The Renaissance, The Point Of The Italian Renaissance

The Renaissance was a time of adulation for Humanism, a movement that advocated the intensification of "personal independence," "individual expression," and a renewed élan devoted to the classics. Renaissance, a word meaning rebirth, refers to the cultural epoch wherein Ancient Greek and Roman styles were rediscovered and celebrated as a result of trade expansion and a need for knowledge of lexical works (thus, the popularization of Latin). This attitude concerning rebirth was especially reflected in the multitudes of masterpieces produced up to the sixteenth century: artists expelled certain features from preceding Medieval art and appended their oeuvres with techniques unseen in previous ages. New (or renewed, rather) features were most patent

The apex of the Italian Renaissance rolled at around 1490 and lasted for forty years. Some examples of the High Renaissance painters include the following: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Their works outshone their precursors: the High Renaissance artists emphasized anatomy and realism. The number of religious figures in paintings abated during the High Renaissance; in fact, artists began removing certain elements from theological paintings to intensify the realism. For these artists, realism was the palpable, the human, the observable; consequently, an altitudinous rise of the humanistic spirit concomitant with the fall of the spiritual climate became a recognizable feature of the High Renaissance. It was when da Vinci skilfully crafted his Vitruvian Man, the Mona Lisa, and The Last Supper; Michelangelo sculpted David and Moses then; Raphael finished with his School of Athens. Though the High Renaissance was an incontrovertibly beautiful time for the visual arts, immorality was pervasive. Most artists were not careful in managing their hubris and their sin. Two of the three above have been known to have a proclivity for homosexual acts. While da Vinci was particularly insecure about his work, Michelangelo was a perfectionist who tried to rival the nonpareil former. These virtuosos did not accredit God for their talent: acquiescing to the Pope’s wishes were merely done out of their inability to refuse (i.e., furthering their profession). The Bible, in Philippians 2:9-11, commanded humankind to sing paeans to the Lord. (“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”) The Italian Renaissance men’s declining of reverence for the Lord