The Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance
Art was an important part of the Italian renaissance, where artists were using the “rebirth” of classical paintings. So towards the end of the Middle Ages, attitudes began to change, which was about the 1400s. The Romans were beginning to think about the world around them, instead of only thinking about the next life (Blashfield 47). Explorers such as Christopher Columbus wondered what lay across the oceans. Also Italian churchmen and scholars saw amazing ancient buildings all around them and took an interest in the classical world of Rome and Greece (Blashfield 47).   This was also the period in which the Romans began to spend their money on beautiful buildings, sculpture, artwork, and scholarship. This also brought the idea of this period be called the “Renaissance” because of the “rebirth” of classical learning (Blashfield 47). This new concentration of wealth and power in the cities led to new configurations of the social class that had wide-ranging effects across the face of Europe during the Italian Renaissance (Italian Renaissance). So that meant what social class you were in decided on if you could afford the “new” founded wonders. In the Italian Renaissance society consisted of five classes in general, which varied in nature and number depending on which area of Italy you were in (Italian Renaissance). In the five classes that the society had, at the top were the hierarchies, who were the old nobility and the merchant class that had traditionally ruled the cities. Below them were the emergent capitalist and banker class that identified with the lower classes and wished to become as powerful as the top class. Below them were the less wealthy merchants and trades people and below them, were the poor and destitute that was made up of one fourth to one third of the urban population in Italy during the Renaissance. However even the poor and destitute had a class beneath them, which were the domestic slaves, though few in numbers, they...