Italian Renaissance and Ideals of the Time

Jacob Seifert
AP Euro
9 September 2012 The Italian renaissance, the first of two renaissances, brought in new ideas to the western world along with the commonly thought of art. The ideas are presented in the art and it’s often from the artists who were leading the charge in the new ways of thinking. Humanism and Secularism were both heavily present in the art of Michelangelo, Masaccio, Raphael, Botticelli, and Brunelleschi. Their art was reflective of the influx of new thinkers and the decline in wholesale trust in religion being the one and only truth. Whether it is Humanism where you are all about the human experience and how man rises above the rest or Secularism where you are simply straying from the church, these men followed their beliefs and put them in art. The Humanism view of man in art can best be displayed in the three ideals of the human body, emotion, and achievement. The idea that man and not God was the one with the ability to decide his own fate was a revolutionary idea to the time and it was taken with full faith by the strongest minds. The presentation of art with nudity had not been seen since classical times until that point. The greatest piece of art that is a look at the human body in its full, and also possibly the greatest work of art period, is Michelangelo’s statue David. The detail that went into the entire body on one slab of marble is incredible but with all of that it differs from the other David statues because of its nudity. Michelangelo was not afraid to show the entire body and he does it in a way that does not detract from the statue nor makes it the focal point. He simply presents to you a man in his full. The Expulsion from Paradise by Masaccio is a perfect look at human emotion. It shows Adam and Eve being removed from Eden and sent to work the world as man. It has the main humanism idea in, that they are now sent to achieve on their own as humans. The views of human achievement are also heavily prevalent in the art of the period. Brunelleschi’s Florentine Dome is not only an architectural masterpiece but has a masterful painting on the inside. It shows the human triumph over its enemies and how man is above all. The humanistic qualities are some of the most prevalent ideas found in the Italian Renaissance art. Secularism is also found in the art of the time. These artists took total removal from the ideas of the church and often went back to classicalism as well. Raphael and Botticelli both look at more of the classical ideas. Raphael has his School of Athens where he presents all of the great minds of his generation and some of the others in the past inside the great Athenian halls together in one big setting. He focuses on the many people of many creeds together in one seminar of knowledge. His focus is back in classical times and not in any way the church. In a similar way Botticelli’s Birth of Venus has no Christian influence and is looking at a pagan god’s birth. The painting is around Venus’s beauty and her goddess-like features including some nudity to further place itself in the humanistic and secular field. Michelangelo’s Pieta has a Christian subject but the focus is not what the other religious works look at. His focus is on the emotion of Mary, the human, and on the human anatomy of the two bodies. His approach to the subject matter is not telling the story of Mary holding her recently executed son, but rather at the idea of a human holding a recently dead corpse and what that corpse looks like. He takes all religion out of the field. The Italian Renaissance was a period of great thinking and even better art. The thinking led to new ideas that were expressed in the art of the time. Many of the great artist took up these views and created some of the most memorable art from the period with the Humanistic and Secular views that they took. Not all men can take to the speaking field or write a book to express their new ideas, such as Machiavelli did, so these men used their skill to present the world with a long standing example of what they stood for.