Major Intellectual And Artistic Center Of Italy example essay topic

Italy (Italian Italia), republic in southern Europe, bounded on the north by Switzerland and Austria; on the east by Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea; on the south by the Ionian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea; on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ligurian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea; and on the northwest by France. It comprises, in addition to the Italian mainland, the Mediterranean islands of Elba, Sardinia, and Sicily and many lesser islands. Enclaves within mainland Italy are the independent countries of San Marino and Vatican City; the latter is a papal state mostly enclosed by Rome, the capital and largest city of Italy. The area of Italy is 301,302 sq km (116,333 sq mi).

Land and Resources More than half of Italy consists of the Italian Peninsula, a long projection of the continental mainland. Shaped much like a boot, the Italian Peninsula extends generally southeast into the Mediterranean Sea. From northwest to southeast, the country is about 1145 km (about 710 mi) long; with the addition of the southern peninsular extremity, which extends north to south, it is about 1360 km (about 845 mi) long. The maximum width of the mainland portion of Italy is about 610 km (about 380 mi) in the north; the maximum width of the peninsula is about 240 km (about 150 mi).

On the northern frontiers are the Alps, which extend in a wide arc from Venti miglia on the west to Gorizia on the east, and include such high peaks as Monte Cervin o (4478 m/14,692 ft) and Monte Rosa, which rises to its highest point (4634 m/15,203 ft) in Switzerland just west of the border. The highest point in Italy is near the summit of Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco), on the border of Italy, France, and Switzerland; the peak, located in France, is 4807 m (15,771 ft). Between the Alps and the Apennines which form the backbone of the Italian Peninsula, spreads the broad Plain of Lombardy, comprising the valley of the Po River. The northern Apennines project from the Maritime Alps along the Gulf of Genoa to the sources of the Tiber River.

Monte Cim one (2163 m/7097 ft) is the highest summit of the northern Apennines. The central Apennines, beginning at the source of the Tiber, consist of several chains. In the eastern portion of this rugged mountain district is Monte Cor no (2914 m/9560 ft), the highest Apennine peak. The southern Apennines stretch southeast from the valley of the San gro River to the coast of the Gulf of Taranto, where they assume a more southerly direction.

High peaks of the Apennine ranges of the Calabrian Peninsula, as the southern extremity of the Italian Peninsula is known, include Bottle Donato (1929 m/6329 ft) and Mont alto (1957 m/6422 ft). The Apennines form the watershed of the Italian Peninsula. The main uplifts are bordered by less elevated districts, known collectively as the sub-Apennine region. Only about one-third of the total land surface of Italy is made of plains, of which the greatest single tract is the Plain of Lombardy. The coast of Italy along the northern Adriatic Sea is low and sandy, bordered by shallow waters and, except at Venice, not readily accessible to oceangoing vessels. From a point near Rimini southward, the eastern coast of the peninsula is fringed by spurs of the Apennines.

Along the middle of the western coast, however, are three stretches of low and marshy land, the Campagna di Roma, the Pontine Marshes, and the Maremma. The western coast of Italy is broken up by bays, gulfs, and other indentations, which provide a number of natural anchorages. In the northwest is the Gulf of Genoa, the harbor of the important commercial city of Genoa. Naples, another leading western coast port, is situated on the beautiful Bay of Naples, dominated by the volcano Mount Vesuvius. A little farther south is the Gulf of Salerno, at the head of which stands the port of Salerno. The southeastern end of the peninsula is deeply indented by the Gulf of Taranto, which divides the so-called heel of Italy (ancient Calabria) from the toe (modern Calabria).

The Apennine range continues beneath the narrow Strait of Messina and traverses the island of Sicily, where the volcano Mount Etna, 3323 m (10,902 ft) high, is located. Another active volcano rises on Stromboli, one of the Li pari Islands, northwest of the Strait of Messina. In addition to volcanic activity, Italy is also plagued by frequent minor earthquakes, especially in the southern regions. Principal Cities The capital and largest city of Italy is Rome (population, 1991, 2,775,250), which is a famous cultural and tourist center. Other cities with populations of more than 300,000 in the 1991 census include Milan (1,369,231), an important manufacturing, financial, and commercial city; Naples (1,067,365), one of the busiest ports in Italy; Turin (962,507), a transportation junction and major industrial city; Palermo (698,556), the capital and chief seaport of Sicily; Genoa (678,771), the leading port in Italy and a major trade and commercial center; Bologna (404,378), a major transportation center and agricultural market; Florence (403,294), a cultural, commercial, transportation, and industrial center; Bari (342,309), a major commercial center; Catania (333,075), a manufacturing and commercial city of Sicily; and Venice (309,422), a leading seaport and a cultural and manufacturing center.

Religion The dominant religion of Italy is Roman Catholicism, the faith of about 84 percent of the people. However, the Catholic church's role in Italy is declining; only about 25 percent of Italians attend mass regularly, and a law ratified in 1985 abolished Roman Catholicism as the official state religion and ended mandatory religious instruction in public schools. The constitution guarantees freedom of worship to the religious minorities, which are primarily Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish. Renaissance, period of European history that saw a renewed interest in the arts.

The Renaissance began in 14th-century Italy and spread to the rest of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. In this period, the fragmented feudal society of the Middle Ages, with its agricultural economy and church-dominated intellectual and cultural life, was transformed into a society increasingly dominated by central political institutions, with an urban, commercial economy and lay patronage of education, the arts, and music. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Florentine artist, one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavors. His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studies particularly in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulics anticipated many of the developments of modern science. The Last Supper One of the most famous religious paintings of all time, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper (about 1495-1497) decorates the walls at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.

This mural depicts the moment immediately following Christ's dramatic announcement to his disciples that One of you shall betray me. Unfortunately, much of the mural has deteriorated because Leonardo painted with an oil-tempera mixture that did not stick well to the wall. A 15th and early 16th century Italian artist and scientist, Leonardo ranks as one of the great creative figures of the European Renaissance (1300-1600). Early Life in Florence Leonardo was born in the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany, near Florence. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In the mid-1460's the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, a major intellectual and artistic center of Italy, could offer.

He rapidly advanced socially and intellectually. He was handsome, persuasive in conversation, and a fine musician and improviser. About 1466 he was apprenticed as a garzon e (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo was introduced to many activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was entered in the painter's guild of Florence, and in 1476 he was still considered Verrocchio's assistant.

In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ (1470, Uffizi, Florence), the kneeling angel at the left of the painting is by Leonardo. In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master. His first commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, was never executed. His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi (begun 1481, Uffizi), left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a Scope to, Florence. Other works ascribed to his youth are the so-called Be nois Madonna (1478, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg), the portrait Gin evra de' Be nci (1474, National Gallery, Washington, D.C. ), and the unfinished Saint Jerome (1481, Pinacoteca, Vatican).