An Overview of Italian Renaissance

The birth of the Italian Renaissance arose from key innovators and artists that shaped the way culture lived through the sciences and arts. When observing the technological innovations that have shaped the Italian culture of the Pre-1500 era; itr's the influential impact of Italian Artist Engineers, Fillppo Brunelleschi, and Leonard Da Vinci, whose innovations where also shaped by the way culture was developing at that time. There are various reasons as to why the Italian Renaissance began; mostly due to political, wealth, scholarly and geographic location of Italy and the Islamic control decline. It was considered to start at the end of early Middle Ages, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed from invasions and raids, and the Black Death that plagued across the continent of Europe. Italyr's states such as Venice, Florence and Rome were all asserting their prominent influence of the trade, finance, and assertion primacy of the pope. The driving force of the Italian Renaissance was to rebuild the society and its direction, renaissance thinkers considered the Middle Ages to have been a period of cultural decline. They sought to revitalize their culture through re-emphasizing classical texts and philosophies (Szalay, 2016). It is said that Italy became the birthplace of the Renaissance where thoughts, values, artistic and scientific innovation was spread throughout the societies of Europe. As major developments of the Renaissance included areas from astronomy, free-liberal thinking of humanist philosophy, and expansion of texts from the printing press, one of the major architectural developments of this era constitute to the grandeur of the Florence Cathedral Dome by Filippo Brunelleschi. Cultural impact which inspired the ambition to build the Florence Cathedral Dome provides technological innovation of the Renaissance-era. The infamous Cathedral Dome was built nearly a century before Filippo Brunelleschi was born, and had intended by cultural ambition to be the grandest Cathedral in all of Europe. Florencer's famous cathedral, undertaken in 1296, was conceived as a project to build the greatest church in Christendom, to demonstrate Florencer's supreme piety (www.lib.uchicago.edu). The greatest church of all time in Florence had an important challenge that faced much of its society with Architectural Engineering problems such as building its dome. Spending 10 years living in Rome with artist Donatello, Brunelleschi found influence from Roman Engineering and was fascinated by the architecture of the Pantheonr's dome. The Cathedral of Santa Maria awaited its dome of construction designed by Brunelleschi, and it was a forefront of Engineering marvel, Brunelleschi believed that each part of a structure had to be mathematically proportional to all other parts of the structure, which was rendered in ratios of whole numbers. Symmetry and harmony”the hallmarks of classical architecture and the Renaissancer's revival of it” was created by geometrical proportion (www.saylor.org). Florence Italyr's ambitious culture to build the tallest and most towering Cathedral showcased an innovative technology that performed with the success by building the dome. Brunelleschi design to build the dome 170 feet from the floor of the Cathedral, 143 feet in diameter of stone and brick, along with a 70-foot-tall lantern, stirred up his inventions for, special cranes and hoisting apparatuses that could lift into place the heavy stones and bricks (4, Misa). The invention of the Brunelleschi cranes and hoisting apparatuses are systems that are to be used by future workers of Florencer's cathedrals. Being considered as a pioneer for his geometrical perspective, Brunelleschi envisioned his two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional machines. Not only was his envisions from his geometrical perspective influential for the expansion of city building for the Renaissance-era, but by using Brunelleschi's perspective principles, artists of his generation were able to use two-dimensional canvases to create illusions of three-dimensional space, crafting a realism not seen previously (www. Biography.com ), which ultimately was a scientific and artistic technological tool that ended up spreading throughout Western Europe. The cultural influence of Roman Architectural Engineering, Florencer's wealth and expansion for architectural stature not only shaped Brunelleschir's innovative thinking of linear perspective; Brunelleschir's progressive thinking is an example of how it had a monumental impact on the city-building of Florence and influencing future Italian Artist and Engineer such as Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vincir's innovations during the Renaissance-era is what named him the Renaissance man. His devotion to art and science led him to one of his most pivotal innovations of technological art that is inspired by the Renaissance formative thinking of humanism. The humanist movement emerged as an alternative path of education and civic engagement. It emphasized the benefits of creating a citizenry equipped with the ability to converse intelligently and participate in civic life toward the betterment of humankind (www.saylor.org). Not only did the cultural significance of humanism impact Da Vincir's innovation, but his studying of Marcus Vitruvius De Architectura, also influenced his designs for the perfect building. The Vitruvian Man illustration demonstrated the combination of linear perspective and geometrical perspective, which was based on Da Vincir's study on the science of anatomy and art. Observing the illustration of the Vitruvian Man, it exemplified the proportions of the human body, For example, the head measured from the forehead to the chin was exactly one tenth of the total height, and the outstretched arms were always as wide as the body was tall (www.bbc.co.uk). Connecting this illustration to the same principles to designing buildings, both Vitruvius and Da Vinci saw that the human figure as the principal source of proportion among the classical orders of architecture (www.lifeofanarchitect.com). The mathematical proportions displayed in Da Vincir's illustration is an artistic tool that was a technological innovation which progressed and changed societyr's way of thinking. The mathematical concepts of ratios, proportions and mechanical designs stemmed from a prominent era that was inspired by the culture of the Italian Renaissance. Obtaining the liberty of free-thinking, exploration of Art, Science, economic development, which promoted a plethora of technological innovation. For Brunelleschi and Da Vinci, the transformation of perspective is what drew a line of importance around these cultural figures. Their innovate way of city-development, two-dimensional sketches to three-dimensional machines, artistic tool of innovation by discovering the golden ratio for the perfect design; these artistic Engineers impacted the way culture lived through their innovations, and the culture of the Italian Renaissance is what impacted their progressive and intellectual ideas for mankind.

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