Introduction
The eighteenth century is significant for its aesthetics and art criticism and the general recognition of art and aesthetic. Competition among neighboring states can bring about cultural innovation. The European instrumental music has its breakthrough during the Baroque era. It is clearly significant the top most performers were from the two compete countries; Germany and Italy. It is evident that political fragmentation in the two nations facilitated artistic changes and development in terms of performance and content. Political changes between Germany and Italy during the Baroque era were the most significant moves that shaped the artistic discipline of during this era. The historic reformation that occurred during the period, which included the artistic composers changing their employers, brought about musical competition between the Protestants and the catholic churches. The other important move is the composers’ competition for instance the competition between the church and the court. Composers exhibited no less moves in the renaissance than in the Baroque.
The artists of the early Renaissance strove to portray lifelike human forms with correct proportions and realistic expressions and clothing. The artists developed new techniques of producing a painted common studied animal and human anatomy a more three dimension, and a quality exhibiting life like. This was more on efforts to understand the various subjects of these artists.
The Baroque as first suggested by the name, which is derived from a Portuguese word “barroco” meaning irregularly, shaped pearl. This forms obvious reference for the ornate sculpture motifs that are distinct for the Baroque historic architecture. The Baroque period is documented to have lasted between 1500 and 1600. During this period, the local art trends were rampant and after which they formed part of the culture. It is however not mistakable that Baroque was as a result of the Renaissance and part of the Gothic and Romanesque art periods. Looking at the artistic media of the two periods for instance, the Jacopo Ligozzi, which is the portable; alter in a carrying case (Christ on the Mount of Olives)? The painting depicts Christ in mount olives (Dixon 34). The style depicted is the mannerism. The painting is more of a reaction to pure naturalism and order of Renaissance. The paint also pursues emotional effects via artificial qualities.
On the other, hand the Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Baciccio) which is a depiction of the death of Ovid of Adois with pathos, grandeur, and graceful movement. The sculpture exhibits the Rococo style. The sculpture is intended to appeal to senses since it is lighthearted and playful. Generally, the artistic paintings of the two periods were influence by religion and the prevailing philosophies (Dixon 65). However, they differ in that the Renaissance is characterized by order, rationalism, nature and symmetry whereas the Baroque is exhibited by emotional appeal, ornate, dynamism, dramatic and asymmetries.
During the Renaissance era, Christianity mainly influenced Architectures. Other classical ideas especially the architectural expertise of the Roman designer and engineer Vitruvius that was written in the first century B.C also influence architectural work. The largest and highest form of architecture during Renaissance era was the building of churches. This Christian influence came due to the influence of the Pythagorean and platonic concept, which led to the believe that God created cosmos to be a mathematical harmony, where different parts were related to each other through mathematical ratios ( Anderson,122). Most of the architectures during Renaissance era designed buildings during this era by use of this concept of ratio. They believe that a church build using this concept would symbolize perfect beauty. This would make the worshippers to worship God seriously. Thus, architures plan most of the churches by the use of this concept believing that it was the best symbol for God. The example is the San Giorgio Maggiore.
During Renaissance, era architectures were influenced by the Vitruvius and Pythagoras concepts. Vitruvius believed that the building could be build by the use of human figure while Pythagoras believes in mathematical terms. As compared to the Renaissance architecture, the architecture during Baroque also was based on some renowned architecture. The architects also were geared towards building of churches (Anderson, 154). For example, the architect, Giovanni Bernini the designer of the school influenced the building of churches. Most of the churches were building by his concept. He uses vast spaces and curving lines to design St. Peters Basilica.
The difference between Renaissance and Baroque architecture is that in Renaissance architecture the architectural designs were based on the concept of human figure and the mathematical ratios while in Baroque architecture the concept is just based on the vast space and curving lines. However, during both eras architecture was influenced by religion as most of the building was designed by use of church plans and designs. (Anderson, 234).
Renaissance literature refers to the European part of literature influenced by the intellectual and cultural behaviors associated with renaissance. (Chua 68).The Renaissance literature manifests itself by the use of classical literature, humanist philosophy. This benefited by the spread of printing. It is written as by monitoring the movement of the Renaissance. The literature of the Baroque period encompasses wider forms and themes. An example is the literature of Grimmelshausen’s Simplicius Simplicissimus who tells a story of spiritual development reminiscent of Don Quixote Cervantes’
Baroque music is a western style art type of music composed during the late 17 and 18th century. The word Baroque emerged from a Portuguese name classical type of music. Baroque formed major part of the classical music canon, was largely performed, enormously studied, and listened to from different parts of the world. Music historians generally used the term baroque to describe a range of different styles from a wide geographical distribution that was continuously for a period of 150 years to be precise. Middle Baroque in Italy discovered by the abrupt emergence in cantanta, opera and the famous oratorio during early 1630s. This is the period that the bel canto style known. It is an outcome of new concept of music and harmony that heightens the melodies to that with words equality formerly referred to as pre-eminent.
The baroque was a monody and the advent proceeded by the basso continuo. . The overture that often began with the French overture and was later succession to different dances that were as follow; Allemande was the initial instrumental dance after the overture that played at relatively moderate tempo, which started on whichever beat of the bar. (Chua, 94)
The courante is a lively triple meter French dance that preceded the sarabande, one of the slowest of the Spanish baroque dances. It had a little emphases on the second beat which created the halting characteristic among other suite dances.
There was a belief that music could be a possible means of communication. As one of the philosophical currents from the Renaissance interest, the Greeks believed that music was a powerful and important tool of communication that could easily arouse any type of emotion from its listeners.
Renaissance was the first manifestation under the general European renaissance that meant rebirth. The initial part of the renaissance almost saw warfare on the land and sea as the city-state vied for pre-eminence. The renaissance end is as [precise as its start. As many argued, the rise in power by Florence (1494-1498) clearly marks the dreadful end of the famous city’s flourishing (Chua, 122).
As to the terms of word and music, renaissance took vocal music far more serious than the instruments. Its music is highly polyphonic and intense limitation of the voices is common. In renaissance, every single melodic line has unique rhythmic independence making it flow with a gentle slow play like a sharply defined beat.
Works Cited
Anderson, Christy. Renaissance Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Chua, Daniel K. L. (2001). "Vincenzo Galilei, Modernity, and the Division of Nature". In Clark, Suzannah. Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century.
Dixon, Annette. Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons in Renaissance and Baroque Art. Ann Arbor, MI: Merrell Publishers London, 2002. Print.
