Changes

During the various cataclysms that engulfed northern Italy in the centuries after the fall of Rome, many refugees fled to a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea, sometime in the 5th century AD.<ref>Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1982), p 13</ref> Over time, several settlements developed, on some islands and they merged to become a single city, which came to be known as Venice. It became a dependency of Byzantium in the 6th century AD .<ref>Norwich, p 14</ref>. The relationship with the successor state of the Roman Empire allowed Venice to become a great trading and maritime power by the 11th century AD.

The city was the most important commercial center in Italy, although it had competitors such as Amalfi and later Genoa. The city after the Crusades and the capture of Byzantium were was the major commercial power in the region. The trade of Venice helped to create the prosperity that was essential for the Renaissance.  The ‘Serene Republic’ and its fleet of trading ships allowed Italian states to export their wares and products. This meant that it not Not only did the city grow wealthy, but it greatly boosted the economy of other Italian Republics and for . For example, allowed Florentine clothiers to could export their cloth to Northern Europe and the Levant. The wealth that was produced by Venice and its trade routes was essential in the fostering of the urban milieu that was so important for the development of Civic Humanism .<ref> Norwich, p 114</ref>.  More importantly, the profits generated by Venice traders for Italian merchants and rulers, allowed them to become patrons of the arts. Without this great artists’ such as Michelangelo and others would not have been able to create their masterpieces. Venice commercial links were crucial in the development of the Renaissance.  Moreover, the demands of long-distance trade meant that the Venetians had to develop sophisticated financial instruments and progressive business regulations. This was These developments were immensely beneficial to the city and its merchants’, but they were also imitated by other Italian Republicsquickly imitated them. This Venice's wealth helped to foster the economic conditions that promoted the cultural and artistic flourishing of the Renaissance.

The While the printing press was developed in Germany in the late 15th century. It seems that the technology was , Venetians quickly adopted by the Venetiantechnology. By the early 16th century , the city had developed an indigenous printing industry. Indeed, it was to become one of the major centres centers of the early print industry in Europe. This The presence of printers was not only important economically but also culturally. The Republic’s printers produced many important volumes of Latin and Greek authors , and this was very important for the study of the classical past. Printed peoples encouraged more to study the ancient past, which was very important in the spread of Humanism and ideas such as the superiority of reason and the individual .<ref> Ackroyd, Peter. Venice: Pure City (London, Chatto & Windus. 2009), p 113</ref>. Venetians  Venetian printers unlike elsewhere also did not have to contend with Church censorship and especially or the threat of the fearsome Inquisition. This meant that many Venetians printed texts that could not be printed elsewhere were published anywhere else in the city-stateCatholic world. Moreover, the Republic’s publishing industry attracted many writers to the city, such as the great satirist Aretino who were able to earn a living with their pen and did not require a patron.<ref>Norwich, p 113</ref>.

The Republic has a long tradition of workshops who which produced works influenced by Byzantine icons. The city’s artists who formed associations came under the influence of those from nearby Padua. They introduced oil painting into to the city , and the works of Leonardo were also influential . The Venetians absorbed the new ideas and techniques and developed a new style of painting.  Jacopo Bellini (1400–1470) is considered to be the founder of the Venetian School which was characterized by the use of color and a love of light to create works which have remarkable environments. His sons Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law Andrea Mantegna, also produced masterpieces. Bellini’s workshop trained many great artists. These included Titian (1498-1575) and Giorgione (c. 1477/8–1510). They are considered to have increased the portrayal of landscapes in painting , and they achieved great effects by organizing colors in evocative ways. Titian who lived to a great age was noted for his daring compositions. The Venetian School because of the city’s liberal atmosphere were able to paint nudes and also erotic paintings.  A good example of this openess is Titian’s Venus from 1538. Titian became court painter of the Hapsburg Court of Charles V , and he helped to spread the ideas and techniques of the Venetian School across Europe. Among the other great painters that lived and worked in the Republic were Tintoretto (1518–1594),and he helped to develop the Mannerist School which prefigured Baroque Art.  Venice also had a great an extraordinary architectural tradition as seen represented in the magnificent both St Mark’s Cathedral and the piazza. Many great architects worked in the city in the sixteenth century such as the great Palladio who is one of the most important domestic significant Venetians architects of all time. There also emerged a school of sculpture in the city that interpreted the classical tradition in a poetic and sensitive style. Venice made a great significant contribution to art, architecture , and sculpture especially in the 16th century and it is regarded as one of the great centres centers of the Renaissance, the equal of Rome and Florence. Moreover, the city was to become one of the centres centers of European art until the 18th century .<ref>Brown, Patricia Fortini. Painting and history in Renaissance Venice (London, Blackwell, 1984), p 113</ref>.

Venice was a great commercial center and maritime power. It was instrumental in the economic expansion of Italy that was so important for the artistic and intellectual flourishing, that was the Renaissance. The Venetians enabled city-states to become wealthy and allowed rich merchants and rulers to patronize the humanists’ scholars and artists. The city was much more receptive to new ideas and technologies than the rest of Italy because it was both a great trading power. This is best seen in the development of printing in the city-state and less dogmatic than the emergence of print culture. Venice because of its print industry and its liberal atmosphere meant that many intellectuals worked in the city. Then there was the emergence of the Venetian School of Painting. The ‘Serene Republic’ produced many rest of the greatest painters of the 16th century such as Titian and these decisively changed the history of art. It also produced a great many accomplished sculptures and architects, who still inspire admiration to this dayregion.