ARH 253
April 12, 2015
Essay First Draft
Comparing and Contrasting the Northern and Italian Renaissances
The Renaissance was one of the world’s most important movements, specifically for culture throughout all European countries. The term renaissance means “rebirth,” which is very significant since this movement was the revival and turning point of change for all art forms specifically art, literature, music, religion along with many other aspects as well. Starting in Italy, the Italian Renaissance was the earliest manifestation of the general European Renaissance. From the Italian Renaissance sprouted the Northern Renaissance, which was the movement that occurred in all European countries after the Italian Renaissance. While both movements hold many similarities, they also have a variety of differences as well.
First, the obvious difference between these two movements is the geography of the Northern and Italian Renaissance. The Northern Renaissance relates to all of the happenings in the countries of Northern Europe surrounding Italy. Even though these were two separate movements with many differences, they both held significant similarities due to the close proximity of the countries where the Renaissances took place. Both the Italian and Northern Renaissance followed the era of the Middle Ages. The Italian Renaissance began in the cities of Florence and Siena, and later spread to Venice.
The Northern Renaissance is also recognized as the “late gothic” which still held on to Middle Ages art, whereas the Italian Renaissance was fixated on studying classic works from Latin and Greek. While the Italian Renaissance focused on the accurate representation of the human body and on naturalistic landscapes; the Northern Renaissance was mainly dedicated to humanism with a stronger focus on religious symbols.
Another significant difference of the two renaissances