The Italian Renaissance: the dawn of modern times by Elizabeth Handley 16 April

It is difficult to date the exact beginning of the Renaissance. Some say that changes in thinking and artistic styles first appeared at the turn of the fourteenth and fiftheenth centuries, while others date these events a century later. Perhaps there was already a Renaissance – such as manifestations in Europe during the Middle Ages – the roughly one thousand years of relative ignorance and superstition which followed the fall of the Roman Empire. 

Regarded as the beginning of modern times, the Renaissance swept away customs and institutions which had dominated Europe for centuries, such as feudalism and the power of the church. The first visible manifestations in art can be discerned in Italy, where there was an explosion of creativity by creators of exceptional genius. Fifteenth century Italians sought to weave together the two strands of their heritage: Humanism – the celebration of life and of man – and Christianity. The Church regarded the Ancients as pagans, while to Renaissance artists, beauty was a symbol of divinity. 

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