The Renaissance in Western Europe can be roughly divided into three stages.
The first stage is1early 4th century to1mid 5th century. This is the Renaissance. The basic feature of this stage is that writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and artist Giotto, centered on Florence, Italy, set off an enlightenment movement to criticize scholasticism and put forward a new trend of humanism (that is, a new outlook on life and world with bourgeois individualism as the core), marking the beginning of the Renaissance, also known as the "early Italian Renaissance".
The second stage, from the middle of15th century to the end of16th century, is a period of all-round prosperity of painting, literature and drama. Three great artists, leonardo da vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, appeared in Italy, which achieved unprecedented artistic prosperity for the "Late Italian Renaissance". This movement quickly spread to Germany, France, Britain, Spain and other countries, and produced many humanist scholars such as Lasmo, rabelais, Shakespeare, Thomas More and Cervantes, which pushed the Renaissance in Western Europe to a climax.
The third stage is from the beginning of17th century to the middle of17th century, which is the period of the rise of modern natural science and new philosophy. This period produced Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and other famous natural scientists, as well as Francis Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza and other materialistic philosophers.
The Renaissance, which lasted for three centuries, promoted the birth of modern civilization, kicked off the bourgeois anti-feudal struggle, and made Western Europe step into the forefront of world cultural development.
The emergence of the European Renaissance has its profound economic and political reasons. The Renaissance originated in Italy, where capitalism was first born. The germination of capitalist relations of production is the economic basis for the emergence of the Renaissance.
With the development of capitalism, the struggle against feudal lords emerged among the emerging civil classes. Since the 10 century, some cities in northern Italy have got rid of the control of nobles and established "cities * * * and countries" one after another. Florence gained autonomy from 1 1 15, and finally overthrew the aristocratic rule in 1293 and established the bourgeois dictatorship in Florence. After the bourgeoisie came to power, it actively demanded the establishment of a new culture to serve the development of capitalist economy. Therefore, Florence became the center of the Italian Renaissance. The establishment of cities and countries is the political guarantee of the Renaissance.
In addition, Italy has preserved a large number of ancient Greek and Roman cultural heritages, which is also a condition for the priority of the Renaissance.
By the16th century, capitalist relations of production were widespread in Germany, France, Britain, Spain and other countries, and the emerging bourgeoisie was growing day by day, requiring further development and expansion of new culture. As a result, the Renaissance, which originated in Italy, quickly spread to many European countries and produced hundreds of humanist masters. Renaissance in different countries has its own characteristics, which is the ideological reflection of their differences in historical development.
Renaissance is a new cultural movement of the bourgeoisie. It fundamentally shook the foundation of theological world outlook, destroyed the spiritual pillar of feudal system, liberated people's minds, promoted the prosperity of science, literature and art, and had important progressive significance. However, because it is a bourgeois cultural movement, it inevitably has the limitations of the times and classes.