Terentianus, Macrobius, Martianus Capella, and Priscian.
As the classical inspiration died, the tradition of Latin literature was borrowed from and carried forward in
Christian writing. Prudentius attempted to build a Christian style on classical models, but failed. The
Latin language became the standard language of the West and by far the greater bulk of medieval
literature as well as records, documents, and letters was written in Latin (see patristic literature;
Medieval Latin literature; Roman law).
The Renaissance
The literature of the Renaissance represents a conscious attempt to recapture the classical spirit. Most
learned people cultivated Latin, and many of them succeeded in writing a Latin style that stands
comparison with classical Latin models. Petrarch, Boccaccio, Poggio Bracciolini, Poliziano, Pontano,
and Pius II were accomplished Latin writers. Erasmus violently attacked the ubiquitous Ciceronianism of
the time.
Later Latin Literature
Good Latin poets have been fewer since the Renaissance, but George Buchanan and John Milton are
among the exceptions. Among the great scholars whose major works were written in Latin were Thomas
More, Baruch Spinoza, Francis Bacon, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, and Isaac Newton. Latin literature,
as such, is nearly dead, for its cultivation is limited to the ever-narrowing circles of classicists and to the
Roman Catholic Church, which adds new matter to the liturgy only rarely and confines use of
extraliturgical Latin to official, nonliterary documents.
See J. W. Duff, A Literary History of Rome (3d ed., repr. 1979); E. J. Kenney, ed., Cambridge History of
Classical Literature, Vol. II (1982); J. Sullivan, Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero (1985); B.
Baldwin, ed., An Anthology of Later Latin
Renaissance Authors & their Works
Lyric poetry and song were one of the things that succeeded during Elizabethan England.
One of the most famous songwriters was Thomas Campion. His five collections of songs
alongside "lute" accompaniment was made available to all social groups. Undoubtedly, the
Elizabethan period was the pinnacle of drama. Some of the greatest dramatists at the time
were Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson. In addition to these
writers, there were dozens of other fine writers including ones that were knighted, including
Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Sir Walter Raleigh.. Blank verse became the standard by which
these dramatists used to construct their literary works, especially in the areas of tragedy
and comedy. Several of Shakespeare's tragedies such as Hamlet, and Macbeth were
written using blank verse as was his comedies. Literature (1987).
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/LiteratureOfEngland/Pictures/Chris_Marlowe.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/LiteratureO
Christopher Marlowe
William Shakespeare
French Literature
French Literature - Renaissance
French Renaissance Literature - 16th Century
In Italy the Renaissance had already begun, but in France it was only at the beginning of the 16th
century that its influence began taking hold. French writers of the period began to replace theological
themes typical of medieval times with themes focusing on humanism, in which life and learning is
centered more on man than on God.
Literature and Poetry
In the early Renaissance, especially in Italy, much of the focus was on translating and studying classic
works from Latin and Greek. Both the cultures were highly admired in the Renaissance, especially after
the newly labeled Dark Ages. Renaissance authors were not content to rest on the laurels of ancient
authors, however. Many authors attempted to integrate the methods and styles of the ancient greats into
their own works. Among the most emulated Romans are Cicero, Horace, Sallust, and Virgil. Among the
Greeks, Aristotle, Homer, Plato, and Socrates were also heavily emulated by Renaissance authors. The
literature and poetry of the Renaissance was also largely influenced by the developing science and
philosophy. The humanist Francesco Petrarch, a key figure in the renewed sense of scholarship, was
also an accomplished poet, publishing several important works of poetry. He wrote poetry in Latin,
notably the Punic War epic Africa, but is today remembered for his works in the Italian vernacular,
especially the Canzoniere, a collection of love sonnets dedicated to his unrequited love Laura. He was
the foremost writer of sonnets in Italian, and translations of his work into English by Thomas Wyatt
established the sonnet form in that country, where it was employed by William Shakespeare and
countless other poets.
Petrarch's disciple, Giovanni Boccaccio, became a major author in his own right. His major work was the
“Decameron”, a collection of one hundred stories told by ten storytellers who have fled to the outskirts of
Florence to escape the black plague over ten nights. The Decameron in particular and Boccaccio's work
in general were a major source of inspiration and plots for many English authors in the Renaissance,
including William Shakespeare.
Aside from Christianity, classical antiquity, and scholarship, a fourth influence on Renaissance literature
was politics. The political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli is an important Italian author. His most famous
work is The Prince, which has become so well-known in Western society that the term "Machiavellian"
has come into use, referring to the self-serving attitude advocated by the book. However, most experts
agree that Machiavelli himself did not fully embrace the tactics in his book, making "Machiavellian" a
slightly inaccurate term. Regardless, along with many other Renaissance works, The Prince remains a
relevant and influential work of literature today. Addiitonally, many sixteenth-century authors such as
Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare expressed spiritual conflict through
their writing. Spenser's Faerie Queene, for example, depicts the struggle of a staunchly Protestant
knight of Holiness against the forces of Roman Catholicism.
The top six most popular plays by William Shakespeare are:
Hamlet - most famous of the William Shakespeare plays
Othello - second most famous of the William Shakespeare plays
Macbeth - third most famous of the William Shakespeare plays
Romeo and Juliet - fourth most famous of the William Shakespeare plays
The Tempest - fifth most famous of the William Shakespeare plays
Julius Caesar - sixth most famous of the William Shakespeare plays
Renaissance music 1.doc
Download 0 1 …

0 Tags
o
No tags




Notify
RSS
Backlinks
Backlinks
The following pages contain links back to this file
Page Date Edited
 1 of 1



homeApr 24, 2010
Help · About · Blog · Pricing · Privacy · Terms · Support · Upgrade
Contributions to http://renaissancearts.wikispaces.com/ are licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License.
Portions not contributed by visitors are Copyright 2017 Tangient LLC
TES: The largest network of teachers in the world