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Renaissance Beginnings
The Renaissance followed on the heels of the Middle Ages, arising from the birth of humanism, a philosophy which emphasizes the importance of individual achievement in a wide range of fields. The early humanists, such as writer Francesco Petrarch, studied the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans for inspiration and ideology, mixing the philosophies of Plato and other ancient thinkers with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Under the influence of the humanists, literature and the arts climbed to new levels of importance. The Renaissance began in the great city-states of Italy, with Italian merchants and political officials supporting and commissioning the great artists of the day, then spread throughout Europe.
Politics in Renaissance Italy
The most powerful Italian city-states were Florence, The Papal States (centered in Rome), Venice, and Milan. Each of these states had its own distinctive character due to the different forms of government that presided over each. Florence, considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, grew powerful as a wool-trading post due to the leadership of the Medici family, who maintained the city's financial strength while being intelligent and generous patrons of the arts. Venice and Milan also grew wealthy and powerful, playing large roles in Italian politics and attracting many artists and writers to their gilded streets. Venice was ruled by an oligarchy known as the Great Council, consisting of noble families, and Milan by a strong monarchy that produced a line of powerful dukes.
The Pope, leader of the Catholic Church, also ruled Rome. As the power of the northern city-states grew, the Pope increasingly became an international politician rather than a spiritual leader, with many popes falling prey to the vices of corruption and nepotism as they gained power. Nevertheless, Rome, the victim of a decline that had destroyed the ancient city during the Middle Ages, flourished once again under papal leadership during the Renaissance.
Arts in the Renaissance
Perhaps the most prominent feature of the Renaissance was the flourishing of the arts. During the Early Renaissance, painters and sculptors, such as Giotto and Ghiberti, respectively, pioneered new techniques to depict perspective. Their methods were rapidly perfected and built upon by other artists of the early Renaissance, such as Botticelli and Donatello. This led to the High Renaissance, during which some of the most well-known Renaissance artists found their fame, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Literature also flourished during the Renaissance with the invention of the printing press in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg. This allowed authors, such as Italian writers Boccaccio, Pico, and Niccolò Machiavelli, to distribute their works much more easily and cheaply.
The End of the Renaissance
Alas, the Renaissance could not last forever, and, beginning in 1494 with a French invasion, Italy was plagued by the presence of foreign powers vying for pieces of the Italian peninsula. Finally, in 1527, Rome was sacked by soldiers of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who took power in Italy thereafter. The combined forces of economic restrictions, put in place by Charles V, and anti-Reformation censorship by the Catholic Church crushed the spirit of the Renaissance, and Italy ceased to be the cradle of artistic, intellectual, and economic prosperity.
