The Renaissance Cultural Movement: The Magnificence Of Mixing Science With Art

By Author: Albert Cash
Total Articles: 5
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The continent of Europe has constantly been associated with culture and art--and deservingly so, as it has a significant and passionate history with both. Being among the different nations affected by the extensive cultural revolution recognized presently as the Renaissance, it shouldn't come as a surprise that France and its people have an inclination for making a lot of the world’s most remarkable works of art.

Based on the French word of the same name, renaissance merely means "rebirth." Nevertheless, the beginnings of the Renaissance or Rebirth really started in Florence, Italy in the 1300s. With the creation of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century, the word of the cultural revolution propagated faster than any kind of marching army; until near the end of the 16th century, when the Renaissance reached France.

Without a doubt, the Renaissance has left behind permanent marks on the modern-day society, especially on the field of art and its evolution. Since the Renaissance was also a period of exceptional intellectual developments in the discipline of science, artists of that period learned about ...
... the human body and light. It was essential for these artists to inculcate scientific concepts to make their pieces appear as realistic as they could possibly manage. This unanticipated inclination to record life in art is largely influenced by the Italian painter Giotto that prompted the fad of paintings towards realism.

It was not simply oil and paint on canvas that were shaped by this cultural movement, as marble has been affected as well. With the interest and attention on the sciences, artists such as Michelangelo made their works of art alive. It is mainly due to the blend of realism and artistic innovation that works of art such as the statue of David exist, and are globally admired and renowned in the field of art. Crafters of French sculptures toiled to follow the exceptional Michelangelo's artistic genius, and have then tried to accomplish the same level of distinction.

In a nutshell, it can be stated that the Renaissance was the period when art was in perfect sync with science. Whilst they might seem to be two specific and separate areas, the Renaissance has demonstrated that these worlds can learn to complement each other, as evidenced by the French paintings and sculptures we see today. The Renaissance may have long gone, yet the philosophy of this historic movement stays on in the minds of today's nascent artists.

Visit ThinkQuest.org to know more about how the Renaissance came to be as ground-breaking as it was, immortalizing its reputation as among history's most glorious epochs. You just have to look at French paintings and sculptures to get a glimpse of how absolutely magnificent that era was.