The Italian Renaissance (Italian: Rinascimento [rinaʃʃiˈmento]) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. Proponents of a "long Renaissance" argue that it started around the year 1300 and lasted until about 1600.[1] In some fields, a Proto-Renaissance, beginning around 1250, is typically accepted. The French word renaissance (corresponding to rinascimento in Italian) means "rebirth", and defines the period as one of cultural revival and renewed interest in Classical antiquity after the centuries during what Renaissance humanists labelled as the "Dark Ages". The Italian Renaissance historian Giorgio Vasari used the term rinascita ("rebirth") in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects in 1550, but the concept became widespread only in the 19th century, after the work of scholars such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt.
Maestro Martino de' Rossi, made his career in Italy and worked as the chef at the Roman palazzo of the papal chamberlain ("camerlengo"), the Patriarch of Aquileia. Martino was applauded by his peers, earning him the epitaph of the prince of cooks. His book Libro de Arte Coquinaria (The Art of Cooking) (c. 1465) is considered a landmark in Italian gastronomic literature and a historical record of the transition from medieval to renaissance cuisine. It's divided into 6 chapters: meat, side dishes, sauces, pies/tarts, fried food and egg dishes, fish. These recipes were common and most had been previously published in other pamphlets and books of the time.
L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between
Navigating the art of the past requires a different set of tools than those required for understanding art produced in our contemporary world. This introduction will orient you to some important, basic information as you begin to study Italian renaissance art. Within each section below you will find links to essays and videos that flesh out the themes introduced.
Despite the challenges facing Italian artists in participating directly in renaissance intellectual culture, many fought vigorously to elevate the status of their profession and their own corresponding social standing. Some artists, like Leonardo, sought to elevate visual art by drawing comparisons to philosophy or poetry. As he noted:
The renaissance garden style started in Italy with a renewed interest by renaissance scholars of classical Roman models. They were inspired by descriptions of ancient Roman gardens given by Ovid in his 'Metamorphoses', by the letters of Pliny the Younger, by Pliny the Elder's 'Naturalis Historia', and in 'Rerum Rusticanum' by Varro, all of which gave detailed description of the gardens of Roman villas.
The Italian renaissance garden style is first described in Leon Alberti's 'De re aedificatoria' (The Ten Books of Architecture) where he argues that a villa should both be looked at and a place to look from; that the house should be placed above the garden, where it could be seen and the owner could look down into the garden. Due to Italy's hilly topography, this led to a number of villas sitting in or above terraced gardens, overlooking the surrounding landscape.
During the middle ages, plants were studied for medicinal use. During the Italian renaissance, there was a great change in the study of botany through the systematic classification of plants and the creation of the first botanical gardens, Orto botanico di Padova in the University of Padua.
During the Renaissance period, Europeans started to establish trade routes with the Far East and the New World. This led to an increase in interest of exotic plants from around the known world, and later in the era of renaissance gardens these began to be used extensively as a show of wealth by the property owners.
The Italian renaissance style garden has been a great influence on the rest of Europe, even until this day, and laid the foundation for the French Renaissance and English Renaissance Garden styles that came after this period.
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