The Italian city regeneration attracted tourists from all over Western Europe. Merchants and bankers are hoping to build wealth among Italian city state artists. Students seeking knowledge and fame travel from miles away. When these tourists returned to their hometown, they brought the Renaissance idea. Eventually, the Renaissance influenced people far from the Italian peninsula.
Italian Renaissance painters often pay attention to religious themes, but the art of lowland countries in northwest Europe pay more attention to portraits, landscapes and everyday life scenes. This is because most people in the lowlands are Calvinists. Calvinism is a division of Christianity and believes in the construction of a simple church without decoration, so artists in northwest Europe are rarely sponsored by their religious leaders.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 - 1569) is now from Dutch Flanders, a part of Belgium. Brueghel learned Italian art, but he developed a different style. He wants to show people their real life. Many of his paintings show farmers' work, dancing, and meals.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in the UK was the most renowned writer of the Renaissance. His plays are full of humor and drama, showing the strengths and weaknesses of the people. The audience gathered to see a speech to the Roman Emperor, the King and the Queen of England, and the youth of Italy.
The oldest Renaissance literature appeared in Italy in the 14th century, Petrarch, Machiavelli, Ariosto was a famous example of Italian Renaissance writer. The influence of the Renaissance from Italy spread to other countries at various times and continued to spread in Europe in the 17th century. The British Renaissance and the Scottish Renaissance date from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. In Northern Europe, academic works of Erasmus, William Shakespeare's plays, Edmund Spencer's poetry, and Sir Philippe Sydney's work may be regarded as the character of the Renaissance.
In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread rapidly from the birthplace of Florence to other parts of Italy and soon spread to other parts of Europe. The invention of the printing press by German printing company Johannes Gutenberg made it possible to spread these new ideas quickly. As it spreads, its ideas diversify and change, adapting to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and national movements. The Scandinavian Renaissance is known as the "North Renaissance." As the Renaissance idea moved from Italy to the north, several innovation areas spread south, especially in the music field. When the music of the Burgundy School of the fifteenth century defined the beginning of the Renaissance music and the musicians themselves entered Italy, the Dutch polyphony formed the core of the first true international style of music since the standardization. Gregorian chant of the 9th century
In the 16th century, the Renaissance spread in Europe and influenced the processes of literature, science, philosophy, religion, politics, and art. However, the Renaissance began in Italy in the beginning. Da Vinci and Michelangelo have learned and involved in many intellectuals and arts fields. Many people think that Leonardo da Vinci is a symbol of the "Renaissance man" - its intellectual achievements and interests cover all fields of art, science and literature. Along with Leonardo da Vinci, other Renaissance figures like Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei and Copernicus are thought to reflect the quality and characteristics of the Renaissance classics. Many of them, including Da Vinci, were also considered humanists, humanism became an important intellectual movement during the Renaissance.