The Renaissance: Europe's Golden Age

The Renaissance produced a golden age with many achievements in art, literature, and science, but more importantly, it changed the perspective people had on how they viewed themselves. The Renaissance was centered in Italy during the 1300s, before spreading throughout Europe in the 1500 and 1600s. Prior to the renaissance people focused on the afterlife but changed that view in that they focused more on the individual. There were three redeeming characteristic that made up the Renaissance: new worldview, new ideals that define the Renaissance, and humanism. For many the new worldview brought curiosity and questions of what they knew. The heart of Renaissance was humanism. According to Dictionary.com Humanism was an intellectual movement where people began to focus on life in the present, which was in contrast to the Middle Ages' focus on the afterlife. For example,

Humanism stressed the importance of education, with the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts becoming the learning standard. Humanists believed in supremacy and individual rights. The Renaissance was a period of rebirth that fostered new ideas and values that were reflected in art, architecture, and literature. Art reflected ideas and values in form of classical and religious themes had humanist ideals in them and set them in the background of Greek or Rome. During the renaissance may artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raphael, thought of the technique of making a view of realism which included making painting look three-dimensional. All artists during the