The Renaissance was the name given in the nineteenth century to a wide range of cultural

activities that took place in Western Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was a
period of transition between the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern age. The most
important representatives can be found in the field of art, although changes are also taking place
in the sciences, both natural and human. The birthplace and development of this activity, which
later spread throughout Europe, was Florence, Italy.

The Renaissance was the result of the spread of ideas in humanism, which defined a new
understanding of man and the world. The term "renaissance" was used to denote certain
elements of classical Greek and Roman culture and was originally used as a return to the values of
Greco-Latin culture and an independent reflection of nature for centuries of predominance of a
stricter type. . mentality. and dogmatically established in medieval Europe. In this new age, a new
way of looking at the world and man with new approaches in the fields of art, politics, philosophy
and science was proposed, which replaced medieval theocentrism with anthropocentrism.

Historian and artist Giorgio Vasari was the first to use the word "renaissance" (rinascita) to denote
a turning point in the medieval artistic tradition, which he called the barbaric style, later called
Gothic. Vasari is of the opinion that art fell during the collapse of the Roman Empire and was not
saved until Tuscan artists of the thirteenth century.1

The current conception of the Renaissance (from the French Renaissance) was conceived in the
mid-nineteenth century by the French historian Jules Michelet in his work Renaissance et
Réforme, published in 1855. For the first time, he used the term Michelet. in the historical period,
from the discovery of America to Galileo, and considered it more important for their scientific
development than art or culture. Michelet, who was a French nationalist and a Republican, was
accused of renaissance democratic values as opposed to the values of the previous Middle Ages
and French protagonism.

Another historian who played a major role in shaping the concept of the Renaissance was the
Swiss Jacob Burckhardt, who described it as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo, ie from
the fourteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century. Since the Renaissance, Buckhardt has
promoted the emergence of a modern individualistic spirit, which was suppressed in the Middle
Ages.4

In terms of the overall artistic development of Europe, the Renaissance meant a "break with" the
style of unity that was hitherto "transnational". From a chronological and geographical point of
view, the Renaissance was not a single event: its scope was limited by European culture and the
recently discovered American territories, where Renaissance innovation was delayed. Its
development coincided with the beginning of the modern age, which was characterized by the
consolidation of European states, sea voyages that brought Europe and America into contact, the
decline of feudalism, the rise of the bourgeoisie and the affirmation of capitalism. However, many
of these events transcended the atmosphere of the Renaissance due to their large and larger time
scale.5

Index

1 General aspects

1.1 Historical context

1.2 Definitions

1.3 Aesthetics

2 arts

2.1 Phases

2.2 Italy

2.2.1 Architecture

2.2.2 Painting

2.2.3 Engraving

2.3 Spain

2.4 France

2.5 Germany

2.6 Flanders and the Netherlands

2.7 Switzerland

2.8 Other countries

2.9 Colonial Hispanic American Art

2.10 Graphics and decorative arts

2.11 Planting

3 Literature

4 Theater

5 Music

6 dance
7 Philosophy

8 Science

9 Life and habits

10 See also

11 References

12 Bibliography

13 external links

General features

Historical context

Main article: Modern times

See also: 12th century Renaissance

European printing house from the 15th century. The spread of culture through the press was one
of the main drivers of the new Renaissance cultural movement.

El Renacimiento marca el inicio de la Edad Moderna, un período histórico que por lo general se
suele establecer entre el descubrimiento de América en 1492 y la Revolución francesa en 1789, el
cual, en el terreno artístico, engloba estilos como el Renacimiento y el manierismo (siglos xv y xvi),
el Barroco, el rococó y el Neoclasicismo (siglos xvii y xviii). Otros historiadores sitúan la fecha de
inicio en 1453, caída de Constantinopla, o bien remarcan un hecho trascendental como la
invención de la imprenta (hacia 1440 aproximadamente, de la mano de Johannes Gutenberg).6

Los antecedentes históricos del Renacimiento cabe situarlos en la decadencia del mundo medieval
ocurrida a lo largo del siglo xv por diversos factores, como el declive del Sacro Imperio Romano
Germánico, el debilitamiento de la Iglesia católica a causa de los cismas y los movimientos
heréticos —que darían origen a la Reforma protestante—, la profunda crisis económica derivada
del anquilosamiento del sistema feudal y la decadencia de las artes y las ciencias, lastradas por una
teología escolástica sumida en el escepticismo.7

Frente a esta decadencia, los principales centros académicos europeos buscaron regenerarse a
través del retorno a los valores de la cultura clásica grecorromana. A su vez, comenzó a fraguarse
una nueva sociedad fundamentada en el auge de los nuevos estados centralizados, con poderosos
ejércitos y administraciones burocratizadas —inicio del autoritarismo monárquico preconizado por
Maquiavelo—, así como en el crecimiento demográfico y una economía centrada en una nueva
clase social emergente, la burguesía, que puso los cimientos del capitalismo y una economía
mercantil y preindustrial; todo ello coadyuvado por el progreso técnico y científico experimentado
durante este período, fundamentado en la imprenta y la consiguiente velocidad de difusión de las
novedades.8 Surgió así una visión del mundo más antropocéntrica, desligada de la religión y el
teocentrismo medieval, en la que el hombre y los avances científicos supondrán la nueva forma de
valorar el mundo: el humanismo, un término inicialmente aplicado a los especialistas en disciplinas
grecolatinas (derecho, retórica, teología y arte), que se haría extensivo a filósofos, artistas,
científicos y cualquier estudioso de las diversas ramas del conocimiento que comenzaron entonces
a aglutinarse en un concepto de cultura general.7

En Italia, el epicentro de la cultura renacentista, la división del territorio en ciudades-estado con

diferentes regímenes políticos —repúblicas como Florencia o Venecia, estados monárquicos como
Milán y Nápoles o el dominio papal en Roma— propició el ascenso de una élite económica que
patrocinó la cultura y el arte como instrumentos de propaganda del estado, cada uno rivalizando
con los demás en magnificencia y esplendor. La educación se volvió más accesible, dejando de
estar circunscrita al clero, y se favoreció el debate intelectual, con la fundación de universidades y
el patrocinio de la literatura.9

Por su parte, el siglo xvi estuvo marcado por los grandes descubrimientos geográficos iniciados con
la llegada de Colón a América en 1492, como el establecimiento de la ruta del Cabo por Vasco da
Gama en 1498, la vuelta al mundo de Magallanes entre 1519 y 1521, el desembarco de Cortés en
México, 1519, y la conquista del Perú por Pizarro (1530-1533); así como por la ruptura de la
unidad cristiana causada por la Reforma protestante de Martín Lutero (1520), el desarrollo de la
ciencia y la técnica (Nova Scientia de Tartaglia, 1538; De revolutionibus de Copérnico, 1543;
Anatomía de Vesalio, 1543) y la expansión del humanismo (Erasmo de Róterdam, Giovanni Pico
della Mirandola, Ludovico Ariosto, Tomás Moro, Juan Luis Vives, François Rabelais).7

Definición

La Fornarina, pintura de Rafael, expuesta en el Palacio Barberini de Roma. En el Renacimiento se

afianza el retrato como género autónomo. Here you can also appreciate the interest in the nude,
from the classical art.

The term "renaissance" comes from the Italian Rinascita and was coined by the artist and historian
Giorgio Vasari in his Life (1550/1568), which refers to the rebirth of classical culture into medieval
darkness. Thus, it was a social, political, and cultural event that covered the entire European
continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Renaissance culture in Italy (1860).

Although the beginning of the Renaissance usually dates to the fifteenth century, many historians
date it to the fourteenth or even thirteenth century, with the works of some artists considered
pioneers such as Cimabue and Giotto in painting or Nicola Pisano in sculpture. He laid the
foundation for the first full-fledged Renaissance artists in Florence in the first quarter of the
fifteenth century, such as the painter Masaccio, the sculptor Donatello or the architect
Brunelleschi, who were all interested in naturalism. , harmony and mathematical proportions. 11

In this cultural climate of change, based on the patterns of classical antiquity, artistic activity arose
in Italy at the beginning of the 15th century with great force, which immediately spread to other
European countries.12 The artist realizes himself as an individual. with intrinsic values he was
attracted to culture and knowledge in general and began to study ancient models in the study of
fields such as anatomy and the discovery of new techniques such as chiaroscuro. and perspective.