Cultural and construction history of the European Renaissance, 1450 to 1600

Cultural and Construction History of the Renaissance (1450 to 1600)

Cultural Environment

The European Renaissance between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries began in Florence. It was not a sudden rebirth from the Dark Ages, but approximates more a refocusing outward politically and intellectually. Europe had become more than a series of small principalities vying for hegemony. There were larger cities, a more educated population, and a growing technology that allowed states to concentrate on growth and improvement. Italian cities were freed from feudalism, and were more mercantile and less hinged around a monarch (Skinner 69). On a cultural level, the Renaissance signalled a rebirth of learning and educational reform. People returned to classical works and revised their position on Christianity. There was a rise in realism among artists, who used light and perspective in a more natural way. Philosophers such as Machiavelli portrayed political life realistically rather than idealistically. The change in mindset affected the political structure and management of the European people. It was a three-centuries-long cultural, social, and political movement and a revolutionary period for art, architecture, and literature (Leonard da Vinci -- Renaissance Man).

1.2 Relationship to Previous Period

The Renaissance continued the medieval rediscovery of the Roman and Greek traditions. It advanced technologies that changed the way populations congregated so that the urbanizing trend continued and increased. In art, realism prospered. The move toward capitalism and away from feudalism made further progress. Europe expanded through colonisation and trade. The Italian city-states thrived. In all these qualities the Renaissance gradually evolved from and moved along the same trajectory as the earlier medieval period (Starn 122 -- 4).

The term Renaissance factually means rebirth. It refers particularly to the rebirth of learning that began in Italy in the fourteenth century, spread to the north, including England, by the sixteenth century, and ended in the north in the mid-seventeenth century. Throughout this age, there was a massive renewal of interest in and study of traditional antiquity. Yet the Renaissance was more than just a rebirth (the Renaissance Period (1400-1600 C.E.). It was also an age of new discoveries, both geographical in the exploration of the New World and intellectual. Both types of discovery resulted in alterations of remarkable significance for Western civilization. In science, for instance, Copernicus (1473-1543) tried to prove that the sun rather than the earth was at the center of the planetary system, therefore drastically changing the celestial world view that had dominated ancient times and the Middle Ages. In religion, Martin Luther (1483-1546) disputed and in the end caused the separation of one of the major institutions that had united Europe all through the Middle Ages, the Church. In fact, Renaissance thinkers frequently thought of themselves as escorting in the modern age, as different from the ancient and medieval eras (General Characteristics of the Renaissance).

Study of the Renaissance might well center on five interconnected issues. First, even though Renaissance thinkers frequently attempted to connect themselves with classical ancient times and to distance themselves from the Middle Ages, important connections with their recent past, such as belief in the Great Chain of Being, were still much in indication. Second, throughout this period, certain important political changes were taking place. Third, some of the noblest ideals of the period were best articulated by the movement known as Humanism. Fourth, and associated to Humanist ideals, was the literary doctrine of imitation, significant for its ideas about how literary works should be fashioned. Finally, what later probably became an even more sweeping influence, both on literary creation and on contemporary life in general, was the religious movement known as the Reformation (General Characteristics of the Renaissance).

1.3 Contribution to Western Civilisation

Much of the debate regarding the Renaissance swirls around whether it was an improvement over Medieval European culture. The cultural legacy of the Renaissance was to expand the European worldview. The world became a large, complex, and discoverable place. Exploration became a leading idea. On the other hand, there was warfare, political persecution, and disease. Still, most of the artists and writers within the culture fully believed their era was completely new and different than anything that had gone before (Woods and Elmer). The gradual re-examination of the Roman and Greek heritage led directly to the modern age, and thus represented a significant Renaissance legacy in contemporary culture and thought. Figures such as Leonardo da Vinci paved the way for modernity (Osborne).

At the start of this period, the artists of the sixteenth century began to question convention and investigate the potential of art for art's sake. Unlike the prior thousand years of Christian art these bold, new innovators began to paint and sculpt humanity for its inherent beauty alone; and their public demanded more. While this movement took place within the confines of Roman Catholic Christianity, it served to challenge a lot of ancient conventions of the Church. Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton all encouraged heliocentric ideas, mechanical philosophy, and the scientific method within an academically ambitious Europe (Sayler).

Money from the new middle classes went towards hiring artists and architects to create masterpieces in number and scale unrivaled till then. Artists such as Giotto, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Lippi, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Lotto, da Vinci, Michelangelo, to name a few, elevated art to a new height and shape of cultural expression. The Renaissance began to thrive in the kingdoms to the north of Florence as well, with new ideas and drive of change spreading along trade routes. Venetian Italy and the areas of the Netherlands also were altered by new ideas, aesthetics, and trade (the Renaissance - a Rebirth of Culture and Classical Ideas).

New academic movements stirred Western Europe as well during this time. Authors such as Sir Thomas More and Erasmus of Rotterdam made distinguished contributions to a growing standard of western intellectual thought on humanism and the capacities of the person to reason and vie for themselves with the depths of the human spirit. A growing intellectual need took place to balance a world image dominated and directed by religion with a notion of a mankind's experience on earth as a breathing, thinking being exercising a measure of self determinism. The Renaissance looked to the past, to the established period, in order to push itself forward. An attraction to art and literature and thought from a previous age added to an era of new literary, artistic, and intellectual development for the Europeans (the Renaissance - a Rebirth of Culture and Classical Ideas).

3.0 Background

The civilization of the Renaissance was the formation of affluent cities and of rulers who drew considerable income from their urban subjects in the Italian city-states and the countries of England and France. The trade that kept cities alive also provided the capital and the flow of ideas that helped construct Renaissance culture. Throughout the early Middle Ages foreign trade had nearly come to a halt. By the 11th century, though, population growth and contact with other cultures by way of military efforts such as the Crusades helped revitalize commercial movement (Renaissance). Trade slowly improved with the exchange of luxury goods in the Mediterranean area and various commodities such as fish, furs, and metals across the North and Baltic seas. Commerce soon moved inland, bringing new affluence to the citizens of towns along major trade routes. As traffic along these routes augmented, existing settlements grew and new ones were founded.

3.1 Medici -- the Banking Family

While the Medici family has all the power, Florence became the cultural center of Europe and also became the cradle of new Humanism. The Medici family was perhaps the richest family in Italy and thus had a lot of influence. In the 13th century the family began to increase their wealth through banking. At the end of the thirteenth century, the family's wealth enlarged when one of the members of the family served as gonfalero or bearer of a high ceremonial office. In the fourteenth century their wealth increased again (the Medici Family). With this wealth the Medici family was very helpful.

While this family ruled the city of Florence they did many unbelievable acts, such as spending money on their city, and making it the most influential state in Italy. They also made it the world's most stunning city. It turned into the cultural center of Europe and was known as an art center and the cradle of New Humanism. They also spent some of their wealth on putting together the largest library in all of Europe. And because of this they brought in a lot of Greek sources. They founded the Platonic Academy and supported many artists by feeding them, educating them, and providing them with the necessities that they needed in order to be successful. Some of those artists included Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The family also did a lot of charitable acts such as cultivating literature and the arts all throughout Europe (History of the Medici).

3.2 Mercantilism (300 words)

Mercantilism is the economic system of the major trading nations throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, based on the idea that national wealth and power were best served by growing exports and collecting valuable metals in return. It outdated the medieval feudal organization in Western Europe, particularly in Holland, France, and England. The era 1500 -- 1800 was one of religious and commercial wars, and large revenues were required to uphold armies and pay the mounting expenses of civil government. Mercantilist nations were overwhelmed by the fact that the precious metals, particularly gold, were in universal demand as the ready means of getting hold of other commodities; therefore they tended to recognize money with wealth. As the best means of attaining bullion, foreign trade was favored above domestic trade, and manufacturing or processing, which provided the goods for foreign trade, was favored at the cost of the extractive industries like agriculture (the Renaissance and Reformation-Rise of Nation-State and Mercantilism).

State action, a necessary characteristic of the mercantile system, was used to achieve its purposes. Under a mercantilist policy a nation sought to sell more than it bought so as to mount up bullion. Besides bullion, raw materials for domestic manufacturers were also wanted, and duties were charged on the importation of such goods in order to offer revenue for the government. The state exercised much control over financial life, predominantly by way of corporations and trading companies. Production was cautiously regulated with the object of securing goods of high quality and low cost, therefore facilitating the nation to hold its place in foreign markets. Treaties were made to get hold of exclusive trading privileges, and the trade of colonies was exploited for the benefit of the mother country. In England mercantilist policies were successful in creating a skilled industrial population and a large shipping industry (Mercantilism).

3.3 New World and International Trade (1450-1600)

In 1492, a trip to the East, made by sailing westward around the world, brought Columbus to the New World and the lands known today as the Americas. Columbus had initially set out to find an all-water route to the East Indies. When he saw the Americas, he believed he had arrived at his planned destination. It was ten years later than the Europeans comprehended that he had found a new land. These new continents offered riches other than spices, in the appearance of gold and silver. The finding of silver led to the beginning of silver mining in Mexico and South America. Other finds in the New World introduced Europeans to corn, tomatoes, tobacco, and chocolate (the Age of Discovery).

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, certain Atlantic and Pacific oceanic islands to which the closest continental shelf is that of the Americas and sometimes Oceania. The term began in the early 16th century, shortly after America was discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European Middle Ages, who had thought of the world as being made up of Europe, Asia, and Africa only which was collectively now referred to as the Old World (Renaissance Explorers).

The gains of overseas travelling around of the New World were huge. Gold and silver flooded into Europe, particularly into Spain and eventually into the hands of Italian and German bankers and merchants. Economic conditions seemed to be improving and the population was growing. The other gain was the straightforward fact of a consciousness of new parts of the world. This finding of the New World as well as its examination appeared at a fitting moment. If the Age of Discovery did anything, it reinstated the self-confidence of Europe, and in turn, Europe rediscovered itself (Briney).

2. General Management

4.0 Background

The invention of modern printing by Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1398 -- 1468) was an inestimable moment for the Renaissance and all subsequent human history. His mechanized process of movable type allowed books to be mass produced. This invention laid the foundation for a modern knowledge-based economy (Eisenstein). It accelerated the accessibility of learning within society and had an immediate impact on education, communication, and the organisation of information. Thus it was crucial for general management.

4.1 Niccolo Machiavelli's the Prince

In political theory, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 -- 1527) simultaneously revived the idea of a republican government and proposed a new way of viewing political leadership. His concept of virtue in the Prince (1513) reversed traditional moral values by placing self-interest and political power at its core. His realistic theory urged rulers to act without a moral view if that would lead to the downfall of the state. Rather they should use arms, deceit, or any other expedient means to acquire and maintain their authority, but without neglecting to present an image of traditional virtue. This did not entail the mistreatment of constituents, for the prince must above all avoid being hated by the populace. Equally, Machiavelli believed that being feared was politically safer than being loved. For instance, having a reputation for cruelty was not bad if it kept the troops and people in a cohesive and powerful unity. He justified rule by force rather than by law, or at least thought that law was worthless without backing by force (Anglo). He asserted, in addition, that the prince must dedicate himself wholly to the discipline of war. From the management perspective, the Prince was a book about social cohesiveness, power, and leadership in organisations (George). It has been an influential theory of management style and effectiveness since its publication.

4.2 Protestant work Ethic

The Protestant Reformation, which followed closely on the Renaissance, was also important for management ideas. In his book, the History of Management Thought, Daniel Wren points out that the Protestant work ethic, a sociological concept developed by Max Weber, had a significant influence on the historical development of modern management (25 -- 8). This refers to the Calvinist stress on hard work as a route to salvation. Work was an individual and social duty, just as worldly success was the outward sign of personal salvation. The Protestant reformers in this way effectively transferred the notion of good works into the obligation of hard work to prove that a person had received divine grace (Weber 9 -- 12). In economic terms this meant that work was not evil when done in the service of God. Nor was there a division between secular and sacred work. Anything a person did was both secular and sacred. It was accompanied by earthly benefits and it glorified God when the attitude toward work was joyful. This moral style gave work an intrinsic and positive value, inverting the notion of work as a necessary evil. It led directly, according to Weber, into capitalism, since it allowed people to endorse the idea that hard work paid dividends in wealth without contradicting spirituality.

4.3 John Calvin's Punctuality -- Time Management

In 1541, the Protestant reformer John Calvin arrived in Geneva. He proceeded to lay down his law, which entailed imposing punctuality as a cardinal virtue. Observing this precept was made easier as one of Calvin's first acts had been to order the jewelers and goldsmiths who had forged the reputation of this small town of 12,000 to find new work. They must no longer use their talent to produce crucifixes, chalices and other instruments serving papacy and idolatry, nor even to circle the heads or embellish the throats of wealthy and frivolous beauties. Instead they must apply their knowledge to the noble art of watch making (How Calvin invented punctuality, 500 years ago).

The sixteenth-century Protestant reformers of Geneva, France, London, and Bern internalized a new notion of time. Utilizing a moral and spiritual code to the course of the day, they regulated their connection with time, which was, in spirit, a new association with God. As Calvin continually reminded his followers, God watches his faithful every minute. Come Judgement Day, the faithful in turn will have to account for each minute. Engammare argues that the population of Calvin's Geneva made-up the new habit of being on time, a practice unknown in ancient times. It was also essentially different from notions of time in the simple world of the medieval period and unidentified to contemporaries such as Erasmus, Vives, the early Jesuits, Rabelais, Ronsard, or Montaigne (Engammare).

While both contemporary and ancient societies have held distinctly secular views of time and being on time, Swiss scholar Max Engammare's (2004) work has focused on a fundamental episode in world history, where religious passion and revolutionary new understandings of the scriptures have led to an overall new conception of time, contributing to the creation of punctuality as an ethical virtue.

According to this theory, reformed Protestants, took and adopted for the first time as an integral part of their attitudes and beliefs an original conception of time, applying this very particular ethic to the recounting of their days. Constrictions of a spiritual order firmly determined their association with time, which was first and foremost envisioned of as a connection to God. They believed that God kept watch over his followers, and at the end of time that each would provide an account of their every minute, as John Calvin preached continuously in his sermons. Punctuality is not thought to have come from technical innovations; but rather, it was first and foremost a spiritual, social and disciplinary good quality, to which John Calvin endorsed. It was in Geneva, that community structures of provocation and control were first put into practice, that a new calendar was developed; that a new financial system of time and its division was shaped; and that submissions of punctuality were conceived to which the Protestants, and in particular those of Calvinist faith, are still today obliged (Engammare).

Calvin's notion of destiny was revolutionary at the time. Central to Calvinist belief was the Elect, those persons chosen by God to come into eternal life. All other people were damned and nothing could alter that since God was unchanging. While it was not viable to know for certain whether a person was one of the Elect, one could have a sense of it founded on his own personal encounters with God. Externally the only confirmation was in the person's daily life and deeds, and success in one's worldly activities was a sign of potential inclusion as one of the Elect. A person who was uncaring and exhibited idleness was most positively one of the damned, but a person who was lively, serious, and hard-working gave proof to himself and to others that he was one of God's chosen ones. Selection of a job and pursuing it to attain the greatest profit possible was measured by Calvinists to be a religious duty (Hill).

4.4. From Puritanism to Scientific Management

Besides the Protestant work ethic, reductionism and individualism took hold during this time. These were the precursors of modern management. Reductionism entails, first, removing unnecessary elements of a process and, second, reducing it to its smallest tasks in order to grasp how the process works. Individualism assumes that humans are independent agents with the ability to manage risks and come up with ideas. Social actions turn such ideas into reality as long as there is an available descriptive language. According to Patrick Weaver, these three major ideas -- reductionism, individualism, and the Protestant work ethic -- were incorporated into seventeenth-century scientific Newtonianism and eighteenth-century liberalism and capitalism (Weaver 2). Thus they had an impact on both the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. In addition, he argues in his important research paper, "The Origins of Modern Project Management," that Frederick Taylor's classic school of Scientific Management is rooted in this same philosophical tradition.

3. Architectural Principles

5.1 Background (200words)

In building churches, Renaissance architects no longer used the shape of a cross as a foundation for their structures. Instead, they founded them on the circle. Believing that ancient mathematicians associated circles with geometric excellence, architects utilized the circle to symbolize the perfection of God. In constructing their homes, wealthy people of the Renaissance often took on a Roman style, building the four sides of their homes around a courtyard. Straightforward, balanced decorations, that were often imitations of classical ones, were applied to the facades of buildings, and some structures also featured columns indicative of ancient temples (Architecture).

Renaissance architects based their theories and practices on Classical Roman cases. The Renaissance revitalization of Classical Rome was as significant in architecture as it was in literature. A pilgrimage to Rome to study the ancient buildings and ruins, particularly the Colosseum and Pantheon, was thought to be essential to an architect's training. Classical guidelines and architectural fundamentals such as columns, pilasters, pediments, entablatures, arches, and domes form the vocabulary of Renaissance buildings. Vitruvius's writings on architecture also influenced the Renaissance definition of beauty in architecture. As in the Classical world, Renaissance architecture is distinguished by harmonious shape, mathematical proportion, and a unit of measurement based on the human scale (Architecture in Renaissance Italy).

5.2 Renaissance Architectural Principles

Throughout the Renaissance the ideals of art and architecture became incorporated in the acceptance of classical ancient times and in the belief that humanity was a measure of the universe. The rebirth of classical architecture, which took place in Italy in the 15th century and spread in the following century through Western Europe, terminated the supremacy of the Gothic style (Renaissance art and architecture). The architects of the Renaissance derived their architecture in part from a revived interest in Roman and Greek ruins, from the recovery of classical texts on architecture, particularly the Roman writer Vitruvius's ten books on architecture. They also, nevertheless, invented new shapes and new visual language that was not resultant from the classical period. In the process, the architects, humanists, and painters of the Renaissance invented a new idea of public space in which civic pride and organization would be planned on a city-wide scale (Italian Renaissance Architecture).

In the Renaissance, architecture was seen as the highest art. Theorists on architecture believed that architectural design came about from human experience, like all arts, but that it also symbolized the highest artistic attainment a human being could achieve. Architecture, however, was not measured an expert profession, as it is now. Architectural design was carried out by professional architects, painters, sculptors (such as Michelangelo), humanists, masons, and just plain amateurs with a lot of time and money (Italian Renaissance Architecture).

In the Renaissance, the ideas of regularity, symmetry, and harmony were reintroduced as classical ideals. Milo argues that the Renaissance builders believed these principles could be actualised and "seamlessly applied to architecture" by a scientific mastery of geometry (Milo). This shows how much construction was inspired by classicism and mathematics.

As in other eras of Western architecture, the most notable structures of the Renaissance were cathedrals, churches, and chapels. Their architects were extravagant, but they did not depart from their classical roots. Renaissance construction projects imitate Greco-Roman building (Betts 5 -- 25), as demonstrated by their incorporation of columns, domes, and arches. The builders sought to apply classical principles of design and proportion in numerous Christian structures (Ackerman 3 -- 11). Greco-Roman forms were employed in Renaissance palaces as well, especially in Florence and Rome, and in the beautiful street facades of many cities (Partridge). It is perhaps this extensive borrowing from the Greek and Roman styles that most marks out the Renaissance. Its guiding aesthetic principle was based in the classical world (Walker).

The most significant architectural principle that was embraced in the early Renaissance period was symmetry. Renaissance architects usually sought to achieve geometric balance and harmony in their works. In other words, they sought to incorporate the various parts of their structures and stay away from mixtures of designs that did not fit well together. Under this general principle, Renaissance architects developed a number of unique elements that continue to set Renaissance architecture apart today. Architects of the period were fond of domes that could be seen from any point in a given city where the dome was built. This differed from medieval architecture that constructed domes that were to be visible mainly from within the buildings that they topped. Pilasters, or decorative columns that adorned walls without providing any real support were also a favorite of Renaissance architects, as were traditional Roman columns that did support the building. The rounded arch that was used in ancient Roman architecture was likewise incorporated into Renaissance design (Renaissance Architecture).

During the later Renaissance, the movement that is now known as Mannerism began to influence architecture (Italian Mannerism or Late Renaissance (1520-1600). Mannerists still looked to the ancient Greek and Roman world as motivation for their work, but they played with quantity and design elements, producing buildings that go against the principles of symmetry and balance seen in the early Renaissance and yet were beautiful in their own right (Renaissance Architecture).

The Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are conveyed in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman architecture, of which many examples remain. Orderly provisions of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules took the place of the more complex proportional systems and unequal profiles of medieval buildings. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style rapidly spread to other Italian cities and then to other European lands (Renaissance Architecture).

Early European Renaissance architecture can be accredited to Alberti and Brunelleschi. These two men developed the basics of much of the style that characterizes this period of design. As the style developed, architects such as Bramante and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger developed more characteristic design elements. If one studies the works of these architects, they will comprehend the basics of Renaissance architecture, allowing one to be familiar with Renaissance influences even in modern-day structures (Mork).

In architecture, the visual elements are adapted to one or the other of the two chief ways of seeing. Either the surfaces are seen as wholes first and foremost and the details in subordination; or else the parts stand out apparent and distinct, and the whole is their summation. The previous is always the case when the surfaces are left basic with few divisions, or, if the surfaces are divided, when the lines interconnect and mix together, as is exemplified in late Renaissance work, where the walls are covered with abundant ornament. The second possibility is well illustrated by the early classical Renaissance, where the surface of each story, sharply divided from the others by the line of the frieze, is divided often by arches or columns, each window clearly enframed, and every sculptured ornament provided with a niche (Beauty in the Industrial Arts: Architecture).

5.3 Linear Perspective

In about 1413 Filippo Brunelleschi first demonstrated the geometrical method of perspective, used today by artists, by painting the outlines of various Florentine buildings onto a mirror. When the building's outline was continued on, he saw that all of the lines came together on the horizon line. According to Vasari, he then set up a display of his painting of the Baptistery in the unfinished doorway of the Duomo. He had the onlooker look through a small hole on the back of the painting, facing the Baptistery. He would then set up a mirror, facing the viewer, which reflected his painting. To the onlooker, the painting of the Baptistery and the Baptistery itself were nearly impossible to tell apart when they were looking at it (Filippo Brunelleschi).

Soon afterwards, almost every artist in Florence and in Italy used geometrical viewpoint in their paintings, notably Masolino da Panicale and Donatello. Donatello started sculpting complex checkerboard floors into the simple manger depicted in the birth of Christ. Even though it was hardly historically correct, these checkerboard floors