Renaissance’s Influences on the British.doc

Renaissance Renaissance is a French word, meaning “rebirth” or “revival”. In England, at first a great number of classical works were translated into English in the 15th and 16th century. Meanwhile, English scholars and men of letters showed a strong interest in ancient Greek，Rome art and science. They followed in the wake of the intellectual and literally movement which began in the 14th century in Italy and later spread to France, Spain, Holland and other western European countries. Although renaissance came late in England. But when it did come, it had a far-reaching impact on Englishmen. Here I will introduce you some towering figures and representative architecture of this period in England.1、Architecture In the middle of 16th Century, renaissance architecture was gradually established in England. The buildings appeared transitional style, inherited the traditional Gothic architecture, and it used the Italy Renaissance architectural details. Medieval Britain was keen on building a magnificent church. In the second half of 16th Century, Englishmen began to pay attention to the secular architecture. 1.1 Manor HouseLarge luxury mansions owned by wealthy and powerful gentlemen were built in the countryside. Mansions had towers, gable, entablature, parapet, handrails and chimney. Walls often had many square bay windows. Renaissance architectural style of the details was also applied to the interior decoration and furniture. 1.1.1 Longleat House (15681575) It was designed by John Thynne, William Spicer and Robert Smythson in Wiltshire. Strictly speaking，it was the earliest renaissance architecture in England. Its building lot was quite large, of which the main facade was 67-meter long, 50-meter high, including two courts. The building was divided into three layers, with flat roof, railing type parapet around the eaves, small dome and the chimney on the roof. The facade of the building was Continental Europe Renaissance style, but the windows itself were large lattice windows which represented the British tradition. 1.1.2 Voleton Mansion (15801588） It was designed by Roben Smithson in Nottingham. The biggest characteristic of this architecture was that its previous castle of plane layout within adytum as the core was completely changed to the arrangement of the hall in the center position. The appearance of the building was a mixture of the European style and traditional British style. For example turret of Ridu Castle, pillars with a plat band, embossed decorative gables and British traditional lattice windows and Gothic windows, all of them reflected the fashion of Renaissance style and architectural thoughts in Britain. 1.2 Royal palaces Manor houses were representative buildings of England in 16th Century. Then the British king hadnt his own palace, he turned to live in large aristocratic manor houses. After completion of the absolute monarchy in 17th Century, the Royal Palace instead of mansions led the architectural trends. 1.2.1Queens House (16161635) It was designed by Inigo Jones in Greenwich. The Queens house was designed for Queen of James I, including two volumes of the same building and garden with colonnade connecting all parts together. Although the building was Italy High Renaissance style, especially in the construction principles of Palladio for the design of the pointer, it was made considerable consolidation and simplification in the facade decoration. It inherited the Renaissance spirit. Meanwhile, it improved the specific architectural works to a higher level. 1.2.2 Banqueting House of Whitehall(16191622)It was designed by Inigo Jones in London. This British building was the most complete description of Italian High Renaissance style. It had three layers. The second and third layers were actually a cross layer hall, and the third floor is just a corridor. The hall was 32-meter long, 16-meter high and wide, and its volume was equivalent to two cubes (ceiling paintings were drawn by Rubens). The buildings interior and external circular and square were conic and Corinth column (column and wall). Facade structure completely followed the Chieri Katie house, such as several projecting bays in the centre. 1.3 Cathedral Cathedrals of baroque style were very popular at this time because the baroque style broke through the blind worship of ancient Rome architectural theorist Vitruvius as well as all the sacred rules and conventions of the late Renaissance classicism. On the other hand, the magnificent baroque church can also create a very strong mysterious atmosphere. 1.3.1 St Pauls Cathedral(16751710) St Pauls Cathedral the largest church in England was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in London. St Pauls Cathedral in Britain was equivalent to St Peters Cathedral in Italy. It was the British architectural monuments in 17th Century. To some degree, Facade construction reflected influences of French Baroque facade composition. Both sides of the clock tower had the Italy Baroque architectural style, while the classical atmosphere dominated all the buildings. St Pauls Cathedrals nave was three corridor type planes. Its form and structure were the same way of the Gothic Cathedral (the difference lied in the use of circular arch and hidden flight tickets). The domes diameter was 34.2 meters and was ternary structure. The inner and intermediate layer was made of bricks; the outer layer was a wooden frame lead sheath (similar to the French Don Walids Church). The middle layer dome was Conical, directly supporting the 850 tons pavilion-shaped spire (domes weight was about 23000 ton). 1.3.2 St Johns Cathedral (1720) It was designed by Thomas Archer in London. English Baroque architecture was generally defined by the composition techniques. It was very different from the origin ones the Italy Baroque buildings. Because the overall style of many English Baroque architecture had strong classical and renaissance temperament. Thomas Archer the architect of St Johns Cathedral was a British Master of Italy baroque style. Although St Johns Cathedral which he designed was relegated to the ugliest buildings by many British people at that time, perhaps it was the only Baroque church from the academic point of view.2、Literature Influenced by those foreign literary works and ideas in the 16th Century, the British poetry and prose had been a great development at the end of the century. In addition, Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, which marked a turning point in British history. After that, politics were relatively stable and economy was prosperous, which laid the foundation for the development of English literature. 2.1 Thomas More(14771535) As a founder of the early utopian socialism theory and full of wit humanist scholar and experienced politician, he was a most prominent humanist during the Renaissance. He was remembered by its famous book Utopia which was published in 1516 and presented Mores ideal of the best possible government form. Private ownership made the best of everything in the hands of the worst men, while the rest are poor. Therefore, only when private ownership was completely abolished, wealth can be distributed really averagely and human beings can enjoy the benefits. He first proposed the elimination of private ownership and establishment of public ownership in the socialist history. 2.2 Francis Bacon（15611626）He was the most important English Renaissance proser and philosopher. Marx and Engels said that Bacon was the first founder of British materialism and the true ancestor of the experimental science. That was scientific generalization of Bacons philosophical characteristics. He had made significant achievements not only in literature, philosophy but also in the fields of natural science. His greatest contributions in philosophy were that he put forward a series of principles of materialistic empiricism; lay down the inductive logic system which emphasized the role of cognition in experiment. He thought that the real of cognition was consistent with the real of existence and the difference was just because of direct light or reflected light. This was a fairly thorough reflection of materialist theory.His most important work The Advancement of Learning (1605) in which he classified all branches of learning, which had a great influence on the 18th-century Comtians. In his Latin work The Novum Organum(New Method)(1620) Bacon presented his theory of scientific method which taught how to interpret nature, discussed natural history including several natural phenomena and gave examples of his new method in use. His Utopian work is The New Atlantics (1610), and he is also well known for his Essays (1625) the collection of which came out from 1597 to 1625 in various editions and were distinguished for their elegant style.2.3 William Shakespeare（15641616） He was a great dramatist and poet in the English renaissance period. He was a man of the late Renaissance who gave the fullest expression to humanist ideals. He represented the trend of history in giving voice to people of desires and aspirations, so his plays included the whole transitional period of England from medieval time to modern time; humanist outlook prevailed in his comedies as well as in his late tragedies; he was most successful in his characterization, for instance, Shylocks image in The Merchant of Venice and Hamlets Classical monologue left a deep impression on us; he was also a great poet and was famous for sonnet sonnet was first written by the Italian poet Petrarch(1304-1374). He was a master of the English language. It was estimated that he had a command of about 15, 000 words.His four great tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.Four comedies are A Midsummer Night Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night.Historical plays are Richard III，Henry IV，Antony and CleopatraTragicomedies are Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, Winters Tale, and The TempestHe also wrote 154 sonnet，two long poetry.Epilogue If the discovery of geography symbolizes human beings stepping into the unknown material world, then the Renaissance is