Renaissance Comparison Essay

Renaissance Comparison Essay

The Italian Renaissance culture and arts and the Northern European Renaissance was a way of life, similar to our modern day way of life, ranging from things such as architecture, painting, literature, sculptures, pottery, and philosophy. Between the two eras, there are social and cultural similarities and differences.
The social and cultural similarities between the Italian and Northern European Renaissance were their artistic views in reference to religion. Most of the themes within their arts covered religion, such as the book Genesis from the bible. An example of the arts between these two eras would be the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. Devotion to Christianity, the church, their work written in Latin, classical backgrounds and the fact that they were both idealist were other reasons to believe that the two eras were similar.
A social and cultural difference between the Italian and Northern European Renaissance was the Northern Renaissance had held more on to the Gothic architecture from the Middle Ages for a longer period than did the Italian Renaissance; they both were consistent on the change on the forms of art and architecture. Religion was another difference between the two, with some scandals and corruption, taking place because of the influence of the church, the Northern Renaissance became more religious.
The difference between the arts and the cultures of the Northern European and the Italian Renaissance was, the Italian arts had scientific views such as, proportion, anatomy, and perspective during the renaissance. The Northern Europeans view was more toward how art looked. The Italian arts had reflected religion, ancient mythological creatures, spiritual figures and biblical times, such as Jesus, Mary, and the last supper, as well as their beliefs in heaven and the ungodly. Marsilio Ficino, the head of the Platonic Academy of Philosophy and a translator, wrote a book titled the Theologia Platonica. “This book shows how Marsilio Ficino was committed to linking Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that by taking this action it would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age” (Theologia Platonica). This book was a conscious rereading of Plato; particularly his dualistic vision of the psyche (roughly equivalent to the soul or spirit) trapped in the body, but thought we could glimpse the higher world of forms or ideas through study and learning.
The Northern Renaissance art also reflected the religious nature, secular and even mythological themes, worldly goods and pleasures as well as paintings that focused on fleshly pleasures and punishments. The political philosophers looked to describe political life as it was and also to improve the government on the foundation of reason.
As mentioned prior, the North Renaissance liked to believe their arts were more about how art looks rather than scientific views. Color was of key importance, by closely inspecting the Northern Renaissance paintings, the paintings will reveal to the viewer a number of occasions which individual hairs have been carefully changed, along with different object in the room including the artist himself. The artists had painted their subjects just as they had appeared. They paid close attention to every detail such as, dimples, wrinkles, eye color and hair color. The artist strives to paint the human form realistically by using different techniques to naturally show perspective and light.
The Italian artist does not focus on every little detail as the Northern Renaissance artist does. Instead the artist generalizes, within the Italian arts, the paintings usually showed the subjects with no hands, the paintings were also cut off at the bust, and the paintings were usually formal and of social status. This was typical in the early Italian Renaissance, but some changes were made over time to show a little more detail, but not like the Northern Renaissance artist who show every detail in their painting.
The comparison of the Italian and European Renaissance throughout this paper showed that both had both similarities and differences within both their arts and cultures. Both of their artworks had a religious aspect of it, but the most noticeable difference could be in their art styles the Italian artist choose to be more general in their painting as opposed to the Northern European artist that choose to show every detail in their painting.

Reference Page
Theologia Platonica, www.alibris.com retrieved June 26, 2010
Benton, J. and Diyanni, R. (2008). Art and Culture (3rd ed.) An Introduction to the Humanities