Chapter 12: The Renaissance (Part II)

Pre-reading

A. Skim and scan the following passage and answer the following questions.

1. How did the Renaissance affect the development of humanism?

2. How did the Renaissance affect the development of science?

3. How did the Renaissance affect the development of arts?

4. What were the historical legacies of the Renaissance? 

Reading

The dominant intellectual movement of the Renaissance was humanism, a philosophy based on the idea that people are rational beings. It emphasized the dignity and worth of the individual, an emphasis that was central to Renaissance developments in many areas. Humanism originated in the study of classical culture, and it took its name from one of the era's earliest and most crucial concerns: the promotion of a new educational curriculum that emphasized a group of subjects known collectively as the studia humanitatis, or the humanities.

Humanities disciplines included grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and ethics. These subjects were all studied, whenever possible, in the original classical texts. The humanities curriculum conflicted directly with more traditional education that was based on scholasticism. A scholastic education concentrated on the study of logic, natural philosophy (science), and metaphysics, or the nature of reality. Scholars often clashed sharply over these two systems of education.

Far more was at stake in these academic controversies than the content of education. Scholastic training prepared students for careers in fields such as medicine, law, and, above all, theology. The humanists believed that this scholastic course of study was focused too narrowly on only a few professions. They claimed that it was not based sufficiently on practical experience or the needs of society, but relied too heavily on abstract thought. The humanists proposed to educate the whole person and placed emphasis not only on intellectual achievement, but also on physical and moral development.

The humanists also stressed the general responsibilities of citizenship and social leadership. Humanists felt that they had an obligation to participate in the political life of the community. From their perspective, the specialized disciplines taught by the scholastics had failed to instill a respect for public duty.

Underlying the differences between these two philosophies was the humanists' deep conviction that society had outgrown older ways of thought. According to the humanists, these ways of thought emphasized abstract speculation and relied too heavily on Christian teachings. Many of the humanists were townspeople who were not directly associated with the church. These urban residents tended to object to an educational system that was largely monopolized by the clergy and oriented to clerical needs. Humanists were accustomed to the ever-changing, concrete activities of city life and found the rigid and closed systems of abstract thought to be both useless and irrelevant. In sum, humanism reflected the new environment of the Renaissance . Its essential contribution to the modern world was not its concern with antiquity, but its flexibility and openness to all the possibilities of life.

Renaissance  humanism was complex, with few unifying features beyond a common belief that humanity and society could be improved through a new kind of education based on a study of the classics. Humanists varied widely in the ways they applied these ideas to areas that interested them. Some humanists were mainly interested in rhetoric and Latin prose style, while others analyzed ancient texts to determine exact meanings. One group focused on ways to improve society in general, while Christian humanism applied the techniques of humanist scholarship to the study of church documents, particularly the Bible.

Francesco Petrarca, known as Petrarch, incorporated most elements of Renaissance humanism into his work. Called the first great humanist, Petrarch was born in 1304 near Florence and spent much of his life in the cities of Italy . He absorbed the typical urban emphasis on the practical and concrete experiences of daily life. Petrarch traveled widely, climbed mountains simply to see what he could see, and displayed a keen interest in the human personality, most notably his own. The classics further nourished his interest in broad human experience.

Petrarch was displeased by what he saw in the world. He wavered between nostalgic contemplation of the ideal world of antiquity and active efforts to improve his own times. He acted as an emissary for the duke of Milan , attempted to serve as peacemaker in Italy 's constant wars, and urged the pope to end his exile in Avignon during the Babylonian Captivity. He also attacked the scholastics for their failure to address the true needs of humanity.

Petrarch believed in the possibility of a better future, and he hoped, above all, to better the world by the study of classical literature. He admired the formal beauty of classical writing and considered it a remedy for contemporary ugliness. To promote the study of classical literature, he collected ancient texts during his travels. He studied and imitated them in Latin writings of his own, and then attempted to extend their teachings to as many other people as possible.

After Petrarch, humanism spread first in Italy and then beyond the Alps . Most of Petrarch's early followers were little more than enthusiastic, and somewhat amateurish, classical scholars. Through one of his friends, Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch's influence was transmitted to Florence . In the mid- to late 14th century, a number of scholars in Florence collected and studied ancient works, lectured about them, imitated their style, and made the city a center of humanistic learning. Among them were Boccaccio, the scholar Niccolò Niccoli, and above all the Florentine government leader, Coluccio Salutati.

Some humanists became experts in rhetoric, and town governments frequently employed them to give style to formal documents, to compose speeches for public occasions, and to write official histories. These humanists often became so pretentious and artificial that they eventually lost sight of significant issues in their focus on technique and detail. By the early 16th century a few of these humanists cultivated such an extremely pure style of Latin that they would only employ words used by the ancient Roman orator Cicero. It was primarily this type of humanist who was responsible for the frequent accusation that humanism was a frivolous pursuit and that, far from reviving Latin, it finally killed the language by isolating it from everyday life.

Other humanists adopted an entirely different and more political approach to classical studies. Many of the humanists of Florence , led by historian Leonardo Bruni, became fervently patriotic. Their patriotism was in part a response to frequent armed attacks by Milan , a rival city-state, during the first decades of the 15th century. As they began to apply classical teachings to their immediate problems, they found that ancient Roman literature encouraged love of country and offered practical historical lessons. These humanists also took a positive attitude toward their native language; they applied classical literary standards to everyday writing, laying a foundation for later literary development. Their interest in the destiny of Florence influenced them to write seriously about the city's past and stimulated the emergence of the modern historical perspective.

The work of Lorenzo Valla during the first half of the 15th century inspired a new quality in humanist scholarship. Valla studied ancient texts with an increased rigor and contributed significantly to the development of textual and historical criticism. Vittorino da Feltre, a teacher at the palace school of Mantua (Mantova) during the early 15th century, worked to establish the humanist goal of educating the whole person for a life of political leadership. This ideal was popularized by Il cortegiano (1528; Book of the Courtier, 1561) by Italian diplomat Conte Baldassare Castiglione, a work that circulated throughout Europe . Castiglione's treatise on proper training and values for members of the royal court influenced the upbringing of the European ruling classes for centuries.

During the 15th century, a steadily increasing number of Italian humanists learned Greek. For the first time since ancient times Greek texts were being read in the original language in western Europe. A whole new body of ideas became available for the humanists to study, and this led to a more precise understanding of Greek philosophy.

In particular, the Greek philosopher Plato increasingly gained respect among the humanists. His most prominent Renaissance disciple was Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino, who in the late 15th century led scholars at the Florentine Academy into more serious study of Plato's work. Ficino hoped to make Plato a new guide for Western thought, just as scholastic thinkers had based many of their ideas on the work of Plato's student Aristotle.

Italy  had always been an important educational center, attracting numerous students from abroad and sending its own scholars to work in countries beyond the Alps . Well before the end of the 15th century, the ideas and interests of the Italian humanists had spread into much of Western Europe . Humanism was promoted not only by scholars trained in Italy , but also by those who had traveled in Italy and adopted the humanists' ideas, such as English theologian John Colet and German poet Conrad Celtis.

Italian humanists saw Roman history as a glorious episode in their own national past, a past that had been interrupted when Germanic and other peoples invaded the empire beginning in the 5th century. Northern Europeans did not identify as strongly with ancient Rome and often approached the Middle Ages with more sympathy. Northern society retained stronger ties to Christianity than Italy did, and the northern humanists were less hostile to scholasticism.

By the time humanism had taken root in the north, the Reformation had begun to gain momentum. As a result, northern humanism is generally identified with Christian humanism, a movement that attempted to apply the scholarly techniques of humanism to the study of religious documents. Christian humanists studied the Bible directly, ignoring medieval interpretations. As their knowledge of languages increased, the humanists also read the biblical texts in the original Greek and Hebrew. Their work in translating and analyzing original sources often uncovered discrepancies among these sources, which led to questions about the Catholic Church's practices and encouraged efforts for reform . The best-known Christian humanist was Dutch writer and scholar Desiderius Erasmus. His numerous works of classical and biblical scholarship, including a Latin translation of the New Testament as well as a Greek edition based on recently discovered manuscripts, gave him an unequaled reputation in the world of letters. He condemned overly rigid belief systems, favoring more flexibility and tolerance. His views influenced large numbers of both Catholics and Protestants for generations.

The Christian humanists, like other religious reformers of the Renaissance , generally considered themselves to be good Catholics. They were receptive to change, but believed strongly in the unity of the church and the preservation of a reformed Catholic tradition. For this reason Erasmus and other Christian humanists refused to accept the arguments of German theologian Martin Luther, who condemned some of the basic teachings of the Catholic Church. As a result, the contributions of Christian humanism to the Reformation were largely indirect. Humanists inspired the spirit of questioning and skepticism that characterized the Reformation , but they would not support Luther's notion that major doctrines of the Catholic Church could be proved wrong with absolute certainty.

The age of the  Renaissance occupies a crucial place in the history of science, but the nature and extent of humanism's contribution to science are difficult to measure. Humanism had an indirect impact on many fields of scientific inquiry. Humanist scholarship made available the scientific writings of antiquity, which are known to have influenced 16th-century Polish astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus and possibly other Renaissance scientists. The humanists' study of Plato contributed to new conceptions of the universe that relied on mathematical rather than descriptive approaches.

The  Renaissance  spirit of curiosity, experimentation, and objectivity were also important to the development of science in Europe . Renaissance scholars emphasized concrete experience over abstract theory and tried to observe the natural world carefully, completely, and without preconceived ideas. This spirit of impartial inquiry was more important to the future of science than any specific achievement.

The scientific advances of the Renaissance were evident in many fields. In medicine, Belgian physician Andreas Vesalius dissected cadavers and made numerous discoveries about human anatomy. The spirit of curiosity was also extended to exploration and navigation. Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus, English explorer Sir Francis Drake, and others made use of the latest inventions and discoveries in navigation, astronomy, and mathematics. Artists explored the mathematical relationships inherent in nature. They closely studied perspective, investigating how to portray depth and depict objects as they appeared to the eye. Florentine artist Leonardo da Vinci united art with science in his studies of the structures and processes of nature, as well as in his designs for machines and mechanical devices. Important inventions such as gunpowder, the printing press, and the compass were practical results of Renaissance scientific inquiry.

Despite these influences, the humanists made few direct contributions to the sciences; indeed, their emphasis on a polished style and their dislike of ordered thought may well have slowed scientific advance. The major contributions to science during this period were made by the same scholastic thinkers whose work, according to the humanists, did not address the real needs of humanity.

The scholastics were also responsible for a great breakthrough in Western thinking on the nature of the universe. The chief obstacle to the emergence of modern science lay in a view of nature that was based on the ideas of Aristotle and of Christian theologians. According to this view, the entire physical universe was centered on humankind, and there was a basic purpose to all movement. Gravity was explained as the inclination of all bodies to be at the center of the earth; acceleration was believed to be a consequence of the growing eagerness of a falling body as it moved closer to its natural home. Such a view of the universe was still essentially supernatural and could not be studied objectively or by experimentation. The most significant achievement of Renaissance science was the introduction of the concept of the universe as an entity that could be approached objectively.

Scholars brought these ideas to the University of Padua in Italy , where other thinkers, notably 15th-century Italian theologian Cajetan, further developed them and explained their implications. Padua (Padova) became the scientific capital of Europe . Almost every great scientist was associated at one time or another with the University of Padua , from Polish astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus in the early 16th century to Italian astronomer Galileo and English physician William Harvey in the 17th century. Scholastic speculation reached its peak at Padua and provided essential preparation for the more dramatic achievements of scientists such as Johannes Kepler of Germany and Sir Isaac Newton of England in formulating the laws of motion. The new scientific attitude that arose at Padua during the Renaissance emphasized objectivity and experimentation, and represented another significant accomplishment of the period.

The  Renaissance  will always be closely associated with achievements in literature, art, and music ( see Renaissance Art and Architecture). In painting, sculpture, and architecture the Renaissance tended to break with medieval traditions. Painting and sculpture were no longer considered crafts to be used exclusively for the embellishment of churches and cathedrals; instead, they became independent arts on a level with the highest intellectual accomplishments. The use of mathematics and geometry in achieving proportion and perspective in works of art exemplified the new merging of art and science that was a prime characteristic of the Renaissance . In Italy , surviving examples of classical Roman sculpture and architecture were always present, and the classical past provided artists with the basis for new inspiration.

Contributions to the arts were closely related to the broad transformations that were taking place in society. The sense of change in all aspects of life created a favorable atmosphere for artistic experimentation and innovation. Wealth that accumulated in the towns helped support writers and artists. Above all, a new and more varied public audience emerged with expanded tastes and interests. Prosperous townspeople and members of the royal courts demanded greater refinement in the arts and more variety in both form and content. They encouraged artistic treatment of the world in which they lived, but they also valued the classical heritage. This heritage seemed to resemble their own civilization and provided a wealth of ideas and formal models for changes in the arts. In these ways, the Renaissance played a crucial role in the development of modern creative expression.

Renaissance  attitudes and philosophy had a complex influence on the evolution of literature. The humanist reverence for the classics of ancient Greece and Rome tended to stifle spontaneous literary creation and to encourage unimaginative imitation of classical authors. However, the restless curiosity of the Renaissance , the interest in the world, and the exposure to urban influences created a demand for a vernacular, or native, literature that expressed the new excitement and variety of contemporary life. Secular writing had always played some role in medieval life, but under the influence of the classics it acquired a new sophistication and polish. Moreover, Renaissance individuality, with its concern for personal fame, encouraged writers to try daring experiments in order to win praise from the critics and support from influential patrons.

Dante Alighieri, who wrote during the 13th century, is often said to represent the transition in literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance . Although his philosophy of life was rooted in the religious outlook of the Middle Ages, his great epic poem La divina commedia (1307; The Divine Comedy ) reflects his powerful interest in all aspects of human life and behavior. The vivid language and imagery of The Divine Comedy, probably begun in 1307, paved the way for such later works as Giovanni Boccaccio's Il Decamerone (1353; The Decameron, 1620), a collection of realistic prose tales famous for their vivid and witty observations of contemporary life. Both Dante and Boccaccio were important in establishing the use of contemporary Italian rather than Latin as the standard language for literature in Italy . The love sonnets of Petrarch were also written in vernacular Italian; they were widely imitated throughout Europe and further increased the prominence of the Italian language.

In the late 15th century the ruler of Florence , Lorenzo de' Medici, stimulated the development of Italian poetry, which had languished since the death of Petrarch nearly 100 years earlier. Poets and scholars from all over Italy were attracted to Lorenzo's court. This revival led to works such as the epic romance Orlando Furioso (1516, revised 1521 and 1532) by Ludovico Ariosto and the pastoral romance Arcadia (1504) by Jacopo Sannazzaro.

During the 16th century, Italian literature produced a number of outstanding prose works. Among them are The Prince, a study of the use of political power by Niccolò Machiavelli; The Book of the Courtier, a treatise on courtly etiquette written by Baldassare Castiglione; and the autobiography of sculptor Benvenuto Cellini detailing his wild escapades.

It was also during the 16th century that the influence of Italian Renaissance literature was felt throughout Europe . In Spain , Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra wrote his allegorical novel Don Quixote (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615). In France , Pierre de Ronsard applied the lessons of classicism to French verse; Fran?ois Rabelais wrote lusty, vigorous caricatures of the world around him; and Michel Eyquem de Montaigne wrote essays exploring his innermost thoughts with the same objectivity that others had reserved for the external world. The Renaissance also produced great literature in England . Of note are the sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney; the epic The Faerie Queene (published in successive editions, 1590-1609) by Edmund Spenser; and the plays of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and other dramatists who wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Renaissance  painters turned from the purely religious subjects of the Middle Ages to a depiction of the natural world. Technical advances in the representation of perspective, anatomy, and light and shadow were matched by a great expansion in subject matter. Portraits, studies of the human form, animals, landscapes, scenes of daily life, and historic events all joined religious subjects as acceptable material for the painter.

Giotto, a 14th-century Florentine painter, is often considered the forerunner of Renaissance painting. He broke with the highly formalized style of medieval painting, in which static, expressionless, two-dimensional figures were arranged in size and form according to their symbolic importance. Giotto based his art on observation of the real world and tried to use space and light more dramatically. In the 15th century the artists of Florence , led by Masaccio, began to use scientific principles to solve problems of perspective and to develop new techniques for representing light and shade. At the same time, the painters of Venice experimented with color to produce a more natural effect.

During the Middle Ages the Catholic Church had been almost the sole patron of the arts, and most of the artwork produced had religious themes. By the 1400s private collectors and patrons began to demand paintings of secular subjects. Personal portraiture also appeared in the works of artists such as Piero della Francesca and Sandro Botticelli. Representation of the natural world, however, was not enough for the great artists of the later Italian Renaissance . The masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo reveal not only the complete mastery of earlier technical advances, but also profound reflection on the nature of the material world and an effort to represent ideal qualities that underlie outward appearances. The work of Flemish artists such as Jan van Eyck in the 15th century suggests a common interest in concrete detail, but for the rest of Europe , the major impact of the new movement in art did not occur until the 17th century.

During the Middle Ages, sculpture, like all medieval art, was subordinated to religious architecture and the needs of the Catholic Church. Although late medieval sculpture, known as Gothic ( see Gothic Art and Architecture), was more realistic than earlier medieval sculpture, it was still highly stylized to symbolize certain religious ideas and conventions. However, Italian medieval sculpture had always preserved some elements of the classical tradition. In the 13th century, Italian sculptors Nicola and Giovanni Pisano combined Gothic conventions with the freer, more dynamic naturalism of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the early 15th century, increasing mastery of materials and techniques, together with greater expressiveness, was achieved by sculptors Jacopo della Quercia and Lorenzo Ghiberti. In his relief panels for the east door of the baptistery of the cathedral of Florence , Ghiberti incorporated levels of perspective and effects of light and shade that had seemed possible only in painting.

Both Quercia and Ghiberti still conceived of sculpture as ornamental relief for religious architecture. It remained for Ghiberti's contemporary Donatello to construct figures that were natural in form and could be viewed from all sides. Among the other important sculptors of the early Renaissance were Andrea del Verrocchio and members of the Robbia family. Renaissance sculpture reached its peak in the early 16th century, primarily with the works of Michelangelo.

Renaissance  architecture, like Renaissance sculpture, was largely inspired by the rediscovery of classical forms and principles. In the 15th century, architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti saw in the ruins of ancient Rome the foundation for a new architecture based on the principles of geometry and mathematics. Brunelleschi produced the first great works of Renaissance architecture in buildings such as the Church of San Lorenzo and the Pazzi Chapel in Florence . Alberti wrote theoretical treatises explaining the principles of Roman architect Vitruvius. His work on the Church of San Francesco , a Gothic church in the central Italian city of Rimini , is typical of the early Renaissance . It illustrates the tendency to remodel old buildings by adding classical approaches to form, such as the use of symmetry, and classical features, such as arches and columns.

An important  Renaissance contribution to the development of Western architecture was the revival of the dome, an architectural feature that was first introduced by the Romans. Brunelleschi's great dome on the cathedral of Florence is one of the outstanding achievements of the period. Renaissance architects were also interested in secular buildings of all kinds, including palaces, libraries, and theaters. Outstanding examples of secular Renaissance architecture include Florence 's Palazzo Medici-Riccardi by Italian architect Michelozzo and the Olympic Theater and Villa Rotonda, designed by Andrea Palladio and located in the northern Italian town of Vicenza . Palladio's use of columns and domes in houses and villas illustrates the application of classical principles of design to secular structures.

Another important  Renaissance architect was Donato Bramante. His Tempietto, a shrine in Rome , is an outstanding example of a circular building with a domed roof, a popular form during the Renaissance . Raphael, Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi, Giacomo da Vignola, Michelangelo, and members of the Sangallo family were all among the outstanding Renaissance architects of the 16th century.

A similar interest in experimentation and a desire to meet the needs of the secular world applies to the history of music during the Renaissance . Innovations in this field began with the musicians of France and the Low Countries . French composers such as Guillaume de Machaut in the 14th century and Josquin Desprez in the late 15th and early 16th centuries established the principles of polyphonic (multivoice) and contrapuntal music ( see counterpoint). Flemish composer Orlando de Lassus applied these principles to a wide range of musical forms in the 16th century. As these innovations were taking place, music also grew increasingly secular and was enjoyed in many settings outside of the church. Both men and women of the upper classes were expected to understand music and to perform it. They regularly amused themselves by singing poetic musical compositions called madrigals or by playing a variety of instruments, including lutes, viols, and a form of harpsichord called a virginal.

Attention to the musical tastes of secular society also affected sacred music. Not only were the technical innovations applied to music for the church, but frequently sacred melodies were used for more popular entertainment. The leaders of the Counter Reformation within the Catholic Church eventually intervened to halt this tendency. The sacred music of 16th-century Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina represents an effort to restore a devotional spirit to music without sacrificing the technical innovations made by the earlier composers of the Renaissance.

The  Renaissance  was a time when long-standing beliefs were tested, and Europeans became increasingly confident that they were creating a whole new culture. It was a period of intellectual ferment that prepared the ground for the thinkers and scientists of the 17th century. The Renaissance idea that humankind rules nature, for example, contributed to the development of modern science and technology. Renaissance thinkers used classical precedents to preserve and defend the concepts of republicanism and human freedom. These ideas had a permanent impact on the course of English constitutional theory. Renaissance political thought may also have been a source for the form of government adopted in the United States . Above all, however, the Renaissance left to the world monuments of artistic beauty that define Western culture.

Test yourself

Fill the blanks each by referring to the question given:

1. How did the Renaissance affect the development of humanism?

The dominant intellectual movement of __ Renaissance was humanism, a philosophy __ on the idea that people __ rational beings. It emphasized the __ and worth of the individual, __ emphasis that was central to __ developments in many areas. Humanism __ in the study of classical __ , and it took its name __ one of the era's earliest __ most crucial concerns: the promotion __ a new educational curriculum that __ a group of subjects known __ as the studia humanitatis, or __ humanities.

Humanities disciplines __ grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and __ . These subjects were all studied, __ possible, in the original classical __ . The humanities curriculum conflicted directly __ more traditional education that was __ on scholasticism. A scholastic education __ on the study of logic, __ philosophy (science), and metaphysics, or __ nature of reality.

The humanists __ that the scholastic course of __ was focused too narrowly on __ a few professions. They claimed __ it was not based sufficiently __ practical experience or the needs __ society, but relied too heavily __ abstract thought. The humanists proposed __ educate the whole person and __ emphasis not only on intellectual __ , but also on physical and __ development.

2. How did the Renaissance affect the development of humanism?

The humanists also stressed the __ responsibilities of citizenship and social __ . Humanists felt that they had __ obligation to participate in the __ life of the community. From __ perspective, the specialized disciplines taught __ the scholastics had failed to __ a respect for public duty. __ to the humanists, __ ways of thought emphasized abstract __ and relied too heavily on __ teachings. Many of the humanists __ townspeople who were not directly __ with the church. Humanists were __ to the ever-changing, concrete activities __ city life and found the __ and closed systems of abstract __ to be both useless and __ . In sum, humanism reflected the __ environment of the Renaissance. Its __ contribution to the modern world __ not its concern with antiquity, __ its flexibility and openness to __ the possibilities of life. __ humanism was complex, with __ unifying features beyond a common __ that humanity and society could __ improved through a new kind __ education based on a study __ the classics. Humanists varied widely __ the ways they applied these __ to areas that interested them. __

3. How did the Renaissance affect the development of science?

The Renaissance spirit of curiosity, __ , and objectivity were __ to the development of science __ Europe . Renaissance scholars emphasized concrete __ over abstract theory and tried __ observe the natural world carefully, __ , and without preconceived ideas. This __ of impartial inquiry was more __ to the future of science __ any specific achievement. __ scientific advances of the Renaissance __ evident in many fields. In __ , Belgian physician Andreas Vesalius dissected __ and made numerous discoveries about __ anatomy. The spirit of curiosity __ also extended to exploration and __ . Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus, English __ Sir Francis Drake, and others __ use of the latest inventions __ discoveries in navigation, astronomy, and __ . Artists explored the mathematical relationships __ in nature. They closely studied __ , investigating how to portray depth __ depict objects as they appeared __ the eye. Florentine artist Leonardo __ Vinci united art with science __ his studies of the structures __ processes of nature, as well __ in his designs for machines __ mechanical devices. Important inventions such __ gunpowder, the printing press, and __ compass were practical results of __ scientific inquiry.

4. How did the Renaissance affect the development of arts?

The Renaissance will always be __ associated with achievements in literature, __ , and music. In painting, sculpture, __ architecture the Renaissance tended to __ with medieval traditions. Painting and __ were no longer considered crafts __ be used exclusively for the __ of churches and cathedrals; instead, __ became independent arts on a __ with the highest intellectual accomplishments. __ use of mathematics and geometry __ achieving proportion and perspective in __ of art exemplified the new __ of art and science that __ a prime characteristic of the __ . In Italy , surviving examples of __ Roman sculpture and architecture were __ present, and the classical past __ artists with the basis for __ inspiration.

The sense __ change in all aspects of __ created a favorable atmosphere for __ experimentation and innovation. Wealth that __ in the towns helped support __ and artists. Above all, a __ and more varied public audience __ with expanded tastes and interests. __ townspeople and members of the __ courts encouraged artistic treatment of __ world in which they lived, __ they also valued the classical __ . This heritage seemed to resemble __ own civilization and provided a __ of ideas and formal models __ changes in the arts. In __ ways, the Renaissance played a __ role in the development of __ creative expression.

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