Comparison of the Renaissance and Enlightenment

Renaissance was the development of new schools designed to provide a broader education, which offered modern languages, geography and bookkeeping, preparing students for careers in business.

In Renaissance philosophy a change was expressed through an assimilation of Platonic philosophy into Christianity by means of translation and interpretation. This led to the emergence of a new form of philosophy known as Neoplatonism. Renaissance humanists saw a human occupying central position in the great chain of being between the lowest form of physical matter (plants) and the purest spirit (God). A human being was the link between the material world (through the body) and the spiritual world (through the soul). M. Ficino (1433-1499) was one of the most important humanists that contributed to the emergence of the

Neoplatonism. Concerning religion, Renaissance philosophers were not rejecting Christianity, they mostly believed in God and were only against the policies and practices of the Catholic Church at that period.

The Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire (1694-1778) or

Diderot (1713-1784) went beyond Renaissance philosophers. They severely criticized traditional religion and actively called for religious toleration. Moreover, the Enlightenment philosophers, Voltaire in particular, championed, among other things, deism. Deism was based upon

Newtonian world-machine, which implied the existence of a mechanic (God) who had created the universe, but did not have direct involvement in it and allowed it to run according to its own natural laws. These philosophers believed that God did not extend grace or respond prayers. Diderot, who advocated similar ideas, made a great contribution to the Enlightenment with creation of the famous Encyclopedia (Classified Dictionary of Science,

Arts and Trades), which included works and ideas of many philosophers.

Thanks to the Renaissance printing and the reductions in the Encyclopedia price, Enlightenment ideas became available to general literate public of the century.

One of the innovations in history during the Renaissance was in the way history was recorded. In writing of history, humanists divided the past into ancient world, dark ages and their own age, thus providing a new sense of chronology. Humanists were also responsible for secularization of history. By taking new approaches to historic sources, humanist historians sensibly reduced the role of miracles in history. Concerning history, the

Enlightenment philosophers had a similarity with the Renaissance humanist- historians in that they also placed their histories in purely secular settings. However, the difference between the two was that if Renaissance historians had de-emphasized the role of God and miracles, the

Enlightenment philosophers-historians, such as Voltaire, eliminated it altogether. Also, philosophers-historians extended the scope of history over the humanists’ preoccupation with politics by paying increasing attention to economic, social, intellectual and cultural developments.Among the most important technological innovations of the renaissance was printing. J. Gutenberg played an important role in bringing the process of printing to completion between 1445-1450. This process was vital for the diffusion of knowledge and humanist ideas. Printing spread very rapidly around Europe and its effects were soon felt in many areas of European life. Continued after the invention of printing process, the expansion of both, publishing and the reading public, became particularly visible during the Enlightenment. Even though, as during the Renaissance, most of the published works were aimed at small groups of educated elite, there appeared more publications for the new reading public. This new reading public consisted mainly of the middle classes and included women and urban artisans. An important role in the increase of these publications played the development of magazines for the general public and emergence of daily newspapers – an innovation unknown to the Renaissance.

In art, Renaissance humanism and naturalism revealed themselves through the exposition of the world of beauty and human body. Flat, static paintings of the medieval art left their place to the three-dimensional, salient and convexo-concave style of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci

(1452-1519), Michelangelo (1478-1564) and other great artists of the

Renaissance demonstrated in their works an ideal individual in whom the physical beauty and that of the soul converged together according to the standards of antique aesthetics. Renaissance artists considered the imitation of nature of their primary goal, human beings became the focus of attention. To the great discontent of the Church, themes of human nudity also became present in works of the Renaissance artists. Likewise, a human being with his basic desires and passions appeared in literature.

In the Enlightenment art, the similarity with the Renaissance was that the Baroque style largely used in Renaissance continued into the eighteenth century. Also, Neoclassicism persisted to have a wide support.

Neoclassicism was the revival of the classical style of ancient Greece and

Rome. Nonetheless, by 1730s, a new style known as Rococo (a French innovation) began to gain great popularity. Unlike the Baroque, which accentuated majesty and power through the use of grand diagonals and games of light, Rococo emphasized grace and gentleness. This style could be seen in the works of important artists of the eighteenth century such as A.

Watteau (1684-1721) and G. B. Tiepolo (1696-1770). In architecture, a combination of the Baroque and Rococo gave rise to some of the most beautiful architectural constructions such as Vierzehnheiligen church decorated by the great architect B. Newmann (1687-1753).