the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
2.
the forms and treatments in art used during this period.
3.
(sometimes lowercase) any similar revival in the world of art and learning.
4.
(lowercase) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival: a moral renaissance.
–adjective
5.
of, pertaining to, or suggestive of the European Renaissance of the 14th through the 17th centuries: Renaissance attitudes.
6.
noting or pertaining to the group of architectural styles existing in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries as adaptations of ancient Roman architectural details or compositional forms to contemporary uses, characterized at first by the free and inventive use of isolated details, later by the more imitative use of whole orders and compositional arrangements, with great attention to the formulation of compositional rules after the precepts of Vitruvius and the precedents of existing ruins, and at all periods by an emphasis on symmetry, exact mathematical relationships between parts, and a general effect of simplicity and repose.
7.
noting or pertaining to any of the various adaptations of this group of styles in foreign architecture characterized typically by the playful or grotesque use of isolated details in more or less traditional buildings.
8.
noting or pertaining to the furnishings or decorations of the Renaissance, in which motifs of classical derivation frequently appear.
[Origin: 1830–40; < F, MF: rebirth, equiv. to renaiss- (s. of renaistre to be born again < L renāscī; re-re-+ nāscī to be born) + -ance-ance]
The humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century and later spread throughout Europe.
The period of this revival, roughly the 14th through the 16th century, marking the transition from medieval to modern times.
A revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor: the Celtic Renaissance.
The period of such a revival.
often Renaissance
A revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor: the Celtic Renaissance.
The period of such a revival.
adj.
Renaissance
Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Renaissance or its artistic and intellectual works and styles.
Of or being the style of architecture and decoration, based on classical models, that originated in Italy in the 15th century and continued throughout Europe up to the end of the 16th century.
[French, from Old French, from renaistre, to be born again, from Vulgar Latin *renāscere, from Latin renāscī : re-, re- + nāscī, to be born; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]
"great period of revival of classical-based art and learning in Europe that began 14c.," 1840, from Fr. renaissance des lettres, from O.Fr. renaissance, lit. "rebirth," usually in a spiritual sense, from renaître "be born again," from V.L. *renascere, from L. renasci "be born again," from re- "again" + nasci "be born" (see nascent). An earlier term for it was revival of learning (1785). In general usage, with a lower-case r-, "a revival" (esp. of learning, literature, art), it is attested from 1872. Renaissance man is first recorded 1906.
the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern world; a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries
2.
the revival of learning and culture [syn: rebirth]
The cultural rebirth that occurred in Europe from roughly the fourteenth through the middle of the seventeenth centuries, based on the rediscovery of the literature of Greece and Rome. During the Renaissance, America was discovered, and the Reformation began; modern times are often considered to have begun with the Renaissance. Major figures of the Renaissance include Galileo, William Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. Renaissance means “rebirth” or “reawakening.”
Note: The term renaissance is often used to describe any revival or rediscovery.
Re*nais`sance"\ (F. re-n[asl]`s[aum]Ns"; E. r[-e]-n[=a]s"sans), n. [F., fr. rena[^i]tre to be born again. Cf. Renascence.] A new birth, or revival. Specifically: (a) The transitional movement in Europe, marked by the revival of classical learning and art in Italy in the 15th century, and the similar revival following in other countries. (b) The style of art which prevailed at this epoch. The Renaissance was rather the last stage of the Middle Ages, emerging from ecclesiastical and feudal despotism, developing what was original in medi[ae]val ideas by the light of classic arts and letters. --J. A. Symonds (Encyc. Brit.).
Re*nas"cence\ (r?-n?s"sens), n. [See Renascent, and cf. Renaissance.]1. The state of being renascent. Read the Ph?nix, and see how the single image of renascence is varied. --Coleridge. 2. Same as Renaissance. The Renascence . . . which in art, in literature, and in physics, produced such splendid fruits. --M. Arnold.
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Audio Help [ren-uh-sahns, -zahns, -sahns, ren-uh-sahns, -zahns, -sahns; especially Brit. ri-ney-suh
