Renaissance is a French word meaning rebirth. It came from those who thought of the Middle Ages as a dark time from which the human spirit had to be awakened. The Renaissance marked a new era in thought and feeling, by which Europe and its institutions were to be transformed in the long run. The revelations that occurred in Italy influenced other countries for at least 200 years. Outside of Italy the Renaissance was more a blend of the old and the new with religion being the most important factor.
The Italian and northern Renaissances, although both being advancements in style and beliefs, had many faces and events that were different. Humanism is defined as a literary movement that occurred during the Renaissance. Although it was understood to be the same thing throughout Europe, the Italians and the northerners conceived it differently. Some of the more important northern humanists include John Calvin, Thomas More in England, and Erasmus of Rotterdam. The Christian humanism of the north is easily distinguished with the pagan humanism of Italy.
In the north, humanists studied the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible and read the Church Fathers so that they could further understand Christianity and restore its moral vitality. They generally regarded universities as centers of pedantic, monkish, and scholastic learning. These universities gave little interest to experimental science or even literary studies. The Italian humanists wrote in Latin, but often complained that it had become monkish, scholastic, and in some ways useless. The schools in Italy preferred the more classical style of Cicero or Livy. Francesco Petrarca, or Petracrch, is known as the first man of letters.
He criticized both the law and the clergy relentlessly. Lorenzo Valla became one of the founders for textual criticism and of his many accomplishments he proved the Donation of Constantine a forgery. The most important element of the northern Renaissance was religion. In Italy the religious sense, if not gone completely, was passed into a cult in which God was glorified by works of art. In the north it took on a more mystical and more of a moral tone. The essence of mysticism lay in the belief or in some cases the experience that the individual soul could commune directly with god.
Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote a very popular literary work entitled The Handbook of a Christian Knight. In this he explained how a man might take part in the affairs of the world while remaining a devout Christian. The Erasmian virtues are tolerance, restraint, peacefulness, scholarly understanding, and to research before you follow someone in their beliefs. This is what led to Martin Luthers beliefs and eventually the Protestant Reformation. Italian crafts included many refined trades such as that of the goldsmith, painters, or stone carvers, with which a love for beautiful things was brought about.
Art was much more prominent in Italy than in the northern states. Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most famous painters of this time. He painted the Last Supper, which portrays Christ and his disciples around a large table. On top of this he was also a great inventor. Raphael another great artist did madonnas of young Italian women. Michelangelo, probably the most famous to this day, was known for painting huge life like scenes in which the attributes of humanity invade heaven itself. His most well known work is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
These painters werent influenced at all by the artists of ancient times because little was known about what art had survived. The conception and presentation of the works is what was new. In subject matter the paintings most often would deal with religious themes. The goal was to get the viewer to enter the world of the painting. The three-dimensional effect was achieved during this time by carefully determining distance through a representation of size. The idea was to present a familiar theme in an understandable setting.
These innovations in painting did not pick up as well in the north, although some were preceded by the Flemish masters in the Renaissance. Also in the northern Renaissance, south Germany gave birth to Durer and the Holbeins. Painting became less symbolic in this period and more of a portrayal of concrete realities as they met the eye. The Renaissance was the time in which new values and ideas arose. In the northern states the religious element was much stronger and this was reflected through everything in which the main sense was humanism.
It also led to more recent times when the Protestant Reformation and German Civil wars took place. In Italy the focus was on the arts. Humanism was also a factor and religion seemed to be passed aside although it was included in most of the artists beliefs and ideas. In conclusion, the northern and Italian Renaissance were very similar in the sense of rebirth and new values and expressions, but differed in the fact that they developed different religions and environments, and went down their own separate paths into the future.
