Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi
What were the social factors that encouraged and promoted the Renaissance in Italy in the period from 1350 to 1500. The Italian Renaissance was one of the world’s greatest period in culture and the arts. It produced writers such as Machiavelli and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. The political, economic and social transformation of Italy encouraged people to adopt a new world view, that fundamentally transformed Italy. Specific aspects in Italian society promoted the new values such as individualism. These social factors included ‘new rulers’, social mobility, trade and a society that was not bound by traditional values. Above all the increasing secularism of the times allowed people in Renaissance to conceive of a new way of living and even a new world.
The renaissance was an effort to imitate the lost world of ancient Greece and Rome. The Italian, artists, writers and thinkers who all participated in the Renaissance, sought to create works that were the equal of the ancients, whom they regarded as the pinnacle of civilization. The Renaissance unlike the Middle Ages, stressed the individual, reason, beauty, and secular values. This outlook became known as Humanism and has had a profound impact on European society. The Renaissance not only produced great works of art but also resulted in dramatic change in the views of Europeans and a decisive move away from the world of the Middle Ages. The origins of the Renaissance were in Italy and they were a result of the unique society and its recent history.[1]
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Categories: Renaissance History
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