Compare And Contrast Italian Art And The Renaissance

The renaissance was an age of recovery from the catastrophic 14th century, a time for the slow process of recovering from the effects of the Black Death, political disorder, and the economic recession. This recovery was accompanied by a rediscovery of the Greco-Roman culture and civilization. The renaissance began in Italy. There are plenty of reasons why Italy was the main location for revival of antiquity. The first one being the plague was the first to leave Italy. Therefore, they had more time to recover and grow. Another being that Italy was the main power during the past Greco-Roman culture, especially where it flourished in Rome. The rebirth in Italy led to the revival of three characteristics; an emergence of humanist attitudes, art,

Renaissance artists considered the imitation of nature their primary goal. Their search for naturalism became an end it in itself: to persuade onlookers of the reality of the object or event they were portraying. Italian artists began to focus in the area of perspective. An example is the birth of Venus. This connects back to Greco-Roman culture since Venus was one of the God’s of their religion. She is completely nude in the painting which differs very much from the Middle Ages art. Middles Ages art was regulated by religion, so this would have not been allowed. Another example is the death of Jesus, painted by Andrea Mantegna. It truly focuses on the perspective because it makes the viewer of the painting right there as if we are almost in that moment. The portrait is truly focusing on realism. The main differences between medieval and renaissance art was medieval art focused on religion. It stressed world beyond everyday life, used formal figures to express religious concerns, and portrayed scenes of the holy land. Whereas, the Renaissance focused on creating realistic scenes and images, humans were more lifelike, and

The development of printing from movable type medal was invented in 1450. The renaissance was the first time European civilizations had access to printing. The art of printing made an immediate impact on European intellectual life and thought. The printing of books encouraged the development of scholarly research and the desire to attain knowledge. Printing also stimulated the development of an ever-expanding lay reading public, which had a huge impact on European society. Also, without the printing press, the new religious ideas of the reformation would never have spread as rapidly as they did in the 16th century. A primary source from the impact of printing is the Gutenberg Bible. The first substantial book printed in the West. It was the first Bible that had been printed. This is significant because now middle class individuals can not only own books, but expand their knowledge on religion, as well as learn to read. In the middle ages, books had been cost and education rare; only the clergy had been regular readers sand owners of books. Books were hand-written by scribes or monks and many people did not learn how to read in the Middle Ages. Books were also written in Latin, a language in which only the most educated people could understand. In the renaissance, the educated middle class could now afford books having a choice of choosing different languages. The impact of the printing press not