Saint Dominic High School - Stella Maris Yearbook (Oyster Bay, NY)

Page 46 text:

x xfxf X! K V X QM xf V W 4. 1 I X w x N il-' ff? ilifyyf' X S. X 1 'X fx X N ff! ww NXXXXXN bbbvvvvvb A Q

Page 45 text:

lv , .X Z5

Page 47 text:

The Rena1ssance, the perlod of trans1t1on from the M1ddle Ages to modern t1mes, was charact rlzed by an 1ntellectual awaken1ng and a reblrth of classlc forms 1n art and llterature There was no preclse begmnmg or end of the Renarssance It emerged very tentatnvely w1th many backshdmgs and false starts out of the Mxddle Ages and decllned m the same mysterlous rn deflnlte way Usually however, scholars ass1gn the event of the Turks selzmg Constantmople and Chrxs tendom s collapsmg rn the East as the begmnmg of the true Renaxssance perlod and Charles VIII leadmg of the French across the Alps to the Invasron of Italy as the culmmatlon, and the place where thns extraordmary outburst of human gemus was most apparent was Florence The Renaxssance attamed full flower whlle Lorenzo de Medlcx, a statesman and patron, ruled the cnty state of Florence The 11st of men who were supported by Lorenzo or dlrectly mfluenced by h1s relgn IS fabulous Lucca della Rabbla, Gozzoll and Mxchelangelo these were some of the better known flgures of the Renaxssance that Lorenzo sponsored Wrth all the wealth and re sources at the d1sposal of the modern mmd, hardly an archrtect could now be found who could deslgn a bulldmg as beautrful as the score of palaces and churches that were bu1lt about that tlme, or the craftsmen the mosa1c1sts and the carvers of wood and stone who embellxshed them Equally there hardly exnsts today a sculptor of the stature of Donatello, a scholar hke Plco, a statesman hke Lorenzo hrmself, a sc1ent1st w1th the mventrve gennus of Leonardo da Vmcx, an explorer hke Columbus Even now rn the twentleth century, an age of star tlmg dnscoverles and mventlons, It IS CllH:lCLllI to com prehend completely the enormous v1tal1ty of the Renalssance mrnd It was not only that these men had a passnon for experlment and an rmperatrve sense that to hve they must create they felt they were on the verge of vast dxscoverles L1fe became a serxes of tantalnznng questlons Was the earth round or flat? Were the sun and the moon and the stars fixed or movmg through the sky? What was the life force m the human body? XVhy shouldn t men 1nvent machrnes that would fly through the a1r l1ke b1fdS or sw1m under the sea like flShD The hornzons were boundless c . . . ' 9 , . . . . , , . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . , . ' . L