Should the Renaissance be considered to be one movement, or several? Support your answer with reference to specific examples

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
a. The Renaissance can be treated as a single movement if one focuses on the common ideals that formed the core of Renaissance culture.
b. Admiration of ancient Greco-Roman culture inspired Europeans to imitate that culture in literary and artistic works.
c. The ideal of the Renaissance man or woman was a well-rounded individual with knowledge of and mastery in a diverse range of fields. Examples include Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci. The liberal arts today reflect a Renaissance education.
d. The importance of maintaining appearances was also a Renaissance ideal. Examples include Cosimo de' Medici hiding his rule behind a republican façade and the courtly ideal, expounded in Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier.
e. The Renaissance can also be considered to be a set of related but distinct movements. These movements can be characterized as intellectual, cultural, and political.
f. Renaissance scholarship highlights the intellectual dimension of the movement, exemplified by humanism. Examples include developments in philology, rhetoric, and science. Scholars working in these fields studied the works of the ancients.
g. The visual arts represent the cultural aspects of the Renaissance. Examples include paintings, architecture, and sculptures.
h. As a political movement, the Renaissance reflected the factional politics that plagued the Italian city-states. Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince reflects Renaissance political ideals.
i. The Renaissance can also be divided geographically. The Italian Renaissance focused on more secular themes, while the Northern Renaissance focused more on Christian themes.