Meaning and Characteristics of the Italian Renaissance
The word Renaissance means "rebirth." A number of people who lived in Italy between 1350 and 1550 believed that they had witnessed a rebirth of antiquity or Greco-Roman civilization, marking a new age. To them, the thousand or so years between the end of the Roman Empire and their own era was a middle period (hence the "Middle Ages"), characterized by darkness because of its lack of classical culture. Historians of the nineteenth century later used similar terminology to describe this period in Italy. The Swiss historian and art critic Jacob Burckhardt created the modern concept of the Renaissance in his celebrated Civilization of the Renaissance in- published in 1860. He portrayed Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as the birthplace of the modern world (the Italians were "the firstborn among the sons of modern Europe") and saw the revival of antiquity, the perfecting of the individual," and secularism as its distinguishing features. Burckhardt exaggerated the individuality and secularism of the Renaissance and failed to recognize the depths of its religious sentiment; nevertheless, he established the framework for all modern interpretations of the Renaissance. Although contemporary scholars do not believe that the Renaissance represents a sudden or dramatic cultural break with the Middle Ages, as Burckhardt argued—there was. after all, much continuity in economic, political, and social life between the two periods—the Renaissance can still be viewed as a distinct period of European history that manifested itself first in Italy and then spread to the rest of Europe.
Renaissance Italy was largely an urban society. As a result of its commercial preeminence and political evolution, northern Italy by the mid-fourteenth century was mostly a land of independent cities that dominated the country districts around them. These city-states became the centers of Italian political, economic, and social life. Within this new urban society, a secular spirit emerged as increasing wealth created new possibilities for the enjoyment of worldly things.
Above all, the Renaissance, as an age of recovery from the "calamitous fourteenth century." Italy and Europe began a slow process of recuperation from the effects of the Black Death, political disorder, and economic recession. This recovery was accompanied by a rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity. Increasingly aware of their own historical past, Italian intellectuals became intensely interested in the Greco-Roman culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. This new revival of classical antiquity (the Middle Ages had in fact preserved much of ancient Latin culture) affected activities as diverse as politics and art and led to new attempts to reconcile the pagan philosophy of the Greco-Roman world with Christian thought, as well as new ways of viewing human beings.
A revived emphasis on individual ability became characteristic of the Italian Renaissance. As the fifteenth-century Florentine architect Leon Battista Alberti expressed it: "Man can do all things if they will." A high regard for human dignity and worth and a realization of individual potentiality created a new social ideal of the well-rounded personality or universal person who was capable of achievements in many areas of life.
These general features of the Italian Renaissance were not characteristic of all Italians but were primarily the preserve of the wealthy upper classes, who constituted a small percentage of the total population. The achievements of the Italian Renaissance were the product of an elite, rather than a mass, movement. Nevertheless, indirectly it did have some impact on ordinary people, especially in the cities, where so many of the intellectual and artistic accomplishments of the period were most visible.
The Renaissance can be viewed as a distinct period of European history. There are many meanings and characteristics of the Italian Renaissance.
The Renaissance in Italy marked the arrival of a new era. And characterized by darkness because of its lack of classical culture. The Swiss historian and art critic Jacob Burckhardt created the modern concept of the Renaissance. He saw the revival of antiquity, the perfecting of the individual, and secularism as its distinguishing features.
The Renaissance, as an age of recovery from the "calamitous fourteenth century." This recovery was accompanied by a rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity. A revived emphasis on individual ability became characteristic of the Italian Renaissance. A high regard for human dignity and worth and a realization of individual potentiality created a new social ideal of the well-rounded personality or universal person.
The achievements of the Italian Renaissance were the product of an elite, rather than a mass, movement. Nevertheless, indirectly it did have some impact on ordinary people.
