The Problem with "the Renaissance".

There is some debate amongst historians as to whether or not the Renaissance occurred as a complete break from the past or gradually as a continuation from the Middle Ages. Some even go as far as to deny a Renaissance ever occurred. It is generally considered to have begun in Italy in the city of Florence, although development occurred at different times throughout the other city states and the rest of northern Europe. How it manifested and in which fields also differed from state to state, affected by both political and economic circumstances. Exactly when it took place, then, is difficult to determine and impossible to place in a chronological format.

The Renaissance is a French word meaning "re-birth" and is used to refer to the period that occurred during the 14th to the 16th century, between the Middle Ages and the Reformation. The term was first coined in the 19th century by the historian Jules Michelet, although an equivalent Italian word, RinÐ" scita, was used by the art historian Giorgio Vasari in 1550. The traditional view is that it was a reconnection of the west with the classical ideas and models of ancient Rome and Greece.

Renaissance Italy was a collection of city states, each with its own form of government. This vast difference in rule, along with the economic state of each of these cities, resulted in a staggering of the movement's manifestation throughout the region. Florence is widely regarded as the birth place of the Renaissance, which first occurred in the 1420s. Early signs of the movement can be seen in the paintings of the Florentine artists Masaccio (born Tomasso Guidi, 1401-1428) who, inspired by the work of his contemporaries, acquired a knowledge of classical art and mathematical proportion which would draw him away from the well established gothic style of the Middle Ages. His fresco "La TrinitÐ" " (The Trinity) was the first time full perspective had been seen used in Western art. The early development of the Renaissance in Florence is starkly contrasted with that of Venice, which did not see the beginnings of the Renaissance until the early 1500s. The first appearance of Renaissance art here was that of Veneto born Tiziano Vecellio, more commonly known as Titian, whose first major public commission in Venice was a piece for the high altar of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (1516Ð'-18), "The Assumption of the Virgin", which established his status as the leading painter of Venice.

The Renaissance also materialised differently across the city states with the ruling government and the economy having a profound effect on the development of each state. While some cities thrived with art and architecture, others were more established in the fields of literature and publishing. Florence was patronised chiefly by the guilds and the state. The Wool Guild, which gave out many important commissions for religious works, is a famous example of such patronage. In despotic states, however, we see a different kind of patronage. In Urbino, for example, Piero della Francesca (1422-1492) was commissioned to paint portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, the duke and duchess.

There is dispute amongst historians as to whether or not the Renaissance occurred as a complete