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What the Renaissance was and why it still matters: Renaissance Primer (1 of 2)
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What the Renaissance was and why it still matters: Renaissance Primer (1 of 2)
Peter J. C. K. Gisbey
Post-Doctoral Scholar-Practitioner
This research paper is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual
property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The
Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation.
2019
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 2
Declaration
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person
nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any degree or
diploma of a university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment
Dedication
To God, my Heavenly Father, for inspiring me to write this scholarly discourse, once again using
To Jesus, my Saviour and Lord, for giving me the heart, soul, strength, health and
companionship needed along the way. Thank you and bless you! Amen!!
To the Holy Spirit, my Comforter, for being with me always, through good times and bad times,
and for reminding me that you love me. Thank you and bless you! Amen!!
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
**
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Holy Bible, Philippians
4:6-7
***
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 4
Foreword
What is the Renaissance? Why was the Renaissance important? Does the Renaissance
still matter? If the Renaissance still matters, to what extent is this the case?
Such questions lie at the heart of this relatively short research paper, which substantively
takes the form of an extended literature review, along with relevant critical commentary, feeding
Bless you, my Heavenly Father. Bless you, my brother and Lord Jesus. Bless you, my
Synopsis
The aim of this work is to briefly explore and shed light on the Renaissance period in Western
Europe between the 14th and 17th century inclusive. It focuses in particular on the ‘High
Renaissance’ period, which broadly runs from the turn of the 15th century to the mid-16th
century.
Chapter 1 provides an brief overview of what the Renaissance is. It aims to succinctly recognise
the breadth, brilliance and depth of the reality of the ‘Renaissance’, as apprehended by its
various stakeholders, especially the artists, writers and patrons themselves. It also provides a
modest outline of a small number of themes interpenetrating the notion that the Renaissance was
indeed important, providing certain and salient reasons for taking such a position.
Chapter 2 provides a brief critique of the Renaissance period, seeking to both present and
develop a number of viewpoints concerning whether the Renaissance still matters and, if so, to
what extent.
Chapter 3 develops suitable conclusions, after a brief discussion of the issues felt to be most
pertinent, arising from the work done in the preceding chapters. It suggests a close connection
between art, culture and socio-political/psychological discourse during the Renaissance period.
This work is likely to be relevant to people who are interested in gaining a basic understanding
of the key issues involved in understanding Western Europe’s Renaissance period. It is stressed
that the research paper seeks to make preliminary suggestions, rather than to merely provide
answers.
Table of Contents
Synopsis ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Chapter 1: Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 8
What is the Renaissance? ......................................................................................................................... 8
Why was the Renaissance important?.................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 2: Critique ...................................................................................................................................... 19
Does the Renaissance still matter? ......................................................................................................... 19
Chapter 3: Further Discussions and Conclusions ........................................................................................ 29
Introduction. ........................................................................................................................................... 29
Further Development. ............................................................................................................................ 29
References .................................................................................................................................................. 39
List of Figures
Figure 1. . ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 2. ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 3. ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 4. ....................................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 5. ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 6. ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 7. ....................................................................................................................................... 16
Figure 8. . ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Figure 9. ....................................................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 1: Overview
It is undeniably the case that only a very small number of historical notions have a
similarly intriguing and indeed beguiling cachet as the ‘Renaissance’. The term itself literally
denotes ‘re-birth’. Its significance was influenced and thereby mediated through the associated
Regarding the Medici’s, it suffices to note that they were prolific bankers hailing from
Florence. Families such as the Medici’s gave significant financial and other support to various
artists, i.e. patronage. However, it is worth noting that at the beginning of the Renaissance, artists
generally saw themselves as citizens working for the good of the community, a continuation of
former traditions.
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 9
Art, especially the work of great masters such as Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo and
Titian, has a strikingly numinous yet transcendental quality; even in depicting tragedy, it
therefore represents above all a triumph of the human spirit, at the same time pointing to the
In any case, through their creative talent, every artist makes a statement to those who
behold and indeed apprehend their work; consequently, art both implicitly and explicitly
communicates a multitude of political, spiritual and social values. Certainly, during the
Renaissance period, as with previous and later periods, art was very consciously used as a form
of competition for social and political status. The Renaissance was also a powerful driver behind
the early rise of the middle class in Western Europe, prior to the Industrial Revolution.
The Renaissance is associated with the prodigious imbuing of art, architecture, culture,
political affairs and scholarly writing with inspired and ancient Roman and Greek culture, hence
themes, along with the Protestant Reformation for which Martin Luther was the fundamental
Moreover, also as suggested by Dickson (2017), some of the greatest achievements of the
Renaissance were uniquely British, as exemplified by the great flowering of playwriting talent
As per Nolan and Nolan (2018), the ‘High Renaissance’ period has been taken to run
from the beginning of the 15th century to around the third decade of the 16th century (and
therefore some 130 years or so). It is seen as not only being unique to Western Europe, but also
Instructively, Kirkpatrick (2014) embraces Renaissance thinking and culture in all its
diversity: from Northern thinkers such as Cusanus, Luther and Calvin, to the painting of Van der
Weyden and El Greco, and the music of the Flemish musicians, Josquin des Prez and Orlando
Lassus. It is surely right that one should not focus exclusively on Italy in seeking to understand
In a nutshell, the following points summarise the effects of the Renaissance, thereby
i) Advances in science and technology led to the European exploration of the world;
iii) Humanism encouraged the growth of democracy & the fight for human rights;
v) Renaissance art led to the age of Classical Music and Classical Art in Europe
Patrons, scholars, artists, and engineers of the Renaissance looked back to their ancient
ancestors in order to help them craft their world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
In the Renaissance, there was a revolutionary and most novel impetus for using new
methods overcome problems, perhaps long-standing ones; above all, there was a dominant and
pervasive sense in the ability of courageous human beings to rise to the occasion, overcoming
precedents and perhaps even their wildest dreams (Italian Renaissance, 2019).
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 11
seen as a ‘gateway’ between the ‘old world’ (especially in the wake of the Dark Ages) and the
‘modern world’ (particularly characterised by the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and
Closing Thoughts
It therefore suffices to stress that the Renaissance was a remarkable period in the history
of Western Europe, and indeed the world taken as a whole, where an exceptionally high
concentration of genius manifested itself in all its myriad forms across all spheres of human
endeavour (especially artistic, scientific, and cultural/philosophical), through all the various
Leonardo Da Vinci is commonly seen by many as the principal ‘player’ (and therefore
seen as the ‘Renaissance Man’ par excellence). But William Shakespeare surely also merits a
similar claim. Other ‘players’ of the Renaissance, such as Titian, Michelangelo, Botticelli,
Raphael and the like, also emphatically made their mark in their equally unique and inimitable
ways.
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 19
Chapter 2: Critique
how it radically transformed the modus operandi of artists, authors and patrons, from its
inception; the work of Leonardo Da Vinci is rightly famous, since he pioneered the fusion of art
and science in his work, therefore exemplifying the value of humanism and realism (Reference,
2019).
Moreover, and on the one hand, the linguistic currency of the Renaissance, along with its
widely dispersed visual attractions and individualistic/critical/creative ways of thinking, has been
deeply absorbed into the popular psyche (for example, the popular usage of the term
Furthermore, and on the other hand, moving further afield, it is striking how ideas
associated with the Renaissance have been readily received in a number of Asian countries,
notably Malaysia (where a very large signpost featuring the image of the ‘Mona Lisa’ can be
currently viewed in central Kuala Lumpur) and China (where, in Shenzhen, the technology
company Huawei has built a research campus modelled on famous European cities, very much
In light of what one has already written, it will not surprise the reader that one is of the
considered opinion that the Renaissance still matters, and to a great extent. This is particularly so
in light of the vagaries of the post-modern world, viewed presently from the 21st century.
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 20
Very much in resonance with those released by the Renaissance, new energies have
emanated from other parts of the world and more recent periods, notably the ‘Industrial
Revolution’ (which started in the late 18th century in the UK, but has been hastened in recent
years by other countries, especially China since the early 1970’s) and the ‘Atomic Age’ (which
started in the early 20th century, also in the UK, but was hastened with the devastatingly
Figure 13: Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (Jan Van Eyck, 1434)
WESTERN EUROPE RENAISSANCE ART SCIENCE CULTURE 23
Closing Thoughts
In summing up, one wishes to strongly re-emphasise the contention that the Renaissance
Indeed, in a post-modern and increasingly globalised 21st Century world, with ever-
increasing transfers of cultural and other technologies across the different regions of the world,
there is no doubt that the energies associated with the original Renaissance are being ever more
Introduction.
As Koenigsberger et al. (2014) point out: “The Italian Renaissance placed a special
emphasis on beauty in art and in the natural world. The association of this natural beauty with
eternal beauty was revived (in part, from the seminal thoughts of the ancient Greek philosopher
Strikingly, Koenigsberger et al. (2014) also note that: “At the very moment when the
artists of the High Renaissance achieved the classical balance of harmonious proportions and
ideal beauty in their altarpieces, statues and churches, the social and psychological basis of their
art was breaking down. This basis had been the Italian city state” (p. 390).
Reeves (1999) confirms that: “The Renaissance is a period in European history, covering
the span between the 14th and 17th (centuries). Renaissance art marks a cultural rebirth at the
close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the Modern World” (p. 1).
Further Development.
Maclagan (1971) notes that: ”…during the High Renaissance, Rome dominated art,
especially sculpture, throughout Italy, largely through the Florentine genius Michelangelo.
Michelangelo (1475-1564) though equally brilliant as architect, sculptor and painter, was
Regarding the Renaissance period, Swaan (1977) notes that: “This new thinking became
manifest in art, architecture, politics, science and literature in stark contrast to the High Middle
Ages when Latin scholars focused almost entirely in studying Greek and Arabic works…” (p. 2).
Moreover, Swaan (1977) also comments, regarding the early Renaissance period, that: “Plague
devastated Europe in the late 1340s and early 1350’s, killing art and design” (p. 2).
Rather forcefully, Wijsman (2010) argues that: “…if we want to keep a clear idea of the
not yield to the idea of a ‘Northern Renaissance’ (in places such as the Netherlands and
Burgundy), but find another means of approaching and describing the Netherlandish ‘ars nova’
(in other words, new art, arguably best exemplified by Sluter, Van Eyck and Van Der Weyden)
Conclusions
In both explicating, and expanding upon, the essential points of this research paper, the
first conclusion that one wishes to make is Western Europe during the Renaissance period
provides a wonderful context for exploring contemporary discourses within European societies.
This is despite the view of writers such as Martin (2016) who powerfully suggests that:
“…the assumptions men and women made about identity in the European Renaissance were not
only radically different from our own, but equally varied and dynamic” (p. x).
One contends that it is still palpably obvious that the Renaissance marked a turning point
in delineating the notion of the ‘modern individual’, and indeed pointed to the later emergence of
the ‘postmodern self’ (e.g., Blake, 2013; Siegel, 1987; Von Sacher-Masoch, 2017; Von Sacher-
The second conclusion one is impelled to explicate is that the Renaissance mattered
greatly in its heyday, especially the ‘High Renaissance’ period, and still does to a significant
For one thing, in the UK, since the Brexit vote of July 2016, much play (on words?) has
been made concerning the spectre of the UK’s prospective departure from the EU, still not
achieved as of June 2019 (e.g., Begg, 2017; Chalmers, 2017; Ryan, 2017).
For another thing, now looking at the world as a whole, it is becoming increasingly
evident there been a further renaissance in the scope and impact of the ‘industrial revolution’
notion, especially with regard to artificial intelligence and neural networks (e.g., Baskin,
Winkler & Tetko, 2016; Hamet & Tremblay, 2017; Hassabis, 2017; Syam & Sharma, 2018; Tan
References
Baskin, I. I., Winkler, D., & Tetko, I. V. (2016). A renaissance of neural networks in drug
Blake, A. (2013). Music, advertising and postmodern culture. Buy This Book: Studies in Advertising
Chalmers, D. (2017). Brexit and the renaissance of parliamentary authority. The British Journal of
Dickson (2017). Key features of Renaissance culture. Retrieved Thursday 6th June 2019:
https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/key-features-of-renaissance-culture
Hamet, P., & Tremblay, J. (2017). Artificial intelligence in medicine. Metabolism, 69, S36-S40.
Hassabis, D. (2017). Artificial Intelligence: Chess match of the century. Nature, 544(7651), 413.
Italian Renaissance (2019). Why was the Renaissance important? Retrieved Thursday 6th June 2019:
http://www.italianrenaissance.org/why-is-the-renaissance-important/
Koenigsberger, H. G., Mosse, G. L., & Bowler, G. Q. (2014). Europe in the sixteenth century.
Routledge.
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Nolan, M. L., & Nolan, S. (2018). Christian pilgrimage in modern Western Europe. UNC Press Books.
Reeves, M. (1999). The prophetic sense of history in medieval and renaissance Europe. Ashgate.
Reference (2019). Why is the Renaissance important today? Retrieved Thursday 6th June 2019:
https://www.reference.com/history/renaissance-important-today-63768139487ce176
Ryan, J. (2017). If you didn't laugh, you'd cry... Brexit and the renaissance of British humour. LSE
Brexit.
Siegel, C. (1987). " Venus Metempsychosis" and Venus in Furs: Masochism and Fertility in
Swaan, W. (1977). The Late Middle Ages: Art and Architecture from 1350 to the Advent of the
Syam, N., & Sharma, A. (2018). Waiting for a sales renaissance in the fourth industrial revolution:
Machine learning and artificial intelligence in sales research and practice. Industrial Marketing
Tan, K. H., & Lim, B. P. (2018). The artificial intelligence renaissance: deep learning and the road to
Processing, 7.
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Von Sacher-Masoch, L., & Neugroschel, J. (2000). Venus in furs. Penguin Books.