Answer:
Explanation:
During the two hundred years between 1400 and 1600, Europe witnessed an astonishing revival of drawing, fine art painting, sculpture and architecture centered on Italy, which we now refer to as the Renaissance (Risorgimento). It was given this name (French for 'rebirth') as a result of La Renaissance - a famous volume of history written by the historian Jules Michele (1798-1874) in 1855 - and was better understood after the publication in 1860 of the landmark book "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" (Die Vulture Renaissance in Italian), by Jacob Hardtack (1818-97), Professor of Art History at the University of Basel.
Causes of the Renaissance
What caused this rebirth of the visual arts is still unclear. Although Europe had emerged from the Dark Ages under Charlemagne (c.800), and had seen the resurgence of the Christian Church with its 12th/13th-century Gothic style building program, the 14th century in Europe witnessed several catastrophic harvests, the Black Death (1346), and a continuing war between England and France. Hardly ideal conditions for an outburst of creativity, let alone a sustained ascertain of paintings, drawings, sculptures and new buildings. Moreover, the Church - the biggest patron of the arts - was racked with disagreements about spiritual and secular issues.
Increased Prosperity
However, more positive currents were also evident. In Italy, Venice and Genoa had grown rich on trade with the Orient, while Florence was a center of wool, silk and jeweler art, and was home to the fabulous wealth of the cultured and art-conscious Medici family.
Prosperity was also coming to Northern Europe, as evidenced by the establishment in Germany of the Pancreatic League of cities. This increasing wealth provided the financial support for a growing number of commissions of large public and private art projects, while the trade routes upon which it was based greatly assisted the spread of ideas and thus contributed to the growth of the movement across the Continent.
Allied to this spread of ideas, which incidentally seeded up significantly with the invention of printing, there was an undoubted sense of impatience at the slow progress of change. After a thousand years of cultural and intellectual starvation, Europe (and especially Italy) was anxious for a re-birth.
Weakness of the Church
Paradoxically, the weak position of the Church gave added momentum to the Renaissance. First, it allowed the spread of Humanism - which in bygone eras would have been strongly resisted; second, it prompted later Popes like Pope Julius II (1503-13) to spend extravagantly on architecture, sculpture and painting in Rome and in the Vatican (eg. see Vatican Museums, notably the Sistine Chapel frescoes) - in order to recapture their lost influence. Their response to the Reformation (c.1520) - known as the Counter Reformation, a particularly doctrinal type of Christian art - continued this process to the end of the sixteenth century.
An Age of Exploration
The Renaissance era in art history parallels the onset of the great Western age of discovery, during which appeared a general desire to explore all aspects of nature and the world. European naval explorers discovered new sea routes, new continents and established new colonies. In the same way, European architects, sculptors and painters demonstrated their own desire for new methods and knowledge. According to the Italian painter, architect, and Renaissance commentator Giorgione Va sari (1511-74), it was not merely the growing respect for the art of classical antiquity that drove the Renaissance, but also a growing desire to study and imitate nature.
Why Did the Renaissance Start in Italy?
In addition to its status as the richest trading nation with both Europe and the Orient, Italy was blessed with a huge repository of classical ruins and artifacts. Examples of Roman architecture were found in almost every town and city, and Roman sculpture, including copies of lost sculptures from ancient Greece, had been familiar for centuries. In addition, the decline of Constantinople - the capital of the Byzantine Empire - caused many Greek scholars to emigrate to Italy, bringing with them important texts and knowledge of classical Greek civilization. All these factors help explain why the Renaissance started in Italy. For more, see Florentine Renaissance (1400-90).
