Renaissance and Reformation

Renaissance was a cultural movement which took place between 14^th and 17^th century. It began in Florence in late Middle Ages; it later spread to the rest parts of Europe. Renaissance also refers to the historical era in general terms since the changes were not uniform. It was a cultural movement which included learning resurgence which was based on classical sources, development of painting in a more linear perspective as well as widespread of educational reform although it was gradual. This intellectual transformation has been seen as a connection between the modern era and modern era (Norwich 54).

Renaissance has been in used in bringing up revolutions in many political and social developments, it is also well known for development of artistic aspects. It has been seen to be a key drive in many intellectual pursuits. Renaissance was a movement that was cultural; it affected the intellectual life of many Europeans in the early modern period. Renaissance begun in Italy and spread to other parts of Europe by 16^th century, the main areas that were affected by this influence included literature, art, politics, philosophy, religion, science and intellectual inquiry. The scholars in renaissance utilized humanist method in the study while searching for human emotion and realism in art.

At one time in history, the Renaissance humanists accepted the Christianity, in fact, most of the Renaissance work was devoted to Christianity. Many churches of that time patronized much of the Renaissance works of art. There was as shift in the way the scholars or the intellectuals approached the religion, this was reflected in other cultural life areas. Furthermore, a lot of Greek Christian work that included New Testament of Greek was brought back to Western Europe from Byzantium. This engaged western scholars for the first ever since late antiquity. The Greek Christian works new engagement and in particular original Greek New Testament return, which was promoted by humanists like Erasmus and Lorenzo Valla, paved way or means for protestant Reformation (Brotton 25).

One main feature of the Renaissance era was the art or paintings. Renaissance art is sculpture, painting and decorative art is the art during the Renaissance period in the European history. It emerged as a distinct style in Italy at around 1400 in line with other types of developments like literature, music, philosophy and science. Renaissance art was perceived as revival of the early traditions; it took the art of classical antiquity as its foundation. It later transformed that tradition with absorption of the developments that were recent in the northern Europe arts as well as applying the knowledge of science. The Renaissance art spread in most parts of Europe due to Renaissance humanist philosophy, it affected the artist and the patrons as well as new artistic sensibilities and techniques developing.  The Renaissance art was a mark of transition from medieval period to the early modern age in Europe (Stark 117).

Early Renaissance art was formed in parallel with the art of late medieval in most parts of Europe. The renaissance style prevailed by 1500, with the late Renaissance art taking a distinctive and different characteristic in every region as it continued to develop. Some of the great arts during the Renaissance era, the various works of art included Proto Renaissance art of 1280 to 1400, early Renaissance in Italy of 1400 to 1479, high Renaissance art in Italy of 1475 to 1525, High Renaissance art in Italy of 1475 to 1525 and Early Netherlandish art of 1400 to 1525.                                       

Proto Renaissance art of 1280 to 1400 was in Italy. The Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano his grandson sculpture, which was working at Siena, Pisa and Pistoia, showed classicizing tendencies that was influenced by these two artist familiarity with ancient roman sarcophagi. The masterpieces of these two artists were the cathedral of Pisa and Baptistery pulpits. Giotto, who was Florentine painter, developed a painting that was figurative as well as a three dimensional, naturalistic, life like and classicizing when it was compared with that of teacher Cimabue and his contemporaries. Giotto’s greatest work in the life of Christ at Arena chapel was seen as restoring and rescuing art by Giorgio Vasari who was 16^th century biographer (Capra 247).