FREE ESSAY ON RENAISSANCE

RENAISSANCE

Renaissance Essay
The 14th, 15th and part of 16th century was a glorious time for Europe, it was the
reformation of many old ideas and the formation of many new, this was called the
Renaissance. The Renaissance brought many changes to Europe, the economy was greatly
boosted by of all the new explorations. The flourishing economy helped to inspire new
developments in art and literature. And from that many new beliefs were formed.
The European economy flourished during the Renaissance due to many factors. There was a
large income coming in from over seas exploration. Spain alone received added income from
Christopher Columbus and when he stumbled across North America on his way to find a
shorter rout to the Indies. The exploration down the coast of Africa also brought in a
lot of extra income. This income came from the exploitation of the Africans by kidnapping
them and selling them as slaves. Income also came from establishing colonies in Africa
and setting up gold mines and mines for other needed metals. 
With all of this extra income coming into the European countries they had more money to
help fund the arts. During the Renaissance there were many drastic changes in the style
of art. Giotto was a very influential painter, during the start of the Renaissance. In
Giotto's work he used three dimensional images, this was a drastic change from the
classic art where depth was not used. His painting were very realistic and life like,
unlike the previous centuries art. Giotto's work inspired artists by the likes of
Leonardo de Vinci, Raphael and Michaelango. Michaelango painted the Sistine Chapel, which
is located in the Vatican in Rome. The Sistine Chapel depicted the book of Genesis. The
manner in which it was painted was unlike another at the time, all the characters in the
Sistine chapel are very life like and realistic. Also it was one of the first times that
religion was painted by the painters opinion of the events. The arts led to new ways of
thinking.
With the arts the artists began to think on their own and those movements began to
spread. It was not just what the church said anymore that was right. Humanism, one of the
new beliefs which was formed during the Renaissance, said that people should read the
works of the greats and focus on writing, and the arts. Humanists believed that they were
equal with the ancient Greek and Roman writers and philosophers. Petrarch was the
original humanist, and a writer who wrote many letters to the people of ancient Rome. In
those letters he spoke as if he was an equal with them. Another of the new beliefs was
scholasticism, which was the opposite of humanism. Scholastics thought that people should
spend more time the sciences, they also wanted the church and science to be brought
together as one. As new scientific discoveries were made many of the churches theories
were beginning to be questioned.
Some of the new scientific discoveries consisted of theories which went against the
churches beliefs. One theory which was proven true about the Earth revolving around the
sun. This was contrary to the churches view that everything revolved around the Earth.
This theory was proven true by Copernicus who is considered the father of modern
astronomy. Kelper an astronomer and astrologer also discovered about the rotation of the
planets. As the church began to be questioned more and more. And soon there were new
religions forming. The major religion that was formed during the Renaissance was the
Protestant religion. The Protestant religion began to spread throughout Europe, at one
point of time the official church of England was a Protestant church.
This new and improved Europe was mainly came to be from the blustering economy, the
explorations, art, literature, and new discoveries, but this new growth of a western
power was not just a natural development, in fact it was inspired by a superior
civilization, the Chinese. If it was not for the Chinese version of the Renaissance which
occurred about a thousand years earlier there would be no European Renaissance. The
Chinese had many useful inventions which the Europeans exploited unlike the Chinese. One
crucial Chinese invention was the compass, the Chinese had no need to exploit the
invention because they had everything they needed right in China. The Europeans on the
other hand would be nowhere without the compass, because it was an essential tool for
their over seas exploration. Another key invention that the Europeans used to fuel their
Renaissance was the printing press, this was also another Chinese invention that they had
used a thousand years earlier. Many views about being civilized and a gentleman was a
crucial part of the Renaissance. Baldassare Castiglione wrote an influential book called
The Courtier which was all about how to be a gentleman. Confucius a Chinese philosopher
wrote about that same idea during the Chinese Renaissance. So in fact the European
Renaissance was inspired by a superior civilization, the Chinese.
Compared to the Middle Ages the Renaissance was a major step up in all aspects of life
from the economy, which benefited from the explorations, the arts and literature and the
new scientific discoveries and theories. So the Renaissance was a very beneficial period
of time in European history.