7. Speak about the Renaissance period in England. Mention the dates (beginning, developing, stages), the main representatives and the consequences.

The Renaissance was a great cultural movement that began in Italy during the early 1300’s.  It spread to England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries in the late 1400’s and ended in 1600.  It is one of the most beautiful, if not misleading, names in history.  It is beautiful because it implies an awakening of intellectual awareness.  It is misleading because it suggests a sudden rebirth of learning and art after the presumed stagnation of the Middle Ages. During this period of time, the modern world was born as Gutenberg perfected printing, Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, Copernicus found that the earth revolved around the sun, Martin Luther founded a new religion, the use of the cannon and the harquebus ended chivalry and da Vinci and Michelangelo created a new form of art. People believed in old prejudices in the Renaissance world.  While they were aware of mathematics and science, they also held their belief in werewolves, rainfalls of blood and death-predicting comets.  This century also brought the invention of surgery, the watch and bank checks.  But it also saw the rise of witch hunts, wars of religion, destruction of civilization in America and the first black slaves. The Renaissance marks the passing of European society from an exclusively religious orientation to a more secular one and from an age of unquestioning faith and mysticism to one of belief in reason and scientific inquiry. With the rise of humanism, sacred music began for the first time to break free of the confines of the Church, and a school of composers trained in the Netherlands mastered the art of polyphony in their settings of sacred music.  One of the early masters of the Flemish style was JoaquinSecular music thrived during this time and instrumental and dance music was performed in abundance.  The main change, which defines the musical Renaissance, is the use of thirds as structural intervals, the accompanying concision of the musical lines, and the resulting path toward modern harmony.

8. Enumerate the peculiar features of the Renaissance period architecture in England.

Between 1400 to 1600 AD, a return to classical ideas ushered an "age of "awakening" in Italy and northern Europe. This period is known as the Renaissance, which means born anew in French. Before the dawn of the Renaissance, Europe was dominated by asymmetrical and ornate Gothic architecture. During the Renaissance, however, architects were inspired by the highly symmetrical and carefully proportioned buildings of Rome. Features of Renaissance Buildings:

• Symmetrical arrangement of windows and doors

• Extensive use of Classical columns and pilasters

• Triangular pediments

• Square lintels

• Arches

• Domes

• Niches with sculptures

Phases of the Renaissance:

Artists in Northern Italy were exploring new ideas for centuries before the period we call the Renaissance. However, the 1400s and 1500s brought an explosion of talent and innovation. During the early 1400s, the painter and architect Filippo Brunelleschi designed the great Duomo (cathedral) dome. Brunelleschi also rediscovered the principles of linear perspective.

During the 1500s, the great Renaissance painter Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and designed the dome for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. A Classical approach to architecture spread through Europe, thanks to books by two important Renaissance architects:

As Renaissance approaches to building spread to France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Russia, and England, each country incorporated its own building traditions and created its own version of Classicism. By the 1600s, ornate Baroque architecture emerged and became the dominant style in Europe.

Long after the Renaissance period ended, however, architects were inspired by Renaissance ideas. At the turn of the twentieth century, American architects like Richard Morris Hunt designed grand Renaissance Revival style homes that resembled palaces and villas from Renaissance Italy.