To understand the beginnings of the Renaissance, you must back up approximately eight hundred years, to the fall of the Roman Empire. For a thousand years, Rome ruled most of Europe, bringing advancements in technology, learning and government. Once Rome fell to invaders in 542 CE, Western Europe fell into a stagnant period known as the Middle Ages. Society regressed; People did not venture far from their tiny villages. Local lords ruled by force and intimidation. Learning took place only in religious houses, and generations grew up ignorant, illiterate, and superstitious of outsiders.
End of the Middle Ages
By the fourteenth Century, epidemics, like the Black Death, wiped out at least one third of the European population. This caused a huge shortage of workers. Subsequently, wages rose along with the demand for laborers. Serfdom faded into history. Higher wages increased the standard of living for many peasants. This in turn contributed to the rise of wealthy merchants, such as the Medici family of Florence. These merchant families would provide the money, resources and the incentive for the Renaissance.
Changes in Society
Like any cultural movement, the social changes that took place during the Renaissance were slow, but steady. By the end of the Renaissance virtually every aspect of European society had undergone some type of transformation. Humanism, an intellectual movement, instilled an attitude of ‘Live for Today’ as opposed to the Middle Age belief that life was journey to suffer through, in order to achieve eternal salvation. Niccolo Machiavelli espoused his theory of what made a strong ruler. According to him, nice guys definitely finished last. Art, architecture, and literature all reflected the changing times. The printing press revolutionized Renaissance society the same way television and the internet have influenced the Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries. For the first time books were cheap enough for the masses; learning and new ideas spread like wildfire throughout Europe. Adventurers like Christopher Columbus, disproved the age-old belief that the world was flat.
Art- A Return to the Classics
Artists turned to the classics of Ancient Greece and Rome for inspirations. The great masters, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello and Michelangelo introduced perspective and focal points to paintings, adding a layer of realism unparallel to that point. They explored the idea of human potential, instead focusing exclusively on religious themed subjects, as was common in the Middle Ages.
Religious Upheaval
The Catholic Church, at its pinnacle of power in the Middle Ages, faced its greatest competition from protesters such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. Within forty years of Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg, Protestantism would be a firmly entrenched theology, with many different branches established throughout Western Europe.
The three hundred years of change during the Renaissance helped lay the foundation for the modern world. It introduced the belief that the individual is just as important as the group, and that people should not be judged soley by their birthrights, but by their individual merit and accomplishments ,
Lorri Brown - I am a published freelance writer living in the beautiful foothills of Western Maine. Mom to four wonderful children, my passion for ...
