Art & Architecture Essay

Renaissance EssayOutline

II. The Renaissance in Italy.a) the birth of the movement.III. The Northern European Renaissance.
a) the start of the rebirth at the Northern European lands.
IV. The differences between the Italian and the Northern European Renaissance.
a) the relations between the arts and the cultures of the Italian and the Northern European Renaissance. V. The similarities between the Italian and the Northern European Renaissance.a) similarities reflected to the arts. V. Conclusion.
Everyone knows that Renaissance started in Italy at the Late Medieval Era and with time embraced the territory of the rest Europe. That time is notable for the significant cultural and technological shifts. As a cultural phenomenon, the Renaissance played an integral role in the Europe’s evolvement and influenced certain parts of the land differently. This period touched all spheres of the life such as music, politics, art, religion, literature etc. It should be mention here, that there were two Renaissance: Italian and Northern European. Absolutely they were unique in their own way, but also have some diversity.
The first thing that needs to be said about Italian Renaissance is that it was the opening stage of the movement as a whole. Appeared in Florence in the middle of 13th century, it started the wave of the rebirth in society. The reason why this revival period was originated exactly in Italy was because of developed wealthy cities and that cultural Rome heritage.
Typical for that period great cultural and technological accomplishments all over the Europe were essential in its transition from medieval time to the Modern Age.
Noticeable that, the start of a rebirth that was bound basically to the cultural development of the intellectual fields of science and patronage can be followed up to the earlier time of the 14th century. Despite such changes, some angels of country’s culture and society were still mainly medieval. So, the Renaissance did not fully occur until the end of the century.As that were times for renovation, it seemed that artistic creation was the insatiable desire of the people of the Renaissance epoch. In the leading centers of Italy, passion for art has occupied almost all layers of society, from the ruling circles to ordinary people. The erection of public buildings, installation of monuments, and the decoration of the main buildings of the city were a matter of state importance and the focus of high-ranking persons.
The culture of the Renaissance was not the achievements of one only of Italy: the scope of its expansion has covered many of the European countries. As commonly known, the term Northern Renaissance is in the use for depicting the rebirth period in northern Europe, so to describe the Renaissance outside Italy. Until 1450, Renaissance humanism of Italy was under the influence outside the country. And starting from the end of 15th century the ideas of renovation covered the whole Europe.
The Renaissances of such countries as France, England, Poland and the Netherlands and others have different features and strengths. For instance, French King Francis I brought in Italian art, commissioned some of Italian artists. These changes were the birth of the Renaissance in France. Such trade and commercially developed cities like Bruges and Antwerp in the 15th and 16th century correspondingly, influenced the cultural interchange between Italy and the Netherlands.
However, we also agree that in art and particularly in architecture of that period, the impact of late Gothic effect was still present before the coming of Baroque. With the growth of universities and the appearance of the printed books the spirit renovation expanded all over the France, through so called Low Countries and in the end came to Britain by the end of the 16th century. As for the Renaissance in England, which coincided with the Elizabethan epoch, the greatest artists like Shakespeare and Marlowe composed their works under this impact. The Polish Renaissance was started as Florence artists came to the country directly from Italy. Despite the fact, that all this new changes have been made under the one common idea, the Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance shared some peculiar differences.
In a certain sense the Renaissance of Italy and Northern Europe had some differences in its centralization of political authority. So, at the time Italy and Germany were prevailed by free city-states, in some central and Western lands of Europe started to appear nation-states.
Besides this, the Northern Renaissance had a close link with the Protestant Reformation. As a result, lasting in outward collisions among different Protestant groups and the Roman Catholic Church had long-term consequence, like the partition of the Netherlands.
Generally, the Northern renovation covered the territory of Eastern Europe. At that time there bit attention was paid on the daily life of ordinary people. For example Peter Brugal, Dutch painter of that period, on his picture “Haymaking” depicted the everyday life of the peasants. As for the Renaissance in Italy, the main subject here was wealthy aristocracy. Paintings of that time were accurate and in details demonstrated the whole power of rich class. Such differences happened to be because of trade development at the time of Italian Renaissance, specifically in the Mediterranean.
It is not a secret that the Italian Renaissance was concentrated on Roman Catholicism. Due to this fact, Popes were extremely wealthy and their representation at the paintings was much elaborated. Greek-Roman renewal played its important role. Quite frequently, subjects of the Classical times were reflected at the paintings. For example, at the painting like the “Last Judgment” one can observe some of Italian Renaissance themes such as emphasis on the individual, Greek-Roman renewal, and religion.
Disregarding geography, significant difference between them was that the Northern Renaissance adhered to Gothic art and architecture tighter, than Italian society did. Specifically architecture continued to be Medieval until the beginning of the 16th century. But no one can deny that art wasn't bear adjustments in the northern part of the territory. Some scientists agreed that it developed abreast with Italian one. The northern part of the land had much fewer hubs of free commerce as opposed to Italy.
It should be note here, that all the social shifts happened in Italy were incited by Humanism. Artists, writers and philosophers all over the country were motivated to explore Classical ancient world. They were assured that these Humanistic ideas will eventually lead to the more noble society. Unlike with Italy, in the parts of the North people were more preoccupied with religious reform.
In addition, artists of that period in the North had a different way of composition than Italian artists had. At the time Italian painters covered some scientific keys like perspective, artists of the North were more concerned about the whole look of the work. The most significant thing was color. Northern artists put more attention for the surface details and naturalism.
But despite all these differences, both the Italian and Northern Europe Renaissance had some things in common. The Church gave to all the artists one common subject for their creations. The early period of Northern Renaissance art is completely familiar to the Italian so called Proto-Renaissance. Artists of these two periods gave their preference to religion characters and stories.
During the Renaissance, among other common things there was the Guild system that Italy and other parts of the Europe had. Emerged in the Medieval period, Guilds were the best way for people to learn various things: painting, sculpture or to learn some crafts. A person should take a long way of training, even after completed a real brilliant work and been accepted to the Guild.
Big changes were brought together with appearance of printed texts after 1450 in Italy as well as in the Northern part of the Europe. The topics were pretty much the same, though there were some variations from region to region.
And the last familiar thing about the Italy and the Northern Europe is that each of them had an exact center where all art was focused in the 15th century. As in was said above, such cultural hub that was an inspiration for the artists was Florence.
In the Northern part of the Europe Flanders, a part of Burgundy was the artistic center. That happened because of prosper commercial development of the Bruges. Just like Florence, city made its profit because of wool.

Works Cited

Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2010. Print.
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Flowofhistory.com,. 'FC78: The Northern Renaissance (C.1500-1600) - The Flow Of History'. N.p., 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Metmuseum.org,. 'The Art Of Renaissance Europe | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art'. N.p., 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.