Renaissance Art

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The ‘Age of Enlightenment’ is a term used
to describe the trends in thought and letters in Europe and
the American colonies during the 18th century, prior to the
French Revolution of 1789-1799. The phrase was frequently
employed by writers of the period itself, convinced that
they were emerging from centuries of darkness and ignorance
into a new age enlightened by reason, science, and a
respect for humanity. Of the basic assumptions and beliefs
common to philosophers and intellectuals of this period,
perhaps the most important was an that of there faith in
the power of human reason. People came to assume that
through a primitive use of reason in progress, it would be
possible to progress in knowledge, in technical
achievement, and even in moral values.
Although they saw the church as the principal force
that had enslaved the human mind in the past, most
Enlightenment thinkers did not renounce religion
altogether. Many opted for a form of Deism, accepting the
existence of God and of a hereafter, but rejecting the
teachings of Christian theology. They also felt that human
life should be spent on improvement. More than a set of
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fixed ideas, the Enlightenment implied an attitude and a
method of thought. During the first half of the 18th
century, the leaders of the Enlightenment waged an uphill
struggle against considerable odds. Several were imprisoned
for their writings, and most were hampered by government
censorship and attacks by the church. The later decades of
the century marked a triumph of the movement in Europe and
America. The enormous increase in the publication of
newspapers and books ensured a wide diffusion of new ideas.
Thus in the end seeing that the age of enlightenment was...