The Renaissance applies to Italian art and architecture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Renaissance is a French word-meaning rebirth. The Renaissance was the revival or cultural awareness among art, law, language, literature, philosophy, science and mathematics . During the early Renaissance many of the most inventive thinkers and creative sculptors, painters, and architects were either born in Italy or went there because of the opportunities to learn, teach, practice their professions, and make their fortunes . During the Renaissance it became a matter of the public and pride to support artists . The following paragraphs will take a look at humanism from the beginning in Italy and then patronage during the Italian Renaissance.
The father of humanism, Francesco Petrarch, helped spread humanism. Petrarch admired the writing of the Roman philosopher Cicero . He had a love for language. He studied forgotten classical manuscripts and reintroduced the ideas of ancient writers . He believed these writings could provide models for human excellence. Petrarch believed that education could serve the public good. He felt a person could learn wisdom by studying moral philosophy, and through the study of rhetoric, the art of speaking and writing, the student could learn to communicate this knowledge to others . Petrarch rediscovered the importance of liberal studies, otherwise known as Studia Huamitates . Those studies considered essential to a free man in Greek and Roman times. Petrarch's teachings and beliefs were spread all over Italy but had a great impact on Florence.
The Renaissance is said to have started in Florence. In Florence the Greek scholar, Manuel Chrysoloras, came to teach the Greek language and ideas. Many went to be taught by him. Italians felt all languages came from the Greek language, yet so little was known about it. For years after, people still went to Florence to learn about the Greeks, especially the teachings of Plato.