Introduction
Culture is a set of shared patterns of behaviors, characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people with their language, religion, food, music, and arts. Culture passes down generations through socialization patterns that are unique to that particular group of people. Culture thus encompasses everything unique to a certain group of people on what they do, how they do it, where they do it, when they do it and why they do it (Zimmerman, 2017). Culture is thus shaped over time, as it loses some its old aspects, while gaining some new aspects as it passes down generations.
The western culture was heavily shaped by the Renaissance’s emphasis on human achievements in the period 1300-1550, due to the huge changes that the Renaissance had impacted on society. This is in addition to an examination of how the changes lead to the civilization of the western culture to a highly acceptable modern culture (Mwestwood, 2017). The Renaissance’s emphasis on human achievements largely shaped the western culture since it brought about a shift in how society tackled the day to day activities (Renaissance, 2018) . It was a time of transition from the ancient primitive world which heavily relied on religion as the guide to the modern world , and thus resulted in the birth of the age of enlightenment. Florence, Italy is highly regarded as the birthplace of the Renaissance.
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The Renaissance is characterized by significant individuals, whose discoveries and personalities shaped the western culture to date. Some of these individuals include; Johannes Gutenberg, Pope Leo X and the Medici family, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and the Catholic Church. With an increased demand for and interest in and learning about classical philosophy, there was the need for classical texts being produced and reproduced in large numbers and this lead to the development of the Gutenberg press by Johannes Gutenberg. The printing press allowed for rapid reproduction of texts like bibles, secular books and printed music hence the birth of the Renaissance. Nicolaus Copernicus’s discoveries gave rise to the Renaissance since they contradicted what was traditionally accepted. The polish mathematician and astronomer in 1543, just before his death, published his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. This was a major event in the Renaissance, triggering the Copernicus revolution due to the diverse views from those of the Catholic Church (Goddu, 2010). The heliocentric solar system placed the sun at the center of the solar system, which led to the conflict with the church, which placed the earth as the center of the solar system, leading to the book being banned. Galileo Galilei was a significant figure in the Renaissance and he is credited for improving the telescope and discovering new celestial bodies and also found proof for the heliocentric solar system, which lead to the Catholic Church forcing him to spend the last nine years of his life under house arrest.
The Black Death, rise in trade, development of the middle class and fall of feudalism and rise of capitalism lead to the changes in the characteristics of the worldview, like the decline in the influence of the religion and shift in philosophy in science. The ancient Greek beliefs were now being constructed around perfect laws and reasoning, thus people attempted to master nature rather than rely on religious piety. There was a return of literature characterized by humanist themes like love, hate and classical ideals like tragedy, triumph, and comedy. These literary works were mainly written by Shakespeare. This led to divergence between science and religion, since the church’s views were constantly in conflict with the discoveries. The Black Death caused huge losses in life; hence, leading to the society questioning the importance religion placed on the afterlife, and thus chose to focus on the present (Whipps, 2008) . W ith these, the rulers began to realize they could maintain power without support of the church, due to its shrinking influence. The Papacy’s temporary move from Rome to Avignon from 1309- 1377 also played a big role in the decline of the power vested in the church.
The renaissance heavily relied on patronage from powerful personalities in the society, notably the Medici family, the Catholic Church, and Borgia and Sforza families. The Medici family was a family of Popes, consisting of Cosimo de’ Medici and Lorenzo de’ Medici, who was the most powerful. They were well established in the banking sector, and are credited with the development of the double-entry book-keeping system. The Borgia and Sforza families were also wealthy and presided over the Papal estates and Milan. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church cannot be ignored as being a patron, since most of the renaissance art was owned by the church. The patrons commissioned an artist to design a building, sculpture or painting which signified the patron’s taste, wealth and power (Beltramo, 2016). The commissioned art was meant to be power structures, show of wealth and power and also to communicate some sort of message. The most notable of the Medici family art includes Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of venus, Michelangelo’s tomb of Lorenzo de Medici and Donatello’s bronze David. Borgia and Sforza families’ arts were mainly done by Leonardo da Vinci, who designed weapons for Borgia and art like the last supper for Ludovico Sforza.
Conclusion
The western culture thus got its civilization from the Renaissance which brought a shift in the way which the society viewed the existing norms and reviewed them for the betterment of the society. The existing traits of the culture like innovation of machines, secularisms, rise of new centres of power and states are all credited to the rise of the Renaissance. Up to date, the western society still relies on the discoveries made during the renaissance era and are always striving to better them to ensure they are still relevant to the society; hence, the Renaissance emphasis on human achievements played a big role in the western civilization.
References
Renaissance. (2018). History topics. https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/renaissance
Mwestwood. (2017). How do you think the Renaissance period influenced our society today? https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-do-you-think-renaissance-period-influenced-our-482168
Whipps, H. (2008). How the Black Death Changed the World. https://www.livescience.com/2497-black-death-changed-world.html
Beltramo, S. C. (2016). A Renaissance Architecture of Power: Princely Palaces in the Italian Quattrocento. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Goddu, A. (2010). Copernicus and the Aristotelian Tradition: Education, Reading and Philosophy in Copernicus's Path to Heliocentrism. Leiden: Brill.
Zimmerman, K. A. (2017). What Is Culture? https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html
