Renaissance (pronounced ren-uh-sahns, ren-uh-zahns, ren-uh-zahns, or ri-ney-suhns)
(1) As “the Renaissance”, the description of great
revival of classical art, literature, and learning in Europe, the conventionally
dated between the fourteenth & seventeenth centuries, marking the
transition from the medieval to the modern world.
(2) The period during which this revival occurred.
(3) Of or relating to this period.
(4) The forms and treatments in art, architecture,
literature and philosophy during the period even if not including elements
suggesting a revival of classical forms; extended widely (furniture, wallpaper
et al).
(5) Used loosely, any sustained or dramatic revival in
the world of art and learning, notably the so-called “Chinese Renaissance”
(1917-1823) associated with the “New Culture movement”.
(6) A renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc; a rebirth or
revival (used of people, institutions and ideas).
(7) Relating to furnishings or decorations in or
imitating the style of the Renaissance, in which motifs of classical derivation
frequently appear.
(8) Used sometimes ironically, a reference to any of the
adaptations of the architectural styles associated with the Renaissance in foreign
architecture (some playful, some ghastly), either as isolated detailing or
entire buildings.
Late 1860s (as renascence since circa 1840): In the sense
of “the great period of revival of classical-based art and learning in Europe
that began in the fourteenth century”, the word was from the French renaissance des lettres (revival of the
arts), from the Old French renaissance
(literally “rebirth”, usually in a spiritual sense), from renastre (to grow anew (of plants)) (which exists in Modern French
as renaître (be reborn), the
construct being renaiss- (stem of renaistre (to be born again), from the Latin
renāscī (be born again, rise again,
reappear, be renewed) (the construct being re-
(used in the sense of “again”)) + nāscī
(be born again, rise again, reappear, be renewed) + -ance. In the Old Latin, gnasci was from the primitive
Indo-European root gene- (give birth, beget).
The suffix -ance was an alternative form of -ence, both added to an adjective or verb to form a noun indicating
a state or condition, such as result or capacity, associated with the verb
(many words ending in -ance were formed in French or by alteration of a noun or
adjective ending in –ant). The suffix -ance
was from the Middle English -aunce
& -ance, from the Anglo-Norman -aunce and the continental Old French -ance, from the Latin -antia & -entia. The –ence suffix was a word-forming element
attached to verbs to form abstract nouns of process or fact (convergence from
converge), or of state or quality and was from the Middle English -ence, from the Old French -ence, from the Latin –entia & -antia (depending on the vowel in the stem word). The Latin present-participle endings for
verbs stems in -a- were distinguished from those in -i- and -e- and as the
Old French evolved from Latin, these were leveled to -ance, but later French
borrowings from Latin (some of them subsequently passed to English) used the
appropriate Latin form of the ending, as did words borrowed by English directly
from Latin, thus diligence, absence et al.
There was however little consistency, English gaining many words from
French but from the sixteenth century the suffix –ence was selectively restored,
such was the reverence for Latin. The use in a historical context has a specific, limited
definition but in a general sense the synonyms include rejuvenation, renewal, resurgence,
revitalization & revival. The
related forms are the Italian rinascenza & rinascirnento. Renaissance is a noun & adjective and renaissancey
is an adjective; the noun plural is renaissances.
Although the use of the word Renaissance was a nineteenth century thing, the significance of what had happened in Europe centuries earlier had long been studied by historians and a term to describe the period (“the revival” or “revival of learning”) was in use by at least 1785. Use extended (with a lower-case “r”) in the 1850s to the resurgence of just about anything long been in decay or disuse (especially of learning, literature, art). The term “Renaissance man” was in use by 1885 and initially meant literally “a man alive during the Renaissance” but by the turn of the century it was being used to refer to the sort of “idealized man” imagined as an exemplar of the virtues and characteristics of those described by the historians who seems to see as much perfection in them as they did in the worthies of the Classical age. The use to refer to those alive with such excellent qualities (humanism, scholarship, varied attainments, freedom of thought and personality) dates from the late 1940s and, perhaps surprisingly, “Renaissance man” didn’t wait for second-wave feminism (1960s-1980s) bur appeared almost simultaneously. Technical terms (neo-Renaissance, Renaissance revival, Renaissance festival, Renaissance fair, anti-Renaissance, post-Renaissance, pre-Renaissance, pro-Renaissance etc were created as required.
Just about any sort of revival can be styled “a renaissance”.
The spelling renascence is slightly older, in texts since
circa 1840 and purely French while the later renaissance emerged during the
late 1860s and was Latinate, associated with historical scholarship. The spelling renaissance has long been preferred
but without the initial capital either can be used of anything suggesting a
sense of revival or rebirth. Some style
guides suggest the use with the capital letter should be restricted to the
flowering of European culture which began in Italy in the fourteenth century
but others acknowledge such a use is appropriate also for certain other defined
epochs such as the so-called “Chinese Renaissance” (1917-1823) associated with
the “New Culture movement”. The revival
of interest in the texts of Classical authors resulted in many words from Greek
& Latin being absorbed into English and this had the effect of many French
loan-words acquired over the centuries being re-spelled on the models of the
forms from Antiquity. The relationship
between renascence & renaissance is an example of that phenomenon,
happening in the mid-nineteenth century. However, the older form did retain its charms
for some and the English poet (and what would now be called a “social
commentator”) Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) preferred “renascence” and created
something of a fashion (ie an affectation) for the word among those who fancied
themselves “Renaissance men”.
The ideas of the Renaissance is understood as marking the
end of the Middle Ages but unlike some dramatic act (such as the fall of the
Western Roman Empire), there’s no exact date on which one era ended and the
other began but nor does it make sense to speak of a period between the two, thus
the long practice vaguely to refer to the Renaissance “beginning late in the fourteenth
century an continuing even until the sixteenth” (by which time it had reached
even barbaric lands like England). As
the scholarship of the period (especially of the visual art) grew, historians
refined things by distinguishing between the early, middle, high and late
Renaissance, again not exactly delineated but defined more by recognizable
evolutions in architectural & artistic style. From the beginning though, what was obvious
was that the Renaissance was something admirable, an return to the imagined
perfection of the Classical age and thus a contrast with the unlamented Middle
Ages (the so-called “medieval period” and, more revealingly, known as also as the
“Dark Ages”) which were regarded by historians as priest-ridden, backward,
superstitious, uncultured, ignorant, narrow and inhibited by a dogmatic theology
which crushed and punished thought. The
Renaissance was extolled as learned, civilized,
broadminded, progressive,
enlightened and free-thinking.
Scuola di Atene (School of Athens, 1509-1511), fresco by Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, 1483–1520) on a commission from Julius II (1443–1513; pope 1503-1513) Stanza della Segnatura (Stanze di Raffaello), Palazzi Pontifici (Apostolic Palace), Vatican City. Julius II was a Renaissance pope with all that implies and while they all did things in their own way, their general philosophy was best summed up in a phrase attributed to Leo X (1475–1521; pope 1513-1521), one of the four Medici popes and remembered (fondly by a few) for his observation “God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it” and although historians have their doubts he ever uttered the words, his conduct while on the throne of Saint Peter made clear if he didn't say it, he should have. The “High Renaissance” was the period between the 1490s and 1520s and although the art historians usually don’t claim the period of necessity produced the finest works, it remains an orthodoxy that much of what was created best represents what might be called the “cultural zeitgeist”. Raphael’s School of Athens depicted a gathering of philosophers, scholars and artists, with Aristotle (right) and Plato (left) in the centre, walking among a clutter of figures, most in animated discussion about obviously serious matters while the odd solitary figure sits quietly reflecting. As an image, critics would now say the artist was laying the message on “with a trowel” but he certainly encapsulated the era’s idealized view of the Classical world.
Scholarship as early as the nineteenth theory (which
would now be classed as “revisionist”) challenged the tradition views of
Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and the notion of several
renaissances, each succeeding the other and gaining a kind of momentum from its predecessor(s)
and some even suggested the beginning of the era could be regarded as somewhere
in the twelfth century, something quite plausible of the architecture though
perhaps not of the painting but vernacular literatures were
developing, there was some interest in the Latin classics, Latin poetry and Roman law and Greek philosophy and scientific understandings were being
translated. Tellingly too, Arab
scientific discoveries were becoming and the first European universities were being founded so which
the influence of the Church remained strong, it was a time not devoid of intellectual
and creative activity but then neither was the Middle Ages wholly barren of
such things. One charming irony about
the extraordinary art and architecture which appeared in Italy during the Renaissance
was that the loveliness stands starkly in contrast to the appalling moral
character of the patrons who commissioned much of it, some of the popes and
cardinals, the latter in the era having gained such squalid reputations that
the word “cardinal” was long used as an insult in Rome. Historians tell these tales with some relish.
