Looking at the
Renaissance
The Legacy of the
Renaissance
The legacy of the
Renaissance is something which is still hotly debated: philosophers, art
historians, students of literature, historians all have a different perspective
on its enduring impact. However all are in agreement that it does not
unequivocally herald the start of the modern world. Indeed the Renaissance as a
movement to bring about the rebirth of classical letters and classical values
was looking fairly determinedly backwards. But the skills and pre-occupations
of humanist scholars and the techniques of representation developed to pursue
this enthusiasm for the classical past were themselves potent engines for
change.
Most immediate in effect
was the enthusiasm with which classical models were taken up by ruling elites,
in part for purely aesthetic motives, but also, very definitely, as a means to
validate their own authority. Association with republican, or, far more
commonly, Imperial Rome gave weight even to those of very dubious credentials,
such as soldiers of fortune who had fought their way to power. In visual terms
this association was expressed through buildings that used classical
architectural language to convey a sense of majesty and gravitas - a
vocabulary that proved so potent that to this day it is still used to convey
prestige. Architectural treatises such as that of Serlio and Palladio (1508-80)
were used across Europe by princes and aristocrats who selected the elements
appropriate to their particular purposes. The growing fashion for young
aristocrats to undertake the 'grand tour' to Italy, to inspect the antique for
themselves, served to reinforce the cultural association between the
aristocracy and classicism.
But antiquity was too
potent a source to be commandeered solely by the aristocracy. Political
reformers could find inspiring models and sinew-stiffening maxims among the
republican writers of Greece and Rome, whose celebration of heroism,
self-denial and civic spirit gave hope of a fairer world built on liberty and
equality.
Reverence for the
classical languages, and for the values of the ancient world, provided the
basis for an education system which extended beyond the elite and which
structured the school curriculum in a way which survived in Britain until the
20th century. By doing so it ensured the enduring impact of classical values on
attitudes to social organisation and to government. But in assessing the impact
of the Renaissance equal importance has to be given to the way it interacted
with other major cultural changes. The textual scrutiny applied by Renaissance
humanists to ancient texts had revolutionary long-term significance when
combined with the demands for religious reform that culminated in the
Reformation. Married with investigations into the natural world, the critical
attention to ancient texts opened up the study of science in a multitude of
directions. And the impact of all these changes was vastly accelerated by the
invention of print which made possible not only the wide dissemination of
written and visual texts, but the close comparison of those texts that was at
the heart of humanist scholarship. Humanists were entranced by learning and the
search for knowledge touched all aspects of 15th- and 16th-century culture; the
resulting complex legacy is part of the fascination of the Renaissance.
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