The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though the invention of printing sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe. As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of learning based on classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch, the development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. In politics the Renaissance contributed the development of the conventions of diplomacy, and in science an increased reliance on observation that would flower later in the Scientific Revolution beginning in the 17th century. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term “Renaissance man”.

Films

1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
A Dead Man in Deptford (2011)
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
A Man for All Seasons (1988)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
A Queen is Crowned (1953)
A Season of Giants (1991)
Adventures of Don Juan (1949)
Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
Anonymous 2011
As You Like It (1936)
As You Like It (1978)
As You Like it (2003)
Christopher Columbus (1949)
Christopher Columbus (1985)
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992)
Crossed Swords (1977)
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000)
Diane (1956)
Discovering Hamlet (1990)
El Greco (1966)
Elizabeth (1998)
Elizabeth I (2005)
Elizabeth R (1971)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)
Fire Over England (1937)
Flesh and Blood (1985)
Galileo (1973)
Hamlet (1948)
Hamlet (1969)
Hamlet (1990)
Hamlet (1996)
Hearts and Armor (1982)
Henry V (1944)
Henry V (1989)
Henry VIII (2003)
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1973)
If I Were King (1938)
King Lear (1953)
King Lear (1971)
King Lear (1982)
King Lear (1984)
King Lear (1987)
King Lear (1997)
King Lear (2000)
Lady Jane (1986)
Leonardo: A Dream of Flight (1998)
Looking for Richard (1996)
Luther (2003)
Macbeth (1971)
Macbeth (1978)
Macbeth (1988)
Macbeth (1997)
Mad Love (2001) c. 1550
Mary of Scotland (1936)
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
Mary, Queen of Scots (2007)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Nostradamus (1994)
Orlando (1992)
Othello (1922)
Othello (1952)
Othello (1965)
Othello (1980)
Othello (1995)
Pocahontas (1995)
Prince of Foxes (1949)
Queen Margot (1994)
Richard III (1955)
Richard III (1995)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
Romeo and Juliet (1954)
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Romeo and Juliet (1994)
Romeo and Juliet (1996)
Romeo and Juliet (2000)
Romeo and Juliet Revisited (2002)
Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead (1990)
Seven Seas to Calais (1962)
Seventh Sword (1962)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Six Wives of Henry VIII (1971)
The Affairs of Cellini (1934)
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
The Beloved Rogue (1927)
The Borgias (2011 TV) c. 1492
The Comedy of Errors (2000)
The Fountain (2006)
The Honest Courtesan (1997)
The Hour of the Pig (1993)
The King Maker (2005)
The Merchant of Venice (1922)
The Merchant of Venice (1976)
The Merchant of Venice (1980)
The Merchant of Venice (1996)
The Merchant of Venice (2001)
The New World (2005)
The Other Boleyn Girl (2003)
The Other Boleyn Girl (2007)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1990)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1990)
The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
The Prince and the Pauper (1957)
The Prince and the Pauper (2000)
The Princess of Montpensier (2010)
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
The Serpent and the Moon
The Sword and the Rose (1953)
The Swordsman of Siena (1961)
The Taming of the Shrew (1929)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
The Tempest (2010)
The Tragedy of Richard the Third (1983)
The Virgin Queen (1955)
The Virgin Queen (2005)
The Winter’s Tale (1968)
Tower of London (1939)
Tower of London (1962)
Tudor Rose (1936)
Twelfth Night (1980)
Twelfth Night (1987)
Twelfth Night (1988)
Twelfth Night (1996)
Twelfth Night (1998)
Young Bess (1953)