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).
A major change in music during the Renaissance was the change in the
composition for the mass. To replace Gregorian chants, the Renaissance
madrigal saw its emergence as a chief form of secular music in Italy and
France. Major changes also took place in the music of the Enlightenment
period. Eighteenth century saw the rise and increasing popularity of
classical music with its operas, orchestras, sonatas, concerts and
symphonies. This period gave the world such remarkable composers as J. S.
Bach (1685-1750), G. F. Handel (1685-1759) and, of course, W. A. Mozart
(1756-1798). However, music did not become completely secularized; Bach,
for example, was still composing religious music. Another similarity with
the Renaissance age was that most of the musicians still depended on a
patron such as an aristocrat or prince.
As for medicine, certainly there were differences concerning it
between the two periods, since the two centuries that separated them did
bring some improvement into medical practices. The surgeons experienced
significant changes during the eighteenth century. In the 1740s they
started organizing their own guilds, separate from the barbers.
Furthermore, surgeons started to be licensed what required clinical
experiences. This had brought in some selection into the ranks of those
practicing surgery.
Technological innovations such as the rudder facilitated the great
geographical discoveries of the Renaissance. Here are some of the most
important discoveries: in 1456 Portuguese ships reached the Green cape and
in 1486 Africa has been sailed around from the south. While familiarizing
African coasts, Portuguese were sending their ships to the west and
southwest Open Ocean leading to the discovery of Assorian Islands and
Madeira Islands. In 1492 Columbus on his way to India crossed Atlantic
Ocean and embarked on Bahamas Islands thus discovering a new continent of
America. In 1498 a Spanish traveler V. De Gama sailing around Africa
brought his ships to the Indian coasts. From XVI c. Europeans reach China
and Japan of the existence of which they have only had a vague image
before.
The perception about the Earth’s shape has changed as well; F.
Magellan’s (1519-1522) trip around the world confirmed that the Earth was
round. As if the world boarders became wider; trade routes now passed
through the oceans, linking different continents between each other. Thus
commenced the first phase of the emergence of the world civilization and
globalization. During the Enlightenment this process accelerated even more
with the creation of new public and private banks, acceptance of paper
money and development of triangular trade. With colonization of Americas,
India and Africa, the term global economy was more than appropriate.
Triangular trade linked Europe, Africa, the East and the Americas, making
eighteenth century merchants and traders more and more wealthy and
powerful.
Among the multiple discoveries of the Renaissance, one was especially
complicated and frightening. This was the Copernicus’ (1473-1543)
heliocentric theory, which gave a new vision of the Universe, the Earth and
thus the human being. Before, the Earth was believed to be the center of
the world with other heavenly spheres rotating around it. Now, the Earth
became a tiny point in the emptiness of Space revolving about its axis and
the Sun in the center. The Enlightenment, on the other hand, did not know
much of the scientific discoveries, but it was the age when the scientific
ideas of the Scientific Revolution were popularized. Scientific ideas were
not spread so much by the scientists themselves, but by such individuals as
B. de Fontenelle (1657-1757). He was secretary of the French Royal Academy
of Science (1691-1741) and contributed a lot to the communication of the
scientific discoveries especially in astronomy.
Concerning politics, the Renaissance saw the beginning of modern
politics, whereby interests of the state are of the principal
consideration. Fundamental to politics were the works of an Italian
politician N. Machiavelli (1469-1527). In his famous work “The Prince” he
introduced political ideas that would have a great impact not only on the
rulers of that period, but on the political leaders centuries later. He
believed that morality was not among the top priorities in the political
activities of that time. Therefore, he maintained that if a ruler is to
stay in power, he should be prepared to do wrong when necessary. He
continued that the state’s main preoccupation was to provide stability and
in order for a ruler to rule efficiently, he should use diplomacy and be
neither too loved, nor too feared. Hence, the concept of the balance of
power emerged as popular political thought of the Renaissance. According to
this concept, a country should not get involved in a war with a neighboring
country the leader of which is strong. It is better to have a strong
neighboring ruler with whom you can negotiate and agree, rather than to
create a chaos and thus uncertainty and danger.
Just like Machiavelli was a giant of political thought in the
Renaissance, Montesquieu (1689-1755) was for the Enlightenment, though his
propositions were much different from those of Machiavelli. In his works he
called for the separation of powers into legislative, executive and
judiciary, advocated religious toleration and denounced slavery. Another
great philosopher of the Enlightenment was J. J. Rousseau (1712-1778). In
his work “Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind” he
explained why the government was “an evil, but a necessary one”. In his
another very famous work “The Social Contract” he tried to accord
individual liberty with governmental authority. All these political ideas
were new and thus very different from the political thoughts of the
Renaissance.
The Renaissance political thoughts contributed to the centralization
of power of monarchial governments. Of course, the degree to which monarchs
were successful in consolidation and extension of their political authority
varied from country to country. While France, Spain and England emerged as
centralized and more or less consolidated monarchies during the age of the
Renaissance, the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire saw a decline.
Central and Eastern Europe also experienced a decentralization of political
authority, rather than its centralization. During the Enlightenment the
process o centralization and growth of states continued. Most European
states enlarged their bureaucracies and consolidated their governments.
However, as a result of all the geographic discoveries and following
overseas trips and colonization, European economy started to shift from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic seaboard. By the eighteenth century, England
and France appeared as great commercial empires. Also, Eastern and Central
Europe emerged as major international players in the European political
arena. Russia, Austria and Prussia – three of five major European states
were located in Eastern or Central Europe. These states became so powerful
that they managed to completely destroy Poland by dividing its lands
between themselves. Although the ideas of the Enlightenment did leave an
impact on the eighteenth century rulers, few of them actually attempted to
implement the enlightened reforms into practice. The majority of rulers
still believed that for a state to run effectively and prosper, it needed a
strong absolute ruler.
In religion, clerical corruption, the popes’ preoccupation with
secular matters such as finances and territorial power led to the growing
discontent with the Church during the Renaissance period. J. Hus (1374-
1415) and J. Wyclif (1328-1384) are viewed by many as the forerunners of
the Reformation. Both of them attacked the excessive power of the papacy
within Catholic Church and called for reforms. Although remaining a very
important institution, Catholic Church and its religious practices became
increasingly questioned and criticized by the Renaissance humanists. As
during the Renaissance age, Catholic Church of the Enlightenment still had
a lot of power and remained hierarchically structured. Religious devotion
also remained strong during the eighteenth century. Nonetheless, critics
and skepticism against the Church became more and more intense.
Philosophers of the Enlightenment were more than ever calling for religious
toleration and acceptance of religious minorities. Among the intellectuals
of that period more and more turned to deism and believed in natural laws.
The great majority of women of the Renaissance was not educated and
was not considered intellectually equal to men. There were some exceptions
of course, but, as such, women did not play any important role in the
intellectual life of the Renaissance. This has changed during the
Enlightenment. Some of the eighteenth century intellectuals, such as
Diderot, expressed more positive views of women. Moreover, women themselves
begun to emerge as important intellectual thinkers, questioning their
rights and proposing ways to improve their situation. M. Wollstonecraft
(1759-1797) was regarded by many as the founder of modern European
feminism. Another important difference from the Renaissance concerning
women, was their role in the spread of new ideas of the Enlightenment. Of
course, here we are talking again about the women of the elite or wealthy
upper class. By organizing salons, women such as Madame Geoffrin (1699-
1777) or Marquise du Duffand (1697-1780) brought together writers and
artists with aristocrats, government officials and other members of
literate elite. These women could affect political decisions and influence
literary and artistic tastes.
Completely different to the Renaissance was the emergence in the
eighteenth century of a “science of man” or social sciences. Social
sciences were based on the philosophers’ believes that certain human
actions were governed by natural laws. One of the pioneers of a social
science such as psychology was Scottish philosopher D. Hume (1711-1776).
Other famous philosophers such as A. Smith (1723-1790) and F. Quesnay (1694-
1774) were viewed as founders of the modern economics. They rejected
mercantilist concepts by arguing the economic primacy of agriculture. They
also advocated the doctrine of laissez-faire, which rejected the state’s
intervention in the economic activity and called for letting the natural
forces of demand and supply to work freely. In his famous “Wealth o
Nations” Smith presents his major ideas on the origins of wealth and
functions of government in the economy, thus laying down the foundations of
the nineteenth century economic liberalism.
As we could observe from the analysis above, the Renaissance and
Enlightenment indeed had a lot of differences, but they also had a lot of
similarities. And this could not be otherwise, because all of the
achievements and discoveries of the Renaissance became the building blocks
of the Enlightenment progress. Just as human beings are prone to progress,
they are also prone to traditions. That is why many of the Renaissance
values continued into the Enlightenment. Each period in history marks human
society in some way and even in our days we still hear the echo of previous
centuries and still find some similarities between our time and those far-
away centuries.
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