Western Europe Renaissance Western Europe Renaissance Presentation created by Robert Martinez Primary Content Source: Prentice Hall World History Images as cited. shake-speares-bible.com en.wikipedia.org

The northern Renaissance began in the prosperous cities of Flanders, a region that included parts of present-day northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Spain, France, Germany, and England enjoyed their great cultural rebirth 100 years later, in the 1500s.

Albrecht Durer traveled from Germany to Italy in 1494 to study the techniques of the Italian masters. Returning home, he employed these methods in paintings and, especially, in engravings.

In this form of art, an artist etches a design on a metal plate with acid. The artist then uses the plate to make prints. Many of Durer’s engravings portray the religious upheaval of his age.

Through his art, as well as through his essays, Durer helped to spread Italian Renaissance ideas in his homeland. Because of his wide- ranging interests, which extended far beyond art, he is sometimes called the “German Leonardo.”

Among the many artists of Flanders in the 1400s, Jan and Hubert van Eyck stand out. Their portrayals of townspeople as well as religious scenes abound in rich, realistic details.

The van Eyck's also developed oil paint. Northern artists used this new medium to produce strong colors and a hard surface that could survive for centuries.

In the 1500s, Peter Paul Rubens blended the realistic tradition of Flemish painters like Bruegel with the classical themes and artistic freedom of the Italian Renaissance. Many of the enormous paintings portray pagan figures from the classical past. commons.wikimedia.org

Like Italian humanists, northern European humanist scholars stressed education and classical learning. At the same time, they emphasized religious themes. They believed that the revival of ancient learning should be used to bring about religious and moral reform.

The Dutch priest and humanist Desiderius Erasmus used his knowledge of classical languages to produce a new Greek edition of the New Testament. He called for a translation of the Bible into the vernacular, or everyday language of ordinary people. en.wikipedia.org

Erasmus scorned, “those who are unwilling that Holy Scripture, translated into the vernacular, be read by the uneducated … as if the strength of the Christian religion consisted in the ignorance of it.” fr.wikipedia.org

To Erasmus, an individual’s chief duties were to be open-minded and of good will toward others. As a priest, he was disturbed by corruption in the Church and called for reform. In The Praise of Folly, Erasmus uses humor to expose the ignorant and immoral behavior of many people of his day, including the clergy. yalepress.yale.edu

Erasmus’s friend, the English humanist Thomas More, pressed for social reform. In Utopia, More describes an ideal society in which men and women live in peace and harmony. No one is idle, all are educated, and justice is used to end crime rather than to eliminate the criminal. socialhistory.org schoolworkhelper.net

Scholars like More and Erasmus wrote mostly in Latin. In northern towns and cities, the growing middle class demanded new works in the vernacular. This audience particularly enjoyed dramatic tales and earthly comedies. education14.blogspot.com

The French humanist Francois Rabelais had a varied career as a monk, physician, Greek scholar, and author. In Gargantua and Pantagruel, he chronicles the adventures of two gentle giants. On the surface, the novel is a comic tale of travel and war. But Rabelais uses his characters to offer opinions on religion, education, and other serious subjects.

The towering figure of Renaissance literature was the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. Between 1590 and 1613, he wrote 37 plays that are still performed around the world.

Shakespeare’s comedies, such as Twelfth Night, laugh at the follies of young people in love. His history plays, such as Richard III, depict the power struggles of English kings. His tragedies show people crushed by powerful forces or their own weaknesses. In Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers fall victim to an old family feud. treasuredpasts.hubpages.com

Shakespeare’s love of words vastly enriched the English language. More than 1,700 words appeared for the first time in his works, including bedroom, lonely, generous, gloomy, heartsick, hurry, and sneak. jessicamozao.blogspot.com

The Renaissance in Spain in the early 1600s led to the production of great works. Best known is Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, an entertaining tale that mocks romantic notions of medieval chivalry. The novel follows the adventures of Don Quixote, a foolish but idealistic knight, and Sancho Panza, his faithful servant. mamolmar.wikispaces.com

In 1456, Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, printed the first complete edition of the Bible using the first printing press, and printing inks in the West. Within twenty years, the development of movable type made book production even easier.

A printing revolution had begun that would transform Europe. By 1500, more than 20 million volumes had been printed.

Guttenberg and his successors built on earlier advances. Methods of making paper had reached Europe from China about The Chinese and Koreans had been using movable metal type for centuries, although Europeans may have developed their technology independently. people.cohums.ohio-state.ed...