What Stopped the Renaissance?

From: LeeMalinda

 "The power of the press is the 

greatest power of them all. 

I tell this city how to think.

I tell this city how to vote. 

I shape its future." 

-- Joseph Pulitzer 

(from Newsies; Rob A theme group)

 

   

The renaissance was a time for man to learn about and find himself. 

First, father Petrarch instigated the thought that humans could be a subject of study and a source of awe. Out of this new popular egocentrism came many developments in language, science, and arts, among other things. Not only were ideas and inventions popular during the renaissance but self-identity and self-invention became a basic part of life for the Renaissance man. With each passing year, a new idea, identity, or invention allowed men to explore the most beautiful and untouched parts of existence, and they grew more and more diverse. Thanks to the printing press, access to information and all of these new things became widely available meaning more and more men could be Renaissance men.

If the renaissance was such a great time then why did it ever end?

From: Pinterest

There was an obvious sense of optimism and hope during the renaissance. Christopher Columbus believed that he could sail across the world arriving to land on the other side of India and he traveled to many kingdoms asking them to fund his epic trip. After several rejections Columbus was undeterred. And he did sail the ocean blue (Macey R blog comment). Is it possible that the discovery of the new world made the earth too small? Since 1492, there really hasn’t been such a “discovery” like Columbus’. Perhaps there is nothing to be found and therefore nothing to look forward to.

From: Wikimedia

From the scientific method and education change to the printing press and painting theory, the renaissance provided leaps and bounds in the realm of innovation (Joe B blog post). An invention that literally created an industry and revolutionized human existence, the printing press, wasn’t outdone until well beyond the end of the renaissance. The fax machine (a technological joke by today’s standards) wasn’t invented until the mid 1800’s. Leonardo Da Vinci had drawn the first known blueprint of a flying machine by 1488, yet Orville and Wilbur didn’t fly until 1903. Could it be that men did not think that further invention was possible?

From: Neebo.com

The idea of spretzzatura allowed man to create a better self. In Castiglione’s The Courtier, men could read about how to be “a perfect Courtier” and the “Moral qualities” that one should possess. Different branches or sects began to preach different attributes and actions – spiritual spretzzatura – that could earn a man eternal life. But it was this very same spretzzatura that each man needed to make himself stand out from the rest that began to mold men into a cookie cutter type. In today’s culture, the media uses the sly spretzzatura style marketing to tell every man and woman what he and she should be (Ashley R salon). Was it the convincing spretzzatura that put an end to individuality and tricked man into trading in his humanity for acceptance into a group?