Art, Inventions, and Explorations
(This is the fourth installment of a five part series)
(This is the fourth installment of a five part series)
- Part I An Introduction and Overview of the Renaissance
- Part II Political and Social Changes
- Part III Literature
- Part IV Art, Inventions & Explorations
- Part V Conclusion
Art
It
has been said that if a work of art dwells upon beauty, it will inspire
the viewer to make that beauty a part of his life and their outlook on
the world. In this sense the art of the Renaissance Age gave men a
reason to reflect upon their place in the world more then their
relationship with God. This new style allowed some men, known as the
secular humanists, to see themselves as being separate and autonomous
from God. Francis Schaeffer, in his book ''Escape from Reason'',
describes this as man dwelling more and more on the nature of his
reality and less on the spirituality of his soul. Then you had the
religious humanist who would be influenced by seeing the true beauty of
what God created. Michelangelo, said "I am only the tool God uses to release the beauty he has encased in the marble."
These religious humanists felt like they were part of God's world not
just a spectator that was in the way of the Churches ambitions.
Contributions
to the arts were closely related to the broad transformations that were
taking place in society. With funding supplied by wealthy men such as
the Medici family, artists were able to experiment with innovative new
ideas. These artists learned how to use linear perspectives
in their paintings, while representing objects in relative sizes so
that smaller objects appeared to be farther away than larger objects.
Art began resembling the philosophy that the created was more important
then the creator. They used the light and shadows that God created to
make objects on the canvass look full and real. Schaffer described this
as nature eating up grace, that's why human figures were depicted so
realistically.
Nicholas V
(reigned 1447-55) was the first pope to be influenced by the style of
the Renaissance. Nicholas would begin the transformation of Rome from a
city of ruins and desertion to a capital adorned with works of art and
architectural construction. All this transformation would cost money,
and the sudden wealth of the bankers, merchants, and other members of
the new influential middle class made for a prime source. While the
Renaissance man appreciated the finer aspects of the arts, he would
eventually get fed up with the papal's constant demand for the
indulgences needed to finance these enterprises. Painting a picture of
doom and gloom, John Tetzel traveled around Germany fleecing the
citizens out of more money to pay for this expensive taste. In a scene
reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen's fable of "The Emperors New Clothes", a monk would open the people's eyes to the churches nakedness, and the truth would set them free.
Inventions and Explorations
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and I believe that the Plague is indirectly responsible for the sudden boom of inventions and technological advancements. With the shortfall of workers and the resulting financial loss of many aristocrats, men were finding new ways to accomplish tasks, while pulling themselves up by the bootstraps at the same time. As a result, the Renaissance Age saw a radical change in the rate of inventions throughout Western Europe. This led to innovative ways of managing production that helped spur new economic growth. In less than a century there were more inventions developed and applied usefully than in the previous thousand years of human history. Along with major technological advances, there were many new inventions including the printing press, the quadrant, spectacles, and improved clocks. One of those innovations came in the way ships were designed and built, paving the way for the Age of Exploration.
While
most geographical discoveries were made after the Reformation was well
underway, it is worth pointing out the two events that would change
Europe's outlook on trade and exploration and both of these events were
indirectly influenced by wars. One was during the second (1294-99) of
the four Genoese-Venetian Wars, and the other was the Crusades.
In the 1298 battle between the city-states ,
Venice and Genoa, a man named Marco Polo was captured by the Genoese
and imprisoned. While in prison, Polo dictated the story of his travels
along the Silk Road to Mongolia and China to a writer who was also a prisoner of the war. After his release from prison, the book, "The Travels of Marco Polo"
would excite the imaginations of many about trade with China and the
Far East. The other was probably the only positive thing that came out
of the Crusades, trade with the Middle Eastern Cultures. This trade
would make some Italian cities very wealthy while sparking a desire by
wealthy Kings and even the Pope himself to share in this new found
wealth.
Trade
with the Middle East, along with Polo's accounts of China and the Far
East, led to the search for new routes of exploration to the east.
While men like Columbus, Vasco da Gama and others would eventually defy
the odds and set out in search for a quicker rout to China and India,
they would not accomplish their task until knowledge for ocean sailing
came into existence at the height of the Renaissance. That knowledge
would be discovered by the third child of King John I of Portugal, Dom
Henrique, also known as Henry the Navigator.
Prince
Henry never sailed on an ocean voyage but he helped make it possible to
circumnavigate the continent of Africa so a new water route to India
could be found. Henry was a visionary who owned a globe when many still
believed the Greek philosophy that
the world was flat. Henry would establish a school for navigators at
his court in Sagres, a town in South Western Portugal. Portuguese
pilots were instructed by skilled sailors and trained to navigate by
mapmakers, while ships were constructed using new technologies
preparing them for long ocean trips. It was these Portuguese trained
navigators who laid the course that Vasco da Gama
would use to circumnavigate Africa in 1497-98 on his way to India.
Eventually, Portuguese ships would sail all the way to Japan setting up
Jesuit missions in almost every trading post along the way to
proselytize the inhabitants with Catholicism.
By 1431 Portuguese sailors would lay claim to the Azores for Portugal. It would be just west of the Azores that in 1493-1494, Pope Alexander VI would draw the ''Line of Demarcation''
from the North Pole to the South Pole and give everything west of the
line to Spain and everything east to Portugal. With the Americas being
discovered in 1492 by Spain, the two most ardent Roman Catholic
kingdoms would be sharing the doctrine of the Roman Church throughout
the New World. The Reformation was in full revolution form in Europe
but due to the advancements in exploration by Spain and Portugal, Roman
Catholicism enjoyed its most rapid expansion ever.
About Me: I am a born again Christian who enjoys talking religion and politics. I have always believed that it is the Christian's obligation to understand the workings of our government as well as they do the precepts of God. Jesus tells us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves". (Mark 10:16) So it is with this understanding that I approach life. I was born in the Midwest, and while I may have grown up in Northern Minnesota, I have earned my degree in knowledge and understanding from the many regions of America and Europe that I have either lived in or visited as an adult.
Leave a comment