Renaissance

Renaissance (borrowed from French: renaissance "rebirth") is the name given to the European cultural epoch during the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was characterised by efforts to revive the cultural achievements of Greek and Roman antiquity. Starting in the cities of northern Italy, the artists and scholars of the Renaissance with their innovative painting, architecture, sculpture, literature and philosophy also influenced the countries north of the Alps, albeit in different ways in each case. The term "Renaissance" was only coined in the 19th century.

Overview

Europe had already looked back to antiquity in the Middle Ages, but it was not until the Late Middle Ages that important ancient texts were rediscovered and made accessible. In Renaissance humanism, the ancient state system was studied. Also considered characteristic of the Renaissance were the many inventions and discoveries made at that time, which can be described as the result of a general intellectual awakening (→ Renaissance technology).

In art history, the core period of the Renaissance is considered to be the 15th (Quattrocento) and 16th centuries (Cinquecento). The late Renaissance is also known as Mannerism. The end of the epoch came in the early 17th century in Italy with the emergence of the Baroque style. Outside Italy, Gothic forms continued to dominate for some time; the transitions here are fluid and their assessment depends on whether a narrower stylistic concept of the Renaissance is used or a broader epochal concept. In Protestant Northern Europe, the epochal concept of the Renaissance is overlaid by that of the Reformation.

Renaissance artists include Italians such as Alberti, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian, and in the German-speaking world Albrecht Dürer and the Danube school. But this era also includes important writers from Dante Alighieri to William Shakespeare. The state philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli is regarded as an analyst and representative of self-confident power politics. Erasmus of Rotterdam, on the other hand, stands for morality and self-reflection. In music, the era is associated above all with increased polyphony and new harmony, for example in the work of Orlande de Lassus.

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Innere Entwicklungsimpulse der Menschheit. Goethe und die Krisis des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, GA 171 (1984), ISBN 3-7274-1710-2 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Die großen Fragen der Zeit und die anthroposophische Geist-Erkenntnis, GA 336 (2005), ISBN 978-3727433603 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.