Greeks, Romans and Renaissance

 

In my dreams I walk in wonderous lands. Sometimes I talk to the old oak, sometimes I look at birds flying in the sky. Beautiful illumination shows me another world. Most of the time it is peaceful. Then a nightmare occurs. I am trapped in my psychotic reality. A warmongers crowd state to be the guardian of peace. Monsterous bodies all covered with eyes, implants to read our thoughts, no daylight, excruciating pain and humiliation, finally the soothening but hated end. Only to wake up in my perfect reality of books.

 

 Web resources

 

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ 

http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/wsnlinks/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=26 

 

 

 

 

 

The past last, the present holds everything for a split second , the future is a mixture of the first two, a kind of forfilment of yesterday's plans and all that work of today.

 

What is the realm now I wonder of history?

The past itself, the present or the future?

If we even can establish a time setting is that enough?

 

Let's say I break a leg. It wil happen so rappidly that in an instant present turns into history. No intent to change my day like that.

The pain it causes lies between the past and the future and conducts in various ways. Now its stings then it is hot and warm.

 

At 12.40 pm a have broken my leg                                                 = an assumption

At 13.40 pm the bone doctor saw the X-ray and casted my leg         = confirmation of assumption and a fact

At 14.00 pm I assume that the next six weeks will be painfull           = assumption based on experience

 

So we have facts, intent or not and time. Is this history with the big H. No History needs more. You will agree. No doubt in your mind. But wat?

 

I say it is meaning and appreciation only.

 

In every individual life people are looking for meaning and appreciation. Al so every society how small or complex. Why?

 

Most people -as far as my knowledge goes- never lived alone. It belongs to our species to act as a group. In order to survive we have developed emotions, memory and recognition.

It is very useful to recognize danger, whether it is a fierceful lion wanting to attack or reckless driving in your street.

 

We also like to improve our appearance and shape our environment. Why are we doing that and why am I not able to be the next president of the United States.

 

Society grows with people. The more they give meaning to spiritual and material matter, the more they can be identified as a group. Just like a baby has the capacity to fit into different ways of thinking and acting, the elderly lost this. New societies will have a flexible phase. In order to survive they will define the their most useful tools, but by doing so they grow old so fast.

 

It is nature's law to grow old. This is process that can't be stopped. So if we can't stop certain developments, then we have a urge to controle it. Perhaps only to decide where to go and what to do.

We not only want to pass on our genes, also our thoughts and everything that we have build. A sense of purpose is just like air, we can't live without.

The more people involved in our mission, the less we will lose. It is our purpose to survive elegantly and erudite.

 

 

 http://content.bhg.org/books/books.php?type=de&id=2015

 

 

 

Commerce and the discovery of new land but also the the plague and other major events must have shapen the Renaissance mood.

I'll start with this period because -it is my opinion- it is the most defined of the three periods.Three books show you fundamental changes.

 

• Cenninio Cinni 1370-1440, born in Tuscany, wrote Il libro dell'Arte. It is a book full of practical intructions for painters.

 

His main purpose was to preserve excellent craftmenship. That was apreciated and had a meaning.

 

• Leon Battista Alberti 1404-1474, born in Genua, wrote De pictura. This book was written in Latin but soon was available in italian (Della Pittura).

 

The most imported meaning of his book was the What and Why of painting.

 

Istoriae (stories) had to be painted. The painter's job was not only to use his craftmenship his knowledge was also very importent.

Humans are the centre of understanding the surrounding world and universe. An essential diffrence in comparison with the Middle Ages.

 

So, painting people in a surrounding with manny intellectual layers was what they ought to paint in order to make spectators understand their world and universe.

 

• Giorgo Vasari 1511-1574, born in Arezzo wrote Le Vite de Più Eccelenti Architetti, Pittori et Scultori.

 

This book is the startingpoint in art history. Until then in a certain way unknown. The position of the artist has changed. He himself was worth writing about. The artist was the object of studie and his works of collection.

 

The aim of craftmenship was not to handover but to invent new materials, forms and technics.

 

In the Renaissance a difference was made between fine arts and applied arts.

Painting, sculpture and architecture appeals to beauty and intellect only.

Thing that we can use every day became the field of applied arts.

 

Not the use of expensive materials or craftmenship were the only criteria used to value art. The artist's fame had meaning,appriciation and purpose.

 

De pictura

 

 

People tend to migrate inwards and outwards. A change of mind can lead to another environment. Small scale or large scale changes can set off migration. In the first phase of  that process wars can occur. After stabilization often a process of acculturation takes place. Acculturation involves the paticipation of ethnic-cultural minorities  in the cultural and economic traditions, values, assumptions, and practices of the dominant society.

 

Lets have a look at ancient Greece.

In the early days when the peninsula wasn't even called Greece, Indo-European immigrants founded small rural villages

The polis in ancient Greece was a city-state that ruled the urban surroundings. The word politics derived from this old greek word. One of the poleis (plural for polis) was Athens. It was the capital of Attica. There democracy (comes from demos kratein = people rule) was born.

 

Most resources wil explain the term polis as territory,  social economical and juridical status, cults and the laws of the residents. It is not my intention to rewrite these subjects. Bear in mind only that relative small states had a complex structure in order to remain self sufficient.

 

I want to discuss the difference between Greek, Latin and Renaissance city-states in general. How new creative thoughts arose in a given political environment.