Cox 1 Daniel Cox World Civilization February 12th, 2014 The Italian Renaissance The Renaissance. Every student of music and art history learned about the Renaissance in highschool, and while many of the giants in music were of the late Baroque era and stopped about the Late Romantic era, not nearly enough credit is given to the Renaissance artists who set the stage for individuals like Johann Sebastian Bach and Rembrandt, however before one can even begin discussing the influence the Renaissance artists had upon the Baroque artists and so on, we must define art as we know it now, how they knew it, and how they continued to define and defy the meaning of art as it flourished into wondrous works that are forever a part of our culture, such as Vivaldi’s 550 Concerti Grossi or the works Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. So, now to define art. That is a difficult challenge. Music is slightly easier to relate to, so the discussion shall begin there. Music has been called “The most abused art form ever.” (1) and perhaps it is true, considering that music has permeated our lives in such a way that no other art has in the entirety of humankind, yet not a whole lot outside of the enlightened community of musical appreciation really can pinpoint what music is; some people would say that music is what brings people together, which sounds a great deal like the Force from Star Wars, however if some piece of music does not bring Cox 2 people together, does that make it any less music? Some would say that music makes you feel something, does Bach make a great deal of the non-musical community feel anything? Probably not; are his works any less of music because they don’t make people feel anything? Certainly not. Is music something one can relate to? A great deal of people can relate to Eminem, but that isn’t why his music is music. Notice how all of those definitions go largely without the correct context, they mostly describe what music does, not what music is; one does not define the motion of leaves as wind, but as the effect of the wind, thus it is equally inappropriate to define music in its effects. Instead, to properly define any and all music regardless of the style, the conditions would have to be Organized Sound Over Time, which is colloquially referred to by music teachers alike as OS/T as a reference to mathematics. This definition may be broad, but it has to be so due to the fact that music comes in as many varieties as there are people to create music. Leopold Godowsky and Charles Ives and John Cage are all from what would be considered the modern era, from the 1900s to today, and yet Godowsky’s Die Fledermouse (2) is greatly different than the grating polytonal works of Ives (3) and John Cage’s 4’33 (4) is one of the most unique pieces of music ever, and it isn’t even due to the fact that they were doing the same general thing in slightly different ways, their music was drastically different from one another and yet they are all Modern Composers, who create the art of music. The very definition of art eludes many who are interested in visual arts, such as dance, sculpting, painting, tattoo art, free-hand drawing, 2d and 3d art, as all of these have a less than clinical definition of art as does music which has an all defining and very broad definition, OS/T. Dance as an art could be defined as Organized Movement Over Time, and sculpting could be defined as the process by which a Cox 3 crafter chisels and grinds at a material to remove unwanted material to shape something or someone, while that isn’t the neatest and shortest definition out there it does work fairly well, but more importantly than defining each and every form of art, how do we define art in and of itself? Many have great quotes about art, “True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.” by Albert Einstein (5), but not a great deal have a definition of art that quite fits everything. Is art an expression? Suggesting that all art have meaning or have feelings would certainly invalidate music that composers were paid to produce due to the fact they weren’t making it for himself but for a person of nobility who made them produce music on a daily basis. Merriam Webster and Wikipedia have plenty of definitions of art, such as this one from Webster: “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings” (6). This definition seems to work the best, however it lacks intent. A more accurate definition, based off of what Merriam-Webster said, would be: “Art is something that is intentionally created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.” So now that the definition of art has been properly established, we can begin the discussion of how the Renaissance, and in particular the Italian Renaissance, affected modern art and evolved from art in the time before. The Dark Ages. A great deal comes to mind when someone mentions The Dark Ages. Many make sarcastic remarks about how when the electricity goes out we re-enter the Dark Ages, but the decline of the Roman Empire and the economic and cultural depravity that defined the first era of the Middle Ages is hardly something to joke about with religious superstition and fear, the execution of thousands by the Bible’s holy scripture, the starvation of many, and the Black Plague. Statistics show Cox 4 that as many as one in three died before the age of five; 5% of women dying during childbirth while 15% died due to infections gained while giving birth; those that didn’t die of those frightening numbers probably did die in the various wars that ensued throughout the Dark Ages, and even if they didn’t they only lived to be approximately 45 due to other factors such as nutrition. Suffice to say that the Dark Ages weren’t a very nice place to live, and then things just inexplicably started moving in the right direction, and once a great deal of people got wind of this the culture and livelihood of Europe was reborn in The Renaissance. The Renaissance was a period of enlightenment after the Dark Ages where scholars and leaders scoured through the ancient Greek and Roman cultures and idolized them and their ideals, reinventing them, reshaping them, and making their philosophies anew (8). The Renaissance is a period of growth and scientific achievement, as well as advancements in art and other fields. In particular interest is the Italian Renaissance, which sports many of the innovations that spread to other cultures, such as the extensive translations of Greek and Latin made by Marsilio Ficino, the various works by the multitalented Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (9), and so much more. The very air of Renaissance era Europe was alive with thoughts and ideas and renovation and innovation, crackling with the electrical spark of thought and creativity. Many others such as Niccolo Machiavelli (10), the writer which put forth the notion in The Prince that “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” (11), or the painter who started it all, Giotto (10). The Northern Renaissance started as a chain reaction to the Italian Renaissance when French King Francis the 1st imported Italian art and artists such as Leonardo. Cox 5 The enlightenment had begun in Italy in the 1300s and while the era may have ended in the 1500s, the effects are so far beyond scale that the Renaissance could be said to have never truly ended, it simply evolved. The Renaissance was a reflection of Greek and Roman ideas, and this in turn evolved into the Baroque period where art culminated into its greatest complexity ever, which in turn lead to artists wanting simpler art, art for the people, and this became the Classical Movement of the 1700-1800s. This in turn grew into the Romantic era, and then the Modern era of art evolved, and here we are now, all because somebody, somewhere, over 700 years ago saw the pitiable circumstances of the Dark Ages and decided to make things take a turn for the better for once. Cox 7 Citations 1 Daniel Cox 2 youtube/watch?v=SKNuMLl4Zfg 3 youtube/watch?v=5aWjnaxwCLU 4 youtube/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4 5 BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. 6 Art. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. 7 Life Expectancy in the Middle Ages | Sarah Woodbury. Sarah Woodbury. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. 8 Italian Renaissance. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. 9 Leonardo Da Vinci. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. 10 SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. 11 BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. 12 Northern Renaissance. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 02:54:59 +0000
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