Example Of Creative Curiosity: The Spirit Of The Renaissance And Its Contributions To The Scientific Essay

The Renaissance is one of the most important philosophical, artistic, and scientific revolutions that has ever hit western society. Although many think of the Renaissance as an anomaly in the larger scheme of the Middle Ages, in reality, there was a lot of different contributing factors that led to the Renaissance. When trying to understand the connection between the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution that came later, it is important to think of the Renaissance as the result of a series of different eras and events, rather than an anomalous blip on the screen of history.
According to most experts on the Renaissance, the Renaissance as it is understood today began in Northern Italy. During this time period, there was much support among the rich in this area for art; benefactors commonly commissioned pieces from artists, allowing them to work in their craft for a living (University of Maryland, 2010). The Renaissance is often thought of as a revolution or a rebirth of art, and undeniably, it was; however, it was also a rebirth of something much more important: individualism and creative thinking. During this time, the Church was very strong, but it was also heavily invested in supporting the arts, and often commissioned pieces of art from artists for use in the Church. Without the Church’s support, artists could never have supported themselves, and would have been unable to kickstart the Renaissance as it is known today.
One of the side effects of the new obsession with realism and idealism in art was the sudden thirst for knowledge about the world around the artist. An artist with no understanding of the human body, for instance, cannot realistically paint one; this began the investigative process into many things, like anatomy, math, science, and so on (University of Maryland).
The Renaissance was truly a time of upheaval for European society. Not all parts of Europe were affected by the Renaissance equally or at the same time, but all parts of Europe felt the effects. The political climate in Europe changed during this time, particularly in regards to the distribution of wealth: wealth was no longer solely held by the nobility, as a new class of people emerged. This new class was called the bourgeoisie (Hti.osu.edu, 2011). The bourgeoisie was willing to patronize the arts and support artists and other thinkers in ways that had been previously unheard of in an attempt to appear to be part of the upper classes (University of Maryland 2010).
The Scientific Revolution itself came on the coattails of the Renaissance and the Reformation, a political and religious reform that swept across Europe (University of Maryland, 2010). The Scientific Revolution ushered in an age of understanding of the physical world that would change the face of humanity forever, and it did so by utilizing the philosophical ideals that were brought forth during the Renaissance.
During the Renaissance, many great thinkers emerged. They asked questions and created art and literature that challenged the status quo of the day, and brought back many different ideas that had been lost during the Middle Ages. There was an awakening in Europe during the Renaissance, and the power dynamic changed ever so slightly-- just enough to allow the great thinkers of the time to begin to ask questions. Similarly, the refinement of art and art techniques in the Renaissance era translated practically: more accurate techniques for glassblowing, for instance, allowed for more accurate scientific inquiry, experimentation, and measurement.
Most scholars agree that the Scientific Revolution truly began with the publication of Copernicus’ theory regarding the Earth orbiting the sun rather than the other way around, as convention traditionally held. Copernicus could not have even asked the necessary questions had he not been born after the Renaissance; the existence of the Renaissance paved the way for the type of philosophical and scientific thought necessary to create complex scientific theories. References
Hti.osu.edu (2011). The Scientific Revolution: Science & Society from the Renaissance to the Early Enlightenment: Lesson Plans | HTI. [online] Retrieved from: http://hti.osu.edu/scientificrevolution/lesson_plans [Accessed: 8 Apr 2013].
Www2.sunysuffolk.edu (2008). Scientific Revolution. [online] Retrieved from: http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/science.html [Accessed: 8 Apr 2013].