The Renaissance Era & the Characteristics (14th - 15th Century)

From the Renaissance, came great losses but also benefits. Certain characteristics became bigger and wider, the most notable being Humanism, Art, Science, Religion and Self-Awareness. There is also the spread of the printing press and how it became well known to so many places during this era and how it was beneficial to all of the artists, poets and religious individuals, these places included Northern Europe, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Spain.




Humanism

Scholars of the Renaissance adopted the humanist method in study and focused on realism and emotion in art. Humanism was not a philosophy as it was seen as by many, it was more a method of learning. Unlike the medieval scholastic method, which focused on sorting contradictions between authors, humanists would study ancient texts in the original, typically written in none other than Latin, or ancient Greek, and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and evidence. A hunt, by Poggio Bracciolini, who was credited with the discovery of the complete works of fifteen different authors, turned up Vitruvius' work on art and architecture, allowing for the completion of the Duomo of Florence by Filippo Brunelleschi. Artists such as Masaccio strove to show the human form realistically, developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolo Machiavelli, tried to describe political life as it really was and to improve government on the basis of reason.

Art


One feature of renaissance art that stood out was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone is was the first person who treated a painting as a window into space, but it was not until architect Filippo Brunelleschi and the later writings of Leon Battista Alberti that perspective was made an artistic technique. Painters of this time also found out about other techniques, studying light and shadow, as well as Leonard da Vinci finding human anatomy to be a form of art. Notable artists include Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sandro Botticelli, who worked for Medici in Florence, Donatello also a Florentine and Titian of Venice.

Science

Science and art were very much the same in the early in early renaissance, with artists like Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. A new way of learning was found during this era, the use of empirical evidence, the importance of mathematics and throwing away the final cause in favour of mechanical philosophy. This method led to great and fortunate alliances in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology and anatomy.