Winky Macadew
Humanities 302
December 2003

Final Essay

The Renaissance is considered "the rebirth" or "the early modern period." This period in history was a time of enlightenment, where some of the greatest poetry, medicine, discovery, art, and many other achievements were accomplished during this time. In general, the world became a new place, but still some ideas or beliefs stayed the same however, many new improved ideas and beliefs formed.

The Medieval period was not a good time to live. This period was rattled with plagues, darkness, and malicious acts of inhumanity. Then the world began to change it began to grow, and the diseases, the darkness, and the harshness started to crumble and disappear into nothingness. However, it did take time to spread across all of Europe, but when the darkness receded people saw the world in a new light and they felt "reborn."

Humanism is the proper study of humankind. In the Medieval period, humanism was not as important, but now in the Renaissance it is. Being more humanistic made them more individuals, which was another movement during this time. They started to think about themselves not as a whole, but as individuals. The art become more individualistic in that they painted more pictures of individuals and the techniques and colors improved making them not so plain and impressionable.

Poetry of the Renaissance is not longer a primary occupation. During the Medieval period, to write poetry was a good source of income, but in the Renaissance, its not even good to publish work under a real name or even a false name. Poetry became more individualized in technique, which was a great improvement. The overall style or fashion of clothes stayed relatively the same, except for the colors began to change. The patterns and the designs stayed the same, but how they were made, the fabric, and the colors radically changed. The fabrics and the colors of the clothes showed status. One such example of color is in the Le Concert tapestries. All the people in that tapestry were of high class, but the lady near the clergy man, was the highest because she was in black, and during that time black sign of the highest class, a "gothic" look. This piece on the other hand is borderline piece between the two periods, so it shows features from both periods.

The Renaissance changed the world for the better. The renaissance brought the world out of the dark ages and into the light. Today we still use advancements that came out of this period. The Renaissance taught us many great ideas that if they had not been found, I do not think that we would be living the same world, that is how much the Renaissance affected us.


Renaissance Index