Renaissance

• WITHIN ELIZABETH'S REIGN...

  • High culture of the wealthy, transformed and evolved into a popular culture.
  • Shakespeare's appeal to both educated elite and groundlings spread the movement.
• ART UNDER ELIZABETH:

  • Flemish models
  • Formal portraiture remained, no determined artists such as Holbein under Henry VIII.
  • Portrait miniature cultural importance
• ARCHITECTURE:

  • Despite golden age, Queen reluctant to commission new buildings.
  • Compensated for these by courtiers and the wealthy.
• LITERATURE:

  • Increased education caused emergence of a sophisticated, literate and reading public.
  • Public attended plays
  • Companies were competitive such as the Globe and the Swan.
• THEATRE:

  • Pressure of dramatists such as Shakespeare to appeal to all social classes.
  • Foxe's book of martyrs as prose literature.
• MUSIC:

  • Flourished in Elizabethan England
  • Elizabeth responsible for settlement saving musical culture in Cathedrals.
  • Previously threatened by protestants, opposed to the 'beaty of holiness'
  • Secular music flourished, especially at court.
  • 1601, 25 madrigals honoured the Queen.
  • Many towns had official bands.
• BY THE END OF HER REIGN...

  • England was transformed religiously and culturally.
  • Catholicism survived as the country-house religion of a small minority.
  • Church of England was more assured and confident.
  • England demonstrated a great cultural flowering.