Тема 2. English Renaissance

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English Renaissance

1) What are the main features of the 16th century?

The 16th century was the time when under the influence of radical

changes in the basis of the English society, i.e. in the production of material values and in human relations in the process of production, in other words, with the advent of capitalism, radical changes occurred in the spiritual life of the newly-arising nation and its new-born culture that was taking an unmistakably national shape. The process can be referred to as English Renaissance.

2) How did Renaissance change in England?

Renaissance, the epoch of Humanism and the Revival of Learning,

born and nursed in Italy, after revolutionizing the culture and science of Italy and the whole Western world, finally penetrated the insular detachment of England and came softened by the distance with less shock to bring new learning, new religious issues and new art. The human being, the beauty and the joy of this life were now the center of attention.

3) What are the main phases of English Renaissance?

In England one easily distinguishes three main phases of the process: the early phase of the end of the 15th and the first half of the 16th c. and the later phase coinciding with the reign of queen Elizabeth and the life-span of Shakespeare’s death and to the beginning of the puritan revolution was the time marked by a decline of the Renaissance and crisis of Humanism.

4) What are the finest examples of English Renaissance?

The earlier Tudor period was a time of transition from late medieval to Renaissance culture. The new architecture imported from Italy had little in common with the Gothic pointed type. With the revival of classical interest in all of the art there came a tendency to return to the ancient models in building. It was only early in the 16th c. that the influence of the Italian Renaissance architecture was really felt in England in the pure classical lines of Inigo Jones (the Whitehall palace is an example) and in the prodigious fertility, talent and inventiveness of Sir Christopher Wren who used the classic forms with great purity and correctness.

After the Great fire of London he rebuilt a great number of churches and dwellings of the wealthy citizens. St. Paul’s which according to art specialists is the finest protestant cathedral in the world, is a good example of it, as well as the west towers of Westminster Abbey. Both the outstanding architects managed to profit by the new movement in architecture leaving the national foundation of English architecture intact.

Most of the English early Renaissance structures are hybrid in style, often retaining Norman or Gothic features. The buildings of

Oxford show this quite clearly: they are to a large extent Gothic but the

gateways and parts of the building themselves abound in Renaissance

decoration.