Concepts of the Renaissance, c. 1780–c. 1920

As time passes, history has been divided and subdivided, the ancient and the modern separated by the medieval, the modern succeeded by the post-modern. If the nineteenth century, its science, industry and innovation was “modern,” could it really be only one step along the evolutionary path from “medieval” superstition? The concept of the Renaissance provided a neat transition, European society and culture renewing itself, reviving itself after centuries of “medieval” gloom, thereby giving birth to the modern world. The 19th-century renaissance of the Renaissance has proved to be a fruitful area of study, as indicated by numerous Reference Works and Overviews, and confirmed by Broader Surveys, Collections of Papers and Journals. After those general categories, the present article adopts a roughly chronological pattern beginning with Rinascita before “Renaissance” in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Thereafter geographical divisions emerge, first with The Arts in Mid-19th-Century Britain and then The Arts in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Britain. The section c. 1860 has been created to highlight works contemporary with and often overshadowed by the most influential concept of the Renaissance, that of Jacob Burckhardt (b. 1819–d. 1897), whose significance requires that Burckhardt and His Legacy be divided into Texts and Analysis, with an additional subsection on the museum director Wilhelm von Bode. Burchkardt’s Kultur der Renaissance in Italien was published in 1860, but at the risk of confusion is cited as “Burckhardt 1990” in the present article. It made relatively little impact during its creator’s lifetime, enabling Pater, Symonds, and Their Contemporaries to establish their own concepts of the Renaissance. By the 1880s the Renaissance was so clearly accepted as something centered on Italy and its visual arts that enthusiasts flocked there, some taking up permanent residence as Expatriates in Italy. Meanwhile, French, German, and British concepts of the Renaissance found echoes in Other Nations. Renaissance Artists and Their Cults—the term is deliberate, reflecting an unprecedented mania—were increasingly apparent as the nineteenth century passed, and in turn encouraged a Renaissance emphasis in the International Art Market. Thereafter, Architecture and Horticulture is the fifth consecutive section to include works by, about, or inspired by Bernard Berenson (b. 1865–d. 1959). Music accounts for appropriate aspects of the early music revival, while Histories and Biographies identifies use of the term “Renaissance” in other subject areas. Enthusiasm for the Renaissance was characteristic of the Belle Époque, so the final section of this article inquires after The Waning of the Renaissance? in the decade of the First World War.

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