Rome and Milan During the Renaissance Essay Example for Free

Rome and Milan During the Renaissance Essay The Renaissance is a period in the history of Europe beginning in about 1400. The word Renaissance in French means rebirth. During the Renaissance, there were many famous artists, many writers and many philosophers. Many people studied mathematics and different sciences. A person who is knowledgeable in many different things is sometimes called a Renaissance man. Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, a scientist, a musician and a philosopher, is the most famous Renaissance Man. The Renaissance started in Italy but soon spread across the whole of Europe. People † The time of Ancient Greece and Rome, when there were many philosophers, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and mathematicians was seen by people as a Golden Age, a time when things were beautiful, well-organized and well-run. This time had lasted from about 400 BC to about 400 AD. In the year 1400, in the city of Rome, people could wander around looking up at the ruins of a city that had once been great. Inside the broken walls that had been smashed in 410 AD were the remains of huge temples, sports arenas, public baths, apartment blocks and palaces. Nearly all of them were ruined and could not be used. Nearly all of them were half-buried in dirt. A lot of them were pulled down to use as building stone. But they showed people what great things could be done. Among the ruins of this once-great city, the people of Rome lived in cottages. They still went to church in the huge churches (basilicas) built by the first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, in the 4th century. They still held market day in the Ancient Roman market place of Campo dei Fiori (Field of Flowers). One day in 1402, into the middle of Rome, came a young man called Filippo Brunelleschi and a teenage boy called Donatello. They were fascinated by everything that they saw. They measured ancient ruined buildings, they drew things and they dug around for weeks looking for bits of broken statues and painted pottery that they could stick together. They were probably the worlds first archaeologists. By the time they went back home to Florence, they knew more about Ancient Roman architecture and sculpture than anyone had known for about a thousand years. Brunelleschi became a very famous architect and Donatello became a very famous sculptor. They both used the ideas that they had, when they were studying the remains of ancient Rome†. [1] During the renaissance there was great economic growth. †In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced strong economic growth. The trade routes of the Italian states linked with those of established Mediterranean ports and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and northern regions of Europe to create a network economy in Europe for the first time since the 4th century. The city-states of Italy expanded greatly during this period and grew in power to become de facto fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire; apart from the Kingdom of Naples, outside powers kept their armies out of Italy. During this period, the modern commercial infrastructure developed, with double-entry book-keeping, joint stock companies, an international banking system, a systematized foreign exchange market, insurance, and government debt. [2] Florence became the centre of this financial industry and the gold florin became the main currency of international trade. The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. A feature of the High Middle Ages in Northern Italy was the rise of the urban communes which had broken from the control by bishops and local counts. In much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the High Medieval money economy whose inflationary rise left land-holding aristocrats impoverished. The increase in trade during the early Renaissance enhanced these characteristics. The decline of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury goods led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods. This change also gave the merchants almost complete control of the governments of the Italian city-states, again enhancing trade. One of the most important effects of this political control was security. Those that grew extremely wealthy in a feudal state ran constant risk of running afoul of the monarchy and having their lands confiscated, as famously occurred to Jacques Coeur in France. The northern states also kept many medieval laws that severely hampered commerce, such as those against usury, and prohibitions on trading with non-Christians. In the city-states of Italy, these laws were repealed or rewritten†. [2] Romans architecture was also something developed during the renaissance. â€Å"The obvious distinguishing features of Classical Roman architecture were adopted by Renaissance architects. However, the forms and purposes of buildings had changed over time, as had the structure of cities. Among the earliest buildings of the reborn Classicism were churches of a type that the Romans had never constructed. Neither were there models for the type of large city dwellings required by wealthy merchants of the 15th century. Conversely, there was no call for enormous sporting fixtures and public bath houses such as the Romans had built. The ancient orders were analysed and reconstructed to serve new purposes†. [3] â€Å"The Roman orders of columns are used:- Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. The orders can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Brunelleschi†. [4] There were some people in Rome who weren’t Christian and even opposed it. â€Å"There are thousands of instances of this kind, where nothing will prevail,not even the majesty of the Christian name nor reverence for Christ himself (whom the angels fall down and worship, though weak and depraved mortals may insult him), nor yet the fear of punishment or the armed inquisitors of heresy. The prison and stake are alike impotent to restrain the impudence of ignorance or the audacity of heresy†. [5] The Roman renaissance was the greatest renaissance. â€Å"They left Florence for a city that was greater than Florence ever dreamed of being, They left for the imperial city they left for rome†. [6] Milan was also very important in the renaissance. â€Å"When we think of the Renaissance we automatically think of Italy, but we must not fall into thinking of the Italian peninsula during this time as a nation. Far from it he southern half of the Italian boot was the Kingdom of Naples. In the North was the most powerful of the city-statesthe Duchy of Milan†. [7] â€Å"Central to the city of Milan were the Dominicans. Church and state were not separate but two legs of a single civic being, neither of which could have survived long without the other. The home of the Dominicans, the church of Santa Maria della Grazie went from being a modest oratory in the middle ages to a major cathedral with its own elaborate monastery complex in the fifteenth century, becoming the centre of all learning in the city. It was here, in the refectory (dining hall) that Leonardo staged his Last Supper. It was here Bramante learned his trade, laying the foundation for the new St. Peters Cathedral in Rome. Unlike Venice or Florence, or Rome, Milan (aside from the Last Supper) is not known for its painting but for its robust power and pursuit of scientific knowledge. Architecture and engineering, science and religion were the key elements in its strong, towering presence as it cast a ponderous shadow over all of Italy during this time. †[8] References http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=gp=aa=iID=423 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_architecture#cite_ref-10 http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance