A Comparison of The Middle Ages vs. The Renaissance

The Middle Ages and Renaissance where worlds apart in every aspect of life. In areas of art, tools such as perspective, realism, and individualism showed the great leap in creativity during the Renaissance. Likewise, the worldly individual, or the “Renaissance Man”, was an improvement over the ignorant, spiritual man of the Middle Ages. Also, the revival of classical learning and education that occurred in the Renaissance was the exact opposite of the suppression of learning during the Middle Ages. The amount of unique advances made in the Renaissance in all areas cannot be paralleled by the progress set forth during the Middle Ages. The word Renaissance itself means rebirth, or the start of something new. Thus, with all these great achievements, the Renaissance was an era clearly distinct from the Middle Ages.

With its great innovative advancements, the Renaissance was a step of head of the Middle Ages in art. During the time of the Renaissance, the cultural rebirth through and revival of Greek and Roman learning brought forth a great change in art (Document 1). Humanism started to gain momentum in Europe, and its rediscovery of the classics and human-based approach to learning led to the creation of many sculptures and realistic portrayals of the human body. It also gave way to individualism, realism, and perspective. For example, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist, humanist, and scientist who studied the human anatomy in detail, dissected corpses in secret, and applied his knowledge to his famous works (Document 6). Similarly, Michelangelo, another famous artist and humanist, used detail of the human body and the Greek technique of including movement in sculpture to craft David and Pieta. These two are renowned sculptures that ...

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...Greek and Roman times.

In essence, the Renaissance and the Middle Ages were two completely different time periods that were the exact opposite of each other. The Renaissance reflected innumerable advancements in art including the techniques of individualism, perspective, realism, and classicism, while the Middle Ages was not nearly as innovative or advanced. Likewise, there was a great difference between the objectives of both time periods. The Renaissance emphasized being worldly and trying to achieve in the present, unlike the religion-centered, spiritual beliefs of the Middle Ages. Also, in the area of education, the Middle Ages was a time period of ignorance with its regression and suppression of learning, while the Renaissance was a period of great academic achievement. Therefore, the Renaissance was a distinct and separate time period from the Middle Ages.