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_Renaissance _
By: Anonymous
Renaissance Essay The 14th, 15th and part of 16th century was a glorious time
for Europe, it was the reformation of many old ideas and the formation of many
new, this was called the Renaissance. The Renaissance brought many changes to
Europe, the economy was greatly boosted by of all the new explorations. The
flourishing economy helped to inspire new developments in art and literature.
And from that many new beliefs were formed. The European economy flourished
during the Renaissance due to many factors. There was a large income coming in
from over seas exploration. Spain alone received added income from Christopher
Columbus and when he stumbled across North America on his way to find a
shorter rout to the Indies. The exploration down the coast of Africa also
brought in a lot of extra income. This income came from the exploitation of
the Africans by kidnapping them and selling them as slaves. Income also came
from establishing colonies in Africa and setting up gold mines and mines for
other needed metals. With all of this extra income coming into the European
countries they had more money to help fund the arts. During the Renaissance
there were many drastic changes in the style of art. Giotto was a very
influential painter, during the start of the Renaissance. In Giotto's work he
used three dimensional images, this was a drastic change from the classic art
where depth was not used. His painting were very realistic and life like,
unlike the previous centuries art. Giotto's work inspired artists by the likes
of Leonardo de Vinci, Raphael and Michaelango. Michaelango painted the Sistine
Chapel, which is located in the Vatican in Rome. The Sistine Chapel depicted
the book of Genesis. The manner in which it was painted was unlike another at
the time, all the characters in the Sistine chapel are very life like and
realistic. Also it was one of the first times that religion was painted by the
painters opinion of the events. The arts led to new ways of thinking. With the
arts the artists began to think on their own and those movements began to
spread. It was not just what the church said anymore that was right. Humanism,
one of the new beliefs which was formed during the Renaissance, said that
people should read the works of the greats and focus on writing, and the arts.
Humanists believed that they were equal with the ancient Greek and Roman
writers and philosophers. Petrarch was the original humanist, and a writer who
wrote many letters to the people of ancient Rome. In those letters he spoke as
if he was an equal with them. Another of the new beliefs was scholasticism,
which was the opposite of humanism. Scholastics thought that people should
spend more time the sciences, they also wanted the church and science to be
brought together as one. As new scientific discoveries were made many of the
churches theories were beginning to be questioned. Some of the new scientific
discoveries consisted of theories which went against the churches beliefs. One
theory which was proven true about the Earth revolving around the sun. This
was contrary to the churches view that everything revolved around the Earth.
This theory was proven true by Copernicus who is considered the father of
modern astronomy. Kelper an astronomer and astrologer also discovered about
the rotation of the planets. As the church began to be questioned more and
more. And soon there were new religions forming. The major religion that was
formed during the Renaissance was the Protestant religion. The Protestant
religion began to spread throughout Europe, at one point of time the official
church of England was a Protestant church. This new and improved Europe was
mainly came to be from the blustering economy, the explorations, art,
literature, and new discoveries, but this new growth of a western power was
not just a natural development, in fact it was inspired by a superior
civilization, the Chinese. If it was not for the Chinese version of the
Renaissance which occurred about a thousand years earlier there would be no
European Renaissance. The Chinese had many useful inventions which the
Europeans exploited unlike the Chinese. One crucial Chinese invention was the
compass, the Chinese had no need to exploit the invention because they had
everything they needed right in China. The Europeans on the other hand would
be nowhere without the compass, because it was an essential tool for their
over seas exploration. Another key invention that the Europeans used to fuel
their Renaissance was the printing press, this was also another Chinese
invention that they had used a thousand years earlier. Many views about being
civilized and a gentleman was a crucial part of the Renaissance. Baldassare
Castiglione wrote an influential book called The Courtier which was all about
how to be a gentleman. Confucius a Chinese philosopher wrote about that same
idea during the Chinese Renaissance. So in fact the European Renaissance was
inspired by a superior civilization, the Chinese. Compared to the Middle Ages
the Renaissance was a major step up in all aspects of life from the economy,
which benefited from the explorations, the arts and literature and the new
scientific discoveries and theories. So the Renaissance was a very beneficial
period of time in European history.
Word Count: 886
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