The word “renaissance” means rebirth, this period was also called “Age of Discovery and the revival of Learning”. Renaissance means the moving of the European culture and re-discovering of the past Middle Ages.

The term “High Renaissance” applies to a short period of time at the end of 15th century – beginning of the 16th century. One of the main characteristics of this period was that masters used their artistic skills along with intellectual ones. The fact that the “High Renaissance” was so short is explained by impossibility of transferring the genius of the masters to their pupils.

In Italy the Renaissance appeared in the late 14th century. The developments of art and thought managed to transform the culture of Italy and define the course of Western civilization. This movement could not be called an anti-Christian, but instead of continuing focusing on gods and religion, the individuals started to cultivate personal excellence, recognition of person’s achievements and tried to explore their own personalities. The scholars paid much attention to classical learning, but they looked more deeply on the classical texts and valued their meaning. Their goal was to get the lessons about life, civic duties and self-expression from those texts and to study them critically, not just as pieces of never changing wisdom. At the times when the Renaissance appeared in Italy, the country was politically divided. There were wars among Italian states and from 1494 to 1559 – between France and Spain. Early 15th century symbolizes the rise of humanism in Florence. The goal of this civil humanism was to train aristocratic people for public affairs.

The Renaissance was based on distinguishing the human form and natural world. “Alberti and Vasari articulated this break by, respectively, establishing the principles of mathematical perspective and defining the Renaissance as a distinct age, a cultural rebirth after the period of medieval decay” (“Leonardo da Vinci,” 1994 Funk & Wagnall’s Corporation pp.2-5) The characteristic feature of the early Renaissance was, that all the sculptors, painters and architects paid most attention to the human figure and its proportions. Ghiberty and Masaccio used the principles of linear perspective; on the other hand, Donatello was closer to a classical tradition of free-standing sculpture. The painters – Fillipo Lippi, Botticelli, Chirlandaio – used a lot of various techniques such as sensual color, sculptural precision of line and Flemish – influenced realism. In Florentine architecture of this period with the help of art a great emphasis was given to a status of a person in the society, homes of wealthy people were decorated by artists. Private life became the same decorative as public life.

The artists presenting the so called High Renaissance, managed to collect all these innovations and to apply them to style of classical balance, simplicity and harmony. Leonardo da Vinci was the pioneer of new style in painting, he developed circular motion and pyramidal design and arranged figures harmonically. Michelangelo introduced some kind of new degree of emotional and physical tension to sculpture. Raphael managed to bring the pyramidal design to its highest peak in his Madonna-and-Child paintings. The revolutionary was the idea of using oil paints, brought by Venetian style. Music was not transformed a lot, Italian composers still used the sacred and secular music in medieval polyphonic styles.

Overall, the Renaissance changed the medieval thought and world view, the scholars and artists of this period presented the modern outlook. Very important was their idea of progress, i.d. going from bloom to decay and to rebirth.

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