How Would You Characterize The Renaissance’s Approach To The Classical World

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How would you characterize the renaissance’s approach to the classical world?

The renaissance was a time of change. The future was eminent yet many found themselves looking back to a time of old; to the time of great buildings and sculptures; when art and creation were rampant. The classical world held the mind of many people of the time. The renaissance saw the classical world as an ideal to be incorporated into the works of the creative of the day.
Italy had the strongest opinion of the classical world. Romans especially believed that the roman style of architecture, literature, theater, art exc. were the ideal models for their types. When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire the scholars of the city grabbed all the archived materials and escaped back to Rome. Luckily Johannes Gutenberg just finished the printing press. Aldus Manutius got a little printing shop going just as the scripts and books were coming in. these pieces were ancient Greek and roman pieces that had never been duplicated and few had ever seen. He printed all the classical works he could get his hands on. He also was keenly interested in making smaller compact books for scholars.
As the works of the past became readily available to those of the renaissance; people in Rome began to look around them and notice that they were living in a city that was the greatest in the world at one time. Works like Vitruvius’ architecture that described how to re-create a roman city, including a theater, inspired new growth. Roman theaters were built. Sculptures were being modeled after ones of old. Michelangelo recreated a sculpture so believably classic that he put it in the ground and dug it up to sell as classic! The times were a changing.
This influx in change also came intensely across in the plays of the day. The new plays written in the old style created the model for neoclassicism. The ideals of neoclassicism grew and traveled to France then through Europe...