User:PhiLiP/文艺复兴

  此页面介紹的是发生于14世纪至17世纪的欧洲文艺复兴运动。关于欧洲早期的文艺复兴运动，请见「12世纪的文艺复兴」。关于其他用法，请见「文艺复兴 (消歧义)」。

米开朗琪罗的《大卫像》（现藏于佛罗伦萨学院美术馆），文艺复兴艺术成就的代表作

文艺复兴（義大利語：Rinascimento，由ri-“重新”和nascere“出生”构成）是一场发生在14世纪至17世纪的文化运动，在中世纪晚期发源于佛罗伦萨，后扩展至欧洲各国。“文艺复兴”一词亦可粗略地指代这一历史时期，但由于欧洲各地因其引发的变化并非完全一致，故“文艺复兴”只是对这一时期的通称。这场文化运动囊括了对古典文献的重新学习，在绘画方面直线透视法的发展，以及逐步而广泛开展的教育变革。传统观点认为，这种知识上的转变让文艺复兴发挥了衔接中世纪和现代的作用。尽管文艺复兴在知识、社会和政治各个方面都引发了革命，但令其闻名于世的或许还在于这一时期的艺术成就，以及列奥纳多·达芬奇、米开朗琪罗等博学家做出的贡献。

一般认为，文艺复兴始于14世纪托斯卡纳的佛罗伦萨，但对此尚有质疑之声。就这场运动的起源和特点而言，多种理论已经提出了各自的见解，但其关注的焦点不尽相同：其中包括有当时佛罗伦萨的社会和公民的特点；当地的政治结构；当地统治阶级美第奇家族的赞助；以及奥斯曼土耳其人攻陷君士坦丁堡后，大批流入意大利的希腊语学者及书籍。

史学上关于文艺复兴的内容很多且颇为复杂，而“文艺复兴”作为词汇的作用，及其作为历史过渡期的意义，都引发了史学家的诸多争论。文艺复兴能否被称作是中世纪后的文化“进步”，一些史学家对此是持怀疑态度的：他们认为，这个阶段只是对古典时代抱持悲观与缅怀的时期。而另一些人则关注两个时代之间的连续性。实际上，现在已有人提出不应继续使用这个词汇，因为他们认为“文艺复兴”一词只是现代主义的产物，是使用历史来验证和发扬当代理想的工具。“文艺复兴”一词也被用于其他历史或文化运动，卡洛林文艺复兴和12世纪的文艺复兴就是这样的例子。

概述

从达芬奇的画作《维特鲁威人》中可以看出古典时代作家对文艺复兴时期思想家的影响。根据约1500年前维特鲁威在《建筑十书》中的描述，达芬奇努力绘出了完美比例的人体。

文艺复兴这场文化运动对近代欧洲的学术生活造成了深刻的影响。它从意大利兴起，在16世纪时已扩大至欧洲各国，其影响遍及文学、哲学、艺术、政治、科学、宗教等知识探索的各个方面。文艺复兴时期的学者在学术研究中使用人文主义的方法，并在艺术创作中追寻现实主义和人类的情感。

在欧洲的修道院图书馆中和没落的拜占庭帝国里，文艺复兴时期的思想家们搜集到了古典时代的文学、历史和演说文献。这些文献大多使用拉丁语或古希腊语写成，多数内容晦涩难懂。文艺复兴时期的学者同12世纪文艺复兴时期的中世纪学者最显著的差别在于，前者将文学和历史等文化方面的文献作为新的研究重点，而后者只专注于自然科学、物理学和数学的希腊语和阿拉伯语典籍。文艺复兴时期的人文学者并不反对基督教；恰恰相反，这一时期众多的伟大作品都是为宗教而作，而且许多艺术作品得到了教会的赞助。然而，从文化生活的其他领域可以看出，学者们对待宗教的方式还是发生了微妙的转变。此外，包括希腊语《新约》在内的大量希腊语基督教著作从拜占庭流入了西欧，这是自古典时代末期后，西方学者首次接触到如此具有吸引力的内容。这些希腊语的基督教作品，特别是由洛伦佐·瓦拉和伊拉斯谟整理完善的希腊语原文《新约》，为后来的宗教改革创造了条件。

马萨乔等艺术家们为了更自然地表现透视和明暗关系，都在改善自己的技法，努力做到能真实地描摹人体形态。以尼可罗·马基亚维利为首的政治哲学家们理性地分析政治生活，设法让叙述符合事实。米兰多拉的著名作品《论人的尊严》（De hominis dignitate，1486年）为意大利文艺复兴的人文主义作出了巨大贡献；文中论述了哲学、自然思想、宗教信仰和巫术这一系列的话题，并以理性为依据，有力地回击了反对者。为了更好地学习古拉丁语和希腊语，文艺复兴时期的作家们开始更多地使用这些地方语言写作；而印刷术的推广亦使得更多的人能够接触到各种书籍，特别是圣经。

总而言之，文艺复兴可被视为学者们研究和改善俗世的一次尝试，他们通过复兴古典时代思想和创新思考方式来推动变革。罗德尼·斯塔克（Rodney Stark）等学者认为中世纪盛期发生在意大利城邦的改革的意义并不亚于文艺复兴运动，前者产生了回应型政府、基督教和资本主义萌芽的结合体。这种分析认为，鉴于欧洲大国（法国和西班牙）受君主专制统治，而其他国家则受教会的直接控制；因而只有意大利的独立城市共和国才能从僧院等级承袭资本主义的原则，进而引发了一场规模空前的商业革命，并为随后发生的文艺复兴运动打下了经济基础。

起源

主条目：意大利文艺复兴

绝大部分历史学家相信，对文艺复兴这一概念的阐述源于13世纪晚期的佛罗伦萨，特别是在但丁（1265年－1321年）、彼特拉克（1304年－1374年）的著作以及乔托（1267年－1337年）的绘作诞生的时代。有的学者非常明确地给出了文艺复兴开始的时间，其中一位提出，应以1401年洛伦佐·吉贝尔蒂和菲利波·布鲁内莱斯基这两位天才雕塑家竞争佛罗伦萨圣母百花大教堂洗礼堂铜门的合约为标志。而其他学者则认为，是艺术家和博学家（包括布鲁内莱斯基、吉贝尔蒂、多那太罗和马萨乔等人）为获得艺术品创作委托的普遍竞争，激发了文艺复兴时期的创造力。但是，对于文艺复兴兴起于意大利、发生于当时的原因，学界至今仍有着诸多争议；相应地，也有多种理论用于解释文艺复兴的起源问题。

西塞罗，古罗马著名的文学家、演说家和政治家。

文艺复兴人文主义的拉丁语和希腊语时期

更多信息：文艺复兴时期的希腊语学者

中世纪盛期的拉丁语学者全身心地研究自然科学、哲学、数学的希腊语和阿拉伯文著作，与之形成鲜明对比的是文艺复兴时期的学者，他们对重寻和研究拉丁语及希腊语的文学、历史与演讲资料更感兴趣。概括而言，这一时期开始于14世纪，与拉丁语时期同步。彼特拉克、萨卢塔蒂（1331年－1406年）、尼科利（1364年－1437年）及波焦·布拉乔利尼（1380年－1459年）等文艺复兴学者，为了搜寻诸如西塞罗、李维和塞内卡等希腊语作家的著作而找遍了欧洲的各大图书馆。截至15世纪早期，已有大部分这样的拉丁语文学作品被找到；而当西欧学者开始寻找古希腊的文学、历史、演讲及神学资料时，文艺复兴人文主义的希腊语时期也随之开始。

德美特里·卡尔孔狄利斯（1421年－1511年），文艺复兴时期希腊语和柏拉图哲学教师，在意大利帕多瓦、佩鲁贾、米兰及佛罗伦萨教授四十余年。

在西欧，从古典时代后期就有对拉丁语文献的保存和研究，但对古希腊语文献的研究却在整个中世纪都极为有限。西欧和伊斯兰世界分别从其中世纪盛期和中世纪开始，都对古希腊语的科学、数学和哲学著作有所研究；但无论是在拉丁语地区还是伊斯兰世界，对希腊语文学、演讲及历史作品（如荷马、修昔底德以及其他古希腊的剧作家、雄辩家等）的研究都未曾有过：在中世纪，只有拜占庭的学者才研究过这些著作。文艺复兴时期学者的一大成就，就是自古典时代后期以来，第一次将希腊语文化作品从整体上引入了西欧。该运动让希腊语的文学、历史、演讲和神学资料重新进入了西欧学校的课程中：这通常会以萨卢塔蒂邀请拜占庭外交官和学者赫里索洛拉斯（约1355年－1415年）到佛罗伦萨讲授希腊语为标志，后者的希腊语造诣对此发挥了关键的作用。另一位重要的希腊语拜占庭学者是德美特里·卡尔孔狄利斯（1421年－1511年），他在意大利的帕多瓦、佩鲁贾、米兰和佛罗伦萨讲授了四十余年的希腊语和柏拉图哲学。他的学生有：约翰·罗伊希林、亚努斯·拉斯卡里斯、波利齐亚诺、利奥十世、巴尔达萨雷·卡斯蒂廖内、吉利奥·格雷戈里奥·吉拉尔迪、斯特凡诺·内格里（Stefano Negri）及乔瓦尼·马里亚·卡塔内奥（Giovanni Maria Cattaneo）。

1453年，随着拜占庭帝国的彻底瓦解，奥斯曼土耳其关闭了它的高等学府。大批希腊语学者因而被迫流亡意大利乃至更远之处，同时也将他们的希腊语手稿和古希腊语文学造诣带到了西欧：其中的一部分已在西方佚失了数百年之久。

意大利的社会与政治结构

一张1494年左右意大利半岛的政治地图

基于中世纪后期意大利的独特政治结构，部分学者推理说：当地与众不同的社会氛围为意大利出现罕见的文化繁荣提供了必要条件。在近代，意大利并非一个统一的政治实体，而是由一些城邦和领地组成：控制着南部的拿波里王国，位于中部的佛罗伦萨共和国和教皇国，分别位于北部和西部的热那亚与米兰，以及位于东部的威尼斯。15世纪的意大利是欧洲城市化水平最高的地区。许多意大利城市就建立在古罗马建筑的废墟之上；从表面上看，这就将文艺复兴的古典性及其发祥于罗马帝国心脏地带的事实联系在了一起。

历史学与政治哲学家昆廷·斯金纳指出，弗赖辛主教奥托（1114年－1158年）在12世纪来到意大利时，曾注意到这里出现了一种新的政治和社会组织形态，并观察到意大利似乎已开始脱离封建制度，将商人和商业作为其社会基础。与此相关的，是壁画《好政府与坏政府的讽喻》（Allegory of Good and Bad Government）所表达出的反君主制思想；这幅著名的早期文艺复兴壁画位于锡耶纳，由安布罗焦·洛伦采蒂绘于1338年至1340年；他通过这幅画传达出了对公平、公正、共和与善治的强烈渴盼。尽管受到教廷与神圣罗马帝国的牵制，但这些城市共和国依旧不懈地追求着自由的理念。斯金纳指出当地有很多人都在极力维护自由，例如馬泰奧·帕爾米耶里（1406年－1475年）不仅歌颂了佛罗伦萨艺术、雕塑及建筑方面的天才艺术家，还对“同时在佛罗伦萨出现的道德、社会及政治哲学的繁荣”发出了赞美之辞。

即使是意大利中心以外的城市与城邦，亦因其商人共和国的政体而备受关注，譬如当时的佛罗伦萨共和国；而其中最为出色的当属威尼斯共和国。尽管这些政体在实际上仍是寡头政治，与现代的民主也鲜有类似之处；但他们确实具备了民主的特征，其响应型政府亦已具备了参与治理的形式及对自由的信念。这些城邦提供的相对政治自由，有利于学术和艺术的进步。同样的，威尼斯等位于重要贸易中心的意大利城市，也成为了智慧交汇的枢纽。世界各地的——尤其是累范特地区的——商人带着各自的观点来到这里。出产优质玻璃的威尼斯，在这时成为了欧洲与东方的贸易门户；而佛罗伦萨则成为了纺织业的中心。商业活动为意大利带来的巨大财富，让艺术家得以创作大型的公共及私人艺术作品，同时也让个人拥有了更多的闲暇时间用来学习。

黑死病

有种理论提出，1348至1350年间的黑死病给欧洲带来了沉重的打击，其中以意大利、特别是佛罗伦萨的疫情尤其具有毁灭性，这导致14世纪意大利人的世界观发生了变化。这种理论推测，直面死亡的体验，让意大利的思想家们开始将其关注的对象从灵性和来世转向现世。同时，这种理论还指出，黑死病引发了对宗教的新一轮虔诚，使人们开始大量地资助宗教题材作品的创作。然而，该理论并不能充分地解释文艺复兴发生在14世纪意大利的原因，因为黑死病的大流行也对整个欧洲造成了同样的影响。因此，文艺复兴首先出现在意大利，极有可能是上述多种因素共同作用的结果。

黑死病带来的劫难令人口锐减，进而导致劳动力严重缺乏。在欧洲，这种趋势让工人特别是熟练工人掌握了更多的话语权。与此同时，工人和商人们从统治者手里接掌了权力，这在一些较小的国家中尤为明显（譬如当时分裂中的意大利）。因此，撇开黑死病所带来的精神和心理影响不谈，这场瘟疫的经济影响乃至随后的政治影响，可能为文艺复兴的出现做了铺垫。

佛罗伦萨的文化环境

洛伦佐·德美第奇，佛罗伦萨统治者及艺术资助人

It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life which may have caused such a cultural movement. Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici, a banking family and later ducal housefamily, in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Lorenzo de' Medici (1449 – 1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage, encouraging his countryman to commission works from Florence's leading artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.

文艺复兴为什么发端于佛罗伦萨而不是意大利的其他地方，这是一个长期以来争论颇多的问题。一些学者注意到佛罗伦萨的文化生活具备一些独有的特点，也许这些就是引发这场文化运动的原因。佛罗伦萨的梅第奇家族起初从事银行业，后来得到了公爵头衔。这一家族曾长期赞助并激励艺术事业，在这场文化运动中扮演了举足轻重的角色。洛伦佐·德·梅第奇（1449-1492）推动了大量对艺术的赞助，并鼓励国民向佛罗伦萨的顶尖艺术家订购作品，这其中就包括达芬奇、波提切利和米开朗基罗。【5】

The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo came to power; indeed, before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Some historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e. because "Great Men" were born there by chance. Da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the time.

毫无疑问，文艺复兴运动在洛伦佐掌权之前就已经在开展了。实际上，这场运动开始的时间早在梅第奇家族主宰佛罗伦萨社会之前。有历史学家猜测，佛罗伦萨之所以成为文艺复兴的发源地完全是出于运气，即，仅仅是因为那些“伟人”恰好都出生在那里【40】——达芬奇、波提切利和米开朗基罗都是托斯卡纳人。其他历史学家则认为运气的说法很难成立，他们断言当时只有佛罗伦萨的文化环境能使那些“伟人”脱颖而出。

特征

人文主义

主条目：文艺复兴时期的人文主义

In some ways Humanism was not a philosophy per se, but rather a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, humanists would study ancient texts in the original, and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based on the programme of 'Studia Humanitatis', that being the study of five humanities: poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy and rhetoric. Although historians have sometimes struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome". Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind." 在某些方面人文主义本身不能算作是一种哲学体系，而更像是一种学习方法。对比中世纪的学术模式，人文主义者并不把焦点放在分析对比不同作家间的矛盾冲突，他们转而去研究古典文学的起源，通过将推理和经验证据相综合的方式对作家作品进行评价。人文主义教育建立在“人文研究”课程之上，对包括诗歌、文法、历史、伦理和修辞在内的五门学科进行研究。尽管历史学家有时也对人文主义的准确定义莫衷一是，但大多数人给出的答案是“人们能够普遍接受这样的定义……这是一场恢复、诠释并消化吸收语言、文学、学识和古希腊、古罗马价值观的运动。”【42】更为重要的是， “人的禀赋，人类所独有的超凡思维能力”是人文主义者坚信不疑的。【43】

Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More(1478 – 1535) revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers, and applied them in critiques of contemporary government. Machiavelli's contribution, in the view of Isaiah Berlin, was a decisive break in western political thought allocating a unique reasoning to politics and faith and perhaps making him the father of the social sciences. Pico della Mirandola who lived to only twenty-three years wrote what is often considered the manifesto of the Renaissance, a vibrant defence of thinking, the Oration on the Dignity of Man. Matteo Palmieri (1406-1475), another humanist, is most known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life"; printed 1528) which advocated civic humanism, and his influence in refining the Tuscan vernacular to the same level as Latin. Palmieri's written works drawn on Roman philosophers and theorists, especially Cicero, who, like Palmieri, lived an active public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also Quintilian. Strongly committed to a deep and broad education Palmieri believed this would dispose people to public engagement and enhance the human capacity to do good deeds and contribute to the community. Although holding public office between 1432 and 1475 he is best remembered for these writings extolling the ideal of humanism as combination of learning with civic or political action. Possibly the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a 1465 poetic work La città di vita, but an earlier work Della vita civile (On Civic Life) is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues concern how children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest. 人文主义学者构建起的思想蓝图贯穿了整个近代史。包括马基雅维利和托马斯•摩尔（1478-1535）在内的政治哲学家重新激活了古希腊罗马思想家的观点，并将其应用于评论当时的政府。从以赛亚•伯林的观点来看，马基雅维利的贡献在于他打破了将某一特定理由赋予政治与信仰的西方政治观念，他也许因此成为了社会科学的始祖。米兰多拉在他23岁时完成了通常被认为是文艺复兴宣言的《演讲之高贵的人》一文，是对当时思想有力的辩驳。马特奥•佩梅力（1406-1475）也是一位人文主义者，他以《论市民生活》（印刷于1528年）一书最富盛名。书中所倡导的城市人文主义，以及他对托斯卡纳地区方言的净化所产生的影响使其提高到了和拉丁语同等的地位。佩梅力的作品以古罗马时期的哲学家和理论家为依据，尤其是西塞罗，他和佩梅力一样一边担任公职一边过着积极的市民生活，但又身兼哲学家和理论家，同样也包括昆体良。佩梅力致力于扩展教育的深度和广度，他相信这将会帮助人们更多的参与公共活动，做更多有益的事，并为社会做出贡献。虽然在1432-1475这十几年里佩梅力在政府担任公职，但人们记住更多的还是他那些赞颂人性理想的作品，其中综合了对市民行为以及政治行为的研究。也许最能表现佩梅力人文主义观念的简明话语出现在他1465年的诗作《动感之都》当中，但更早的《论市民生活》一书的影响范围则更广。该书中，作者将场景设置在了1430黑死病瘟疫期间一个位于佛罗伦萨市之外名为穆杰罗的乡村，在这里以对话的方式探讨了一系列典型好市民应具备的品质。对话涉及儿童心智和体质教育，市民道德行为规范，以及市民和政府如何在公共生活上保持正直廉洁等等，书中还就实用和诚实的概念进行了重要的议论。

艺术

主条目：意大利文艺复兴美术、文艺复兴美术和文艺复兴建筑

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

米开朗基罗的创造亚当

One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique. The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the arts. To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method, was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated by other artists. Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others. 文艺复兴的明显特征之一就是高度写实的直线透视法的发展。（乔托•迪•邦多纳）(1267至1337)被认为是第一个将绘画看作表达空间的窗口的人，但是，直到有了菲利波•布鲁内列斯基(1377至1446)的示范和利昂纳•巴蒂斯塔•阿尔贝蒂）(1404至1472)随后的作品，透视法才作为一种艺术技巧正式确定其地位。透视法的发展构成了更大艺术[45]趋势下写实主义发展的一部分。因此，画家还要发展别的技巧，并研究光和影以及人体解剖学（最有名的例子是莱奥纳多•达•芬奇）。引起艺术方法的这些变化的根本原因是人们再次渴望描绘自然之美，弄清楚美学原理，莱奥纳多•米开朗基罗和拉斐尔的作品说明了这些原因，代表了艺术的顶点，他们的作品被众多其他的艺术家[46]所模仿。在其他值得注意的艺术家包括为佛罗伦萨的梅迪契家族工作的桑德罗•波提切利，佛罗伦萨人多纳泰罗和威尼斯的提香。

Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed, the work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck having particular influence on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. (For more, see Renaissance in the Netherlands). Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of everyday life. 同时，在荷兰发展形成了一种极充满活力的艺术文化，代表是雨果•梵•德尔和扬•凡•爱克的作品，他们对意大利绘画的发展有特别的影响，在技巧上都引入了油画颜料和油画布，在风格上都表现自然主义。（更多内容参见荷兰的文艺复兴部分）。之后的布勒哲尔的作品则激励艺术家去表现日常生活的主题。

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa,The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are examples of renaissance art

In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, formulated the Renaissance style which emulated and improved on classical forms. Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral. The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in Mantua. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.

Monalisa by Vinci is the master piece of renaissance and world art

在建筑方面，菲利波•布鲁内莱斯基在研究古代古典建筑遗迹方面表现最杰出，他从一世纪的作家维特鲁威和蓬勃发展的数学学科中重新发现知识，阐述了文艺复兴风格，这个风格模仿并改善了古典形式。布鲁内莱斯基在工程方面的主要功绩就是建造了佛罗伦萨大教堂。[48]第一座表现该风格的建筑物据说是曼图亚的阿尔贝蒂建造的圣安德鲁教堂。文艺复兴高潮期最杰出的建筑作品成果是圣彼得教堂的重建，它融合了布拉曼特、米开朗基罗、拉斐尔、桑迦洛和马代尔诺的技巧。

The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Filippo Brunelleschi.

使用了罗马柱型：托斯卡那型、多利安式、爱奥尼亚式、科林斯式和混合式。这些柱型或者在结构上支撑一个拱廊或框缘，或单纯用于装饰，以壁柱形式靠在墙上。在文艺复兴时期，建筑师将圆柱、壁柱和柱上楣构作为完整的体系来使用。最早将壁柱作为完整体系来使用的建筑物之一是菲利波•布鲁内莱斯基[49]建的旧圣器室(1421–1440)。

Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular.

在拱廊中经常使用拱形、半圆或（风格主义中）弓形结构，这样的拱廊支撑在扶垛或带顶的圆柱之上。在柱顶和拱形的起拱点之间可能存在柱上楣构的部分。阿尔贝蒂是最早在纪念碑中使用拱形的建筑师之一。文艺复兴时期的拱顶没有拱肋。他们是半圆或弓形的，位于一个方形平面中，不同于通常为矩形的哥特式拱顶。

科学

主条目：文艺复兴科学史和文艺复兴技术

The upheavals occurring in the arts and humanities were mirrored by a dynamic period of change in the sciences. Some have seen this flurry of activity as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age. Others have seen it merely as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day. Regardless, there is general agreement that the Renaissance saw significant changes in the way the universe was viewed and the methods with which philosophers sought to explain natural phenomena.

在艺术和人文领域发生剧变的同时，文艺复兴时期的科学领域也经历着相当活跃的变化。有的人认为，这样急速的变革是一次“科学的革命”，预示着近代的开始。另一些人则认为，这仅仅是古代科学延续下来的某些过程在加速发展。不论如何，大多数人都承认，文艺复兴时期的人看待宇宙的方式发生了很大的变化，哲学家们用以解释某些自然现象的方法也因此发生改变。

Galileo Galilei. Portrait in crayon by Leoni

伽利略 伽利雷的蜡笔画像 作者雷奥尼

Science and art were very much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. An exhaustive 2007 study by Fritjof Capra shows that Leonardo was a much greater scientist than previously thought, and not just an inventor. In science theory and in conducting actual science practice, Leonardo was innovative. He set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics; he devised principles of research method that for Capra classify him as “father of modern science”. In Capra's detailed assessment of many surviving manuscripts Leonardo's science is more in tune with holistic non-mechanistic and non-reductive approaches to science which are becoming popular today. Perhaps the most significant development of the era was not a specific discovery, but rather a process for discovery, the scientific method. This revolutionary new way of learning about the world focused on empirical evidence, the importance of mathematics, and discarding the Aristotelian "final cause" in favor of a mechanical philosophy. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus and Galileo. In his 1991 survey of these developments, Charles Van Doren considers that the Copernican revolution really is the Galilean cartesian (René Descartes) revolution, on account of the nature of the courage and depth of change their work brought about.

科学与艺术在文艺复兴初期密不可分。画家雷奥纳多达芬奇就曾经画过解剖学和自然方面的观察图。2007年福特耶夫卡普拉的研究充分表明，达芬奇不仅仅是一位发明家，他实际上还是一位比过去认为的出色得多的科学家。在科学理论和实际科学试验方面，达芬奇都很有创造力。 他对水的流动、医学解剖进行了可控的实验，并且系统地研究了物体运动和空气动力学。他还提出了科学研究的几项基本原则，卡普拉因此把他称作“近代科学之父”。根据卡普拉对现存的数张手稿的分析，达芬奇的科学研究其实更加贴近于整体性的非机制和非推导的方式，这种方式在今天日益流行起来。也许那个时代最重要的进步不是某个特定的科学发现，而是整个发现的过程，也就是研究方法的变革。新的认识世界的方法注重经验上的证据以及数学的重要性。它抛弃了亚里士多德的“目的因”学说，转而支持机械理论。哥白尼和伽利略都是早期支持这些观点并具影响力的学者。在查尔斯范德伦1991年对这些进步所作的调查中发现，从他们的改革所带来的鼓舞和改革的深度上来看，哥白尼式的改革实际上是伽利略笛卡尔式改革。

The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy. With the publication of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica, a new confidence was placed in the role of dissection, observation, and a mechanistic view of anatomy.

新的科学研究方法带来了天文、物理，生物和解剖学领域一系列的进步。维萨刘斯的《人体结构研究》这部著作的出版，为解剖、观测和机械理论的解剖学带来了新的希望。

宗教

主条目：宗教改革和反宗教改革

The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. Indeed, much (if not most) of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church. However, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God. Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.

尽管在某些方面有些世俗，人文主义的构想在基督教的背景之下还是成长起来，在欧洲北部地区尤甚。事实上，绝大多数新创作的艺术作品是受教堂的指派创作，或是献给教堂的。然而，文艺复兴却对当代神学，尤其是如何看待人与神之间的关系上，产生了深远的影响。许多那个年代的神学领袖都是人文学派的支持者，包括伊拉兹玛斯，茨温利，托马斯摩尔，马丁路德，以及约翰加尔文。

Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope infamous for his corruption

亚历山大四世，一位博基亚家族的教皇，以贪污受贿而闻名

The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages saw a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome. While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the 15th century saw a resulting reform movement know as Conciliarism, which sought to limit the pope's power. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four illegitimate children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more power.

文艺复兴在宗教混乱时期兴起。中世纪晚期，罗马教皇统治混乱，一度曾有三人同时声称自己才是真正的罗马主教教会分裂，西方教会分裂达到顶峰。1414年签署的康斯坦兹协议最终解决了教会分裂的问题。15世界，议会主义改革星期，旨在限制大主教的权力。尽管第五届拉特兰议会最终确定了罗马教皇在宗教事务中的最高地位，它随即持续指责教皇的贪污行为。其中最出名的亚历山大四世，被指控亵渎圣位，重用亲戚，并非法生了四个孩子，他还出嫁女儿，以获得更多的权力。

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist textual criticism of the New Testament. Indeed, it was Luther who in October 1517 published the 95 Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to its sale of indulgences. The 95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

传教士们赞成依据新约中对人文主义的评论条文对教堂进行改革，如伊拉兹玛斯和马丁路德。实际上，马丁路德于1517年10月发表的《95条论纲》才真正动摇了教皇的权威地位，批判了它显而易见的腐败，尤其是用金钱来免罪的行为。《95条论纲》引发了宗教革命，打破了罗马天主教堂早先在西欧范围内宣称的霸权地位。人文主义和文艺复兴因此成为宗教革命以及其他许多同一时期宗教辩论和冲突的导火索。

自我意识

By the 15th century, writers, artists and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations that were taking place and were using phrases like modi antichi (in the antique manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. The term la rinascita first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568). Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with Michelangelo. It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.

15世纪，意大利的作家，艺术家，建筑师们充分意识到正在发生的一些变革。那就是他们正在运用古老的方式或采用罗马人和先人们的习惯来创作自己的作品。 第一次出现了la rinascita的术语。然而，从广义上来说，乔治 瓦萨里在他的作品de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani（艺术家的生活，1550，1568修订）[57][58]，将这个时期分为三个阶段。 第一个阶段的代表人物包括：契马布埃，乔托和阿诺尔弗 迪 坎比奥；第二个阶段的代表人物包括马萨乔，布鲁内勒斯基和多纳泰罗；第三个阶段的代表人物以列奥那多 达 芬奇为焦点，米开朗基罗则将这一时期艺术作品推向高潮。 据瓦萨里记载，文艺复兴运动的发展，不仅仅是因为人们对传统文化艺术的意识日益俱增，而且还因为人们学习和模仿大自然的意愿不断增强。

传播

In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread with great speed from its birthplace in Florence, first to the rest of Italy, and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread, its ideas diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and national movements. 15世纪，文艺复兴运动从发源地佛罗伦萨迅速蔓延开来，首先传播到意大利其它地方，很快渗入到整个欧洲其它地区。印刷机的发明使得这些新思想迅速得以传播。在传播过程中，这些思想融合了地方文化，呈现出多样性。 20世纪，学者们开始撇开文艺复兴，提倡开展地方和民族文化运动。

北欧文艺复兴

主条目：北欧文艺复兴和荷兰文艺复兴

The Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan van Eyck, painted 1434

The Renaissance as it occurred in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern Renaissance".

匈牙利

The Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the Quattrocento to Hungary first in the Central European region, thanks to the development of early Hungarian-Italian relationships – not only in dynastic connections, but also in cultural, humanistic and commercial relations – growing in strength from the 1300s. Italian architectural influence became stronger in the reign of Zsigmond thanks to the church foundations of the Florentine Scolaries and the castle constructions of Pipo of Ozora. The relationship between Hungarian and Italian Gothic styles was a second reason – exaggerated breakthrough of walls is avoided, preferring clean and light structures. The new Italian trend combined with existing national traditions to create a particular local Renaissance art. Acceptance of Renaissance art was furthered by the continuous arrival of humanist thought in the country. Many young Hungarians studying at Italian universities came closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct connection with Florence evolved. The growing number of Italian traders moving to Hungary, specially to Buda, helped this process. New thoughts were carried by the humanist prelates, among them Vitéz János, archbishop of Esztergom, one of the founders of Hungarian humanism. After the marriage in 1476 of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary from 1458-1490) to Beatrice of Naples, Buda became one of the most important artistic centres of the Renaissance north of the Alps. The most important humanists living in Matthias' court were Antonio Bonfini and the famous Hungarian poet Janus Pannonius. Matthias Corvinus's library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collections of secular books: historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the fifteenth century. His library was second only in size to the Vatican Library. (However, the Vatican Library mainly contained Bibles and religious materials.) In 1489, Bartolomeo della Fonte of Florence wrote that Lorenzo de Medici founded his own Greek-Latin library encouraged by the example of the Hungarian king. Corvinus's library is part of UNESCO World Heritage. Other important figures of Hungarian Renaissance: Bálint Balassi (poet) , Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos (poet), Bálint Bakfark (composer and lutenist) 欧洲文艺复兴初期，由于早期匈-意关系的发展，如皇族间的交流，以及在文化，人文和商业之间的联系，文艺复兴时期的风格首先从意大利直接传播到位于中欧地区的匈牙利。其影响从13世纪开始逐渐发展壮大。 由于佛罗伦萨Scolaries教堂以及Pipo of Ozora.城堡的建立，意大利建筑风格在Zsigmond统治时期日益盛行起来。匈牙利和意大利哥特式建筑风格关系密切是第二个原因-避免使用夸张，突兀的墙壁，而喜欢采用清新，明亮的建筑结构。新的意大利风格融合了匈牙利现有的民族传统，创造出一种独特的，具有地方特色的文艺复兴艺术作品。伴随着整个国家人文思想的兴起，文艺复兴艺术受到进一步推崇。 许多在意大利大学求学的匈牙利年青人奔向佛罗伦萨人文中心，于是直接受到佛罗伦萨人文思想的影响。 越来越多的意大利商人来到匈牙利，特别是布达，促进了文艺复兴的加速传播。人文主义高级神职人员将新思想传播开来，其中包括埃斯泰尔戈姆大主教Vitéz János，他是匈牙利人文主义思想的创始人之一。1476年，匈牙利国王（1458-1490）马加什·科韦努斯与那不勒斯的比阿特丽斯联姻之后，布达成为阿尔卑斯山北部地区文艺复兴的重要艺术中心。马加什当政期间最重要的人文思想家包括安东尼奥· 本菲尼和著名的匈牙利诗人杰纳斯 ·潘纳尼尔斯。15世纪， 马加什·科韦努斯的图书馆，科韦努斯图书馆拥有欧洲最大的非宗教类藏书， 历史志，哲学和科学作品 他的图书馆规模仅次于梵蒂冈图书馆，（然而，梵蒂冈图书馆主要收藏圣经和宗教类书籍）1489年佛罗伦萨Bartolomeo della Fonte写道：受匈牙利国王的鼓舞，Lorenzo de Medici也建立了自己的希腊语-拉丁语图书馆。科韦努斯的图书馆成为联合国科教文组织世界文化遗产的一部分。匈牙利文艺复兴时期的其它重要人物还包括 Bálint Balassi (诗人) , Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos（诗人),Bálint Bakfark (作曲家和琵琶弹奏者)

波兰

主条目：波兰文艺复兴

Poznań City Hall rebuilt from the Gothic style by Giovanni Batista di Quadro (1550–1555)

乔瓦尼·巴蒂斯塔在1550—1555年按照哥特式风格重建波南兹市厅

An early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was Filip Callimachus. Many Italian artists came to Poland with Bona Sforza of Milan, when she married King Zygmunt I of Poland in 1518. This was supported by temporarily strengthened monarchies in both areas, as well as by newly-established universities. 在15世纪中期较早来到波兰的意大利人文主义者是菲利普·卡利马库斯。1518年，当米兰的博纳·斯福尔扎嫁给波兰国王齐格蒙德一世时，许多意大利艺术家都跟随她来到波兰。当时两地强化了的君主统治以及新建立的大学推动了此举。

德国

主条目：德国文艺复兴

In the second half of the 15th century, the spirit of the age spread to Germany and the Low Countries, where the development of the printing press (ca. 1450) and early Renaissance artists like the painters Jan van Eyck (1395-1441) and Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) and the composers Johannes Ockeghem (1410-1497), Jacob Obrecht (1457-1505) and Josquin des Prez (1455-1521), predated the influence from Italy. In the early Protestant areas of the country humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, and the art and writing of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute. However, the gothic style and medieval scholastic philosophy remained exclusively until the turn of the 16th century. Emperor Maximilian I (Ruling:1493-1519) was the first truly Renaissance monarch of the Holy Roman Empire. 15世纪后半叶，时代精神传播到德国和低地国家，在这些地方印刷机与文艺复兴早期艺术家，如画家扬·范·艾克，希罗尼穆斯·博斯，作曲家约翰内斯·奥克冈，若斯坎·德普雷，雅各布·奥布雷赫特的发展（不舒服，机器和人并列）早于来自意大利的影响。在该国新教地区，早期人们将人文主义与新教改革的骚乱紧密联系在一起，德国的艺术与写作经常反映这场争辩。然而，直到十六世纪之交，哥特式风格与中世纪经院哲学开始成为主导。皇帝马克西米连一世（1493-1519年在位）是第一个真正意义上的神圣罗马帝国文艺复兴时期的君王。

法国

主条目：法国文艺复兴

In 1495 the Italian Renaissance arrived in France, imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of Italy. A factor that promoted the spread of secularism was the Church's inability to offer assistance against the Black Death. Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, and built ornate palaces at great expense. Writers such as François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Michel de Montaigne, painters such as Jean Clouet and musicians such as Jean Mouton also borrowed from the spirit of the Italian Renaissance.

1495年，法国国王查理八世入侵意大利后，将意大利的文艺复兴引入了法国。教会面对黑死病疫情的束手无策也是促进世俗主义的传播的一大因素。弗朗索瓦一世给法国带来了意大利的艺术和达芬奇等艺术家，他还花重金建造了华丽的宫殿。法国作家拉伯雷、德龙沙、杜·贝莱和蒙田，画家让·克卢埃以及音乐家让·穆东等人都借鉴了意大利的文艺复兴精神。

In 1533, a fourteen-year old Caterina de' Medici, (1519–1589) born in Florence to Lorenzo II de' Medici and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude. Though she became famous and infamous for her role in France's religious wars, she made a direct contribution in bringing arts, sciences and music (including the origins of ballet) to the French court from her native Florence.

1533年，洛伦佐二世·德·梅第奇把他14岁的女儿卡特里娜·德·梅第奇嫁给了后来的法国国王亨利二世。虽然卡特里娜由于她在法国宗教战争中的角色而臭名昭著，她对于将艺术、科学、音乐（包括芭蕾的开端）从她的家乡佛罗伦萨引进法国宫廷却做出了直接的贡献。

英格兰

主条目：英格兰文艺复兴

What a piece of worke is a man! how Noble in Reason? how infinite in faculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension, how like a God? the beauty of the world, the Parragon of Animals (from William Shakespeare's Hamlet [ this quotation focuses on the man as the centre of universe ]

人是何等巧妙的一件天工！理性何等的高贵！智能何等的广大！仪容举止是何等的匀称可爱！行动是多么像天使！悟性是多么像神明！真是世界之美，万物之灵！【这段是梁实秋先生的译文】（威廉·莎士比亚《哈姆雷特》这些引语突出人类是宇宙的中心）

In England, the Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the English Renaissance with the work of writers William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe,Edmund Spenser , Sir Thomas More , Francis Bacon , Sir Philip Sidney ,John Milton (who is known as perhaps last of the renaissance artists), as well as great artists, architects (such as Inigo Jones who introduced Italianate architecture to England), and composers such as Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, and William Byrd.

在英格兰，伊丽莎白时代标志着英格兰文艺复兴的开端，那时流行着作家莎士比亚，克里斯托弗·马洛，埃德蒙·斯宾塞，托马斯·莫尔，培根，菲利普·西德尼，米尔顿（他被认为是文艺复兴时期最后一个艺术家），许多的艺术家，包括建筑师（例如将意大利式建筑引进英国的伊尼戈·琼斯）和作曲家，例如托马斯·塔利斯，约翰·塔弗纳，威廉·伯德。

Southern Europe

Italy

主条目：Italian Renaissance

While Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of some areas of innovation, particularly in music. The music of the 15th century Burgundian School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in that art and the polyphony of the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of what was the first true international style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century. The culmination of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer, Palestrina. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600.

The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the purely religious art of medieval painters. At first, Northern Renaissance artists remained focused on religious subjects, such as the contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by Albrecht Dürer. Later on, the works of Pieter Bruegel influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than religious or classical themes. It was also during the northern Renaissance that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries. A feature of the Northern Renaissance was its use of the vernacular in place of Latin or Greek, which allowed greater freedom of expression. This movement had started in Italy with the decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on the development of vernacular languages; in fact the focus on writing in Italian has neglected a major source of Florentine ideas expressed in Latin. The spread of the technology of the German invention of movable type printing boosted the Renaissance, in Northern Europe as elsewhere; with Venice becoming a world center of printing.

Spain

主条目：Spanish Renaissance

The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean possessions of the Aragonese Crown and the city of Valencia. Indeed, many of the early Spanish Renaissance writers come from the Kingdom of Aragon, including Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell. In the Kingdom of Castile, the early Renaissance was heavily influenced by the Italian humanism, starting with writers and poets starting with the Marquis of Santillana, who introduced the new Italian poetry to Spain in the early 15th century. Other writers, such as Jorge Manrique, Fernando de Rojas, Juan del Encina, Juan Boscán Almogáver and Garcilaso de la Vega, kept a close resemblance to the Italian canon. Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece Don Quixote is credited as the first Western novel. Renaissance humanism flourished in the early 16th century, with influential writers such as philosopher Juan Luis Vives, grammarian Antonio de Nebrija or natural historian Pedro de Mexía.

Later Spanish Renaissance tended towards religious themes and mysticism, with poetas such as fray Luis de León, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, and treated issues related to the exploration of the New World, with chroniclers and writers such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega or Bartolomé de las Casas. The late Renaissance in Spain also saw the rise of artists such as El Greco, and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Antonio de Cabezón.

Portugal

In Portugal, the Renaissance arrived through the influence of the wealthy Italian merchants that started investing their money in the profitable Indian commerce that Portugal had monopolized during the late 15th century. Lisbon flourished, and writers such as Gil Vicente, Sá de Miranda, Bernardim Ribeiro and Luís de Camões and artists such as Nuno Gonçalves appeared.

Historiography

Conception

The term was first used retrospectively by the Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) in his book The Lives of the Artists (published 1550). In the book Vasari was attempting to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of gothic art: the arts had fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue (1240–1301) and Giotto (1267–1337) began to reverse this decline in the arts. According to Vasari, antique art was central to the rebirth of Italian art.

However, it was not until the nineteenth century that the French word Renaissance achieved popularity in describing the cultural movement that began in the late-13th century. The Renaissance was first defined by French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874), in his 1855 work, Histoire de France. For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that is, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the seventeenth century. Moreover, Michelet distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages and the democratic values that he, as a vocal Republican, chose to see in its character. A French nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement.

The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) in his Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien (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 individuality, which had been stifled in the Middle Ages. His book was widely read and was influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance. However, Buckhardt has been accused of setting forth a linear Whiggish view of history in seeing the Renaissance as the origin of the modern world.

More recently, historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical age, or even a coherent cultural movement. As Randolph Starn has put it,

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.

——Randolph Starn

For better or for worse?

参见：Continuity thesis

Painting of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, an event in the French Wars of Religion, by François Dubois

Much of the debate around the Renaissance has centered around whether the Renaissance truly was an "improvement" on the culture of the Middle Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance towards the "modern age". Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly.

In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness – that which was turned within as that which was turned without – lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues.

——Jacob Burckhardt，The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the "medieval" period – poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for example – seem to have worsened in this era which saw the rise of Machiavelli, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Many people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age" imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies. Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages. Some Marxist historians prefer to describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and philosophy were part of a general economic trend away from feudalism towards capitalism, resulting in a bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts.

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. In his book The Waning of the Middle Ages, he argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was important. The Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. The Renaissance obsession with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession. Meanwhile George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both argued that scientific progress was perhaps less original than has traditionally been supposed.

Some historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance to be unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages" (Middle Ages). Many historians now prefer to use the term "Early Modern" for this period, a more neutral designation that highlights the period as a transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era. Others such as Roger Osborne have come to consider the Italian Renaissance as a repository of the myths and ideals of western history in general, and instead of rebirth of ancient ideas as a period of great innovation

Other Renaissances

The term Renaissance has also been used to define time periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries. Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a case for a Renaissance of the 12th century. Other historians have argued for a Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, and still later for an Ottonian Renaissance in the 10th century. Other periods of cultural rebirth have also been termed "renaissances", such as the Bengal Renaissance or the Harlem Renaissance.

See also

主条目：Outline of the Renaissance

• Weser Renaissance
• Gilded woodcarving
• List of Renaissance figures
• List of Renaissance structures
• Medical Renaissance
• Scientific Revolution

References

• Brotton, Jerry, The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction ISBN 0-19-280163-5
• Burckhardt, Jacob (1878), The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, trans S. G. C. Middlemore, republished in 1990 ISBN 0-14-044534-X
• Burke, P, The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries ISBN 0-631-19845-8
• Cronin, Vincent (1967), The Florentine Renaissance ISBN 0002112620
  • ------------------(1969), The Flowering of the Renaissance, ISBN 0712698841
  • ------------------(1992), The Renaissance, ISBN 0002154110
• Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance, ISBN 0-442-02319-7
• Ferguson, Wallace K. (1962), Europe in Transition, 1300–1500, ISBN 0-04-940008-8
• Haskins, Charles Homer (1927), The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, ISBN 0-674-76075-1
• Huizinga, Johan (1924), The Waning of the Middle Ages, republished in 1990 ISBN 0-14-013702-5
• Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe, ISBN 0-395-88947-2
• Lopez, Robert S. (1952), Hard Times and Investment in Culture
• Stephens, John, The Italian Renaissance: The Origins of Intellectual and Artistic Change before the Renaissance ISBN 0-582-49337-4
• Strathern, Paul (2003), The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, ISBN 1844130983
• Thorndike, Lynn (1943) 'Renaissance or Prenaissance?' in "Some Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance", Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 4, No. 1, Jan. 1943 (Subscription required for JSTOR link.)
• Ward, A. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance (1902)
• Weiss, Roberto (1969) The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, ISBN 1-597-40150-1
• Werkmeister, William H. [editor]. Facets of the Renaissance. Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press. 1959. 

External links

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