Renaissance Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Conception=== [[File:Vite.jpg|thumb|A cover of the ''Lives of the Artists'' by [[Giorgio Vasari]] ]] The Italian artist and critic [[Giorgio Vasari]] (1511β1574) first used the term ''rinascita'' in his book ''[[Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects|The Lives of the Artists]]'' (published 1550). In the book Vasari attempted to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of [[Gothic art]]: the arts (he held) had fallen into decay with the collapse of the [[Roman Empire]] and only the [[Tuscany|Tuscan]] artists, beginning with [[Cimabue]] (1240β1301) and [[Giotto]] (1267β1337) began to reverse this decline in the arts. Vasari saw ancient art as central to the rebirth of Italian art.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance2/defining.htm |title=Defining the Renaissance, Open University |publisher=Open.ac.uk |access-date=31 July 2009}}</ref> However, only in the 19th century did the French word ''renaissance'' achieve popularity in describing the self-conscious cultural movement based on revival of Roman models that began in the late 13th century. French [[historian]] [[Jules Michelet]] (1798β1874) defined "The Renaissance" in his 1855 work ''Histoire de France'' as an entire historical period, whereas previously it had been used in a more limited sense.<ref name=mur>Murray, P. and Murray, L. (1963) ''The Art of the Renaissance''. London: [[Thames & Hudson]] (World of Art), p. 9. {{ISBN|978-0500200087}}. "...in 1855 we find, for the first time, the word 'Renaissance' used β by the French historian Michelet β as an adjective to describe a whole period of history and not confined to the rebirth of Latin letters or a classically inspired style in the arts."</ref> For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] to [[Copernicus]] to [[Galileo]]; that is, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century.<ref name="Michelet, Jules 1847"/> Moreover, Michelet distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages and the [[democracy|democratic]] values that he, as a vocal [[Republicanism|Republican]], chose to see in its character.<ref name="brotton" /> A French nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement.<ref name="brotton" /> The [[Switzerland|Swiss]] historian [[Jacob Burckhardt]] (1818β1897) in his ''[[The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy]]'' (1860), by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between [[Giotto]] and [[Michelangelo]] in Italy, that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He saw in the Renaissance the emergence of the modern spirit of [[individualism|individuality]], which the Middle Ages had stifled.<ref>Burckhardt, Jacob. ''[http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921145058/http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html |date=21 September 2008 }}'' (trans. S.G.C. Middlemore, London, 1878)</ref> His book was widely read and became influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the [[Italian Renaissance]].<ref>Gay, Peter, ''Style in History'', New York: Basic Books, 1974.</ref> More recently, some historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical age, or even as a coherent cultural movement. The historian Randolph Starn, of the [[University of California Berkeley]], stated in 1998: {{blockquote|Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content in between, the Renaissance can be (and occasionally has been) seen as a movement of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-bound culture.<ref name="starn" /> }} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page