“Every age projects its image into its art.” Assess the validity of this statement with references to TWO representative works from the Renaissance in either the visual or literary arts.

I. Introduction
A. Intro of the Intro
1. Define the Renaissance (“The Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement that not only introduced new ideas such as individualism, secularism and humanism, but also led to the rediscovery of Roman and Greek culture.”)
2. Set the scene w/ dates, places, etc (roughly 14th-17th century, beginning in Italy then spreading to the north & the rest of Europe)
3. Introduce the idea of how fantastic the art, visual and literary, were. Segue into the thesis (like a boss) by saying that this art captures/projects/portrays the image/essence/spirit/nature of the age.
B. Thesis sentence about how the Renaissance artists indeed projected the image of the age into the art depending on which works you choose.
II. Visual Arts
A. Jan Van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride
“Even when in style and subject matter paintings reflect the realism, humanism, and individualism of of the Renaissance, they also reflect medieval assumptions and concerns that remained.” Sherman 250
1. Appears secular: depicts Giovanni Arnolfini, an Italian businessman living in Bruges, taking marriage vows with his bride in a private bridal chamber
i. Room is furnished with items from all areas of Europe, reflecting the wealth of the middle class as well as the success of international trade (Arnolfini is a businessman, after all).
2. However, many objects around the room have medieval symbolic significance.
i) Convex mirror ⇒ the all-seeing eye of God ii) Shoes ⇒ left on the ground unworn, indicating they are standing on holy ground iii) Peaches (on the chest) ⇒ fertility iv) Dog ⇒ fidelity
B. Raphael’s The School of Athens
1. Embodiment of the classical spirit of the Renaissance
i. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, and Raphael himself all make an appearance. The statues of Apollo (patron of poetry) and Athena (goddess of reason) on opposite sides of the hall. Individualism bc Raphael equated himself to all these significant people of the bast. What an ego. ii. Tribute to Greek philosophy.
2. Even the location of this work is kind of noteworthy. It was painted in the Vatican. On the opposite wall is another one of Raphael’s frescoes, Disputa. Disputa depicts great Christian theologians -- this shows that pagan and Christian ideals were able to coexist during the Renaissance. I’m not sure about the validity of this tidbit though, for it’s not actually part of the painting. But again, *noteworthy*.
III. Literary Arts
A. Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince
Guide on how to obtain, increase, and keep power. Not always moral methods for Machiavelli believed that politics do not follow the same rules.
1. The Prince was the work of a humanist and Latin scholar. It represented “the culture that is born of humanism becoming aware of political problems because they are at crisis. It is because of this that he seeks to solve them from the elements with which humanism has endowed the western mind.” Whitfield 18
i. Straightforward acceptance of classical authors as models ii. The adoption of a rigorously secular attitude of politics.
2. The secularization of life and thought
i. Machiavelli actually looked at religion as a social force rather than a spiritual one. ii. This secularism allowed him to be realistic with the way that societies are run and to discuss the (sometimes unethical) ways in which a prince was to keep things under control
3. I had some stuff to say about individualism and everything but I didn’t really find anything about how it relates to The Prince while researching… I’ll probably just BS some stuff sorry
B. Thomas More’s Utopia
“...The ability to deal with the imaginary and nonexistent in an attempt to solve real problems was an innovation of More’s period. It was transferred by More from a realm of abstraction to the world of politics and society.” Bronowski 54-55
1. “People were ready for new extensions of their experience. We can see this, oddly, even in mathematics, where the development of negative, irrational, and imaginary numbers was taking place…”
i. I made a new indent just to tell you guys how cool I think this example is. Please don’t copy it word for word. Whelan might question why everyone has a sudden interest for a short paragraph from Bronowski about mathematics. Just realize that it was a unique thing for More to be able to recognize the suffering of people in this world… and then create an imaginary one inside his head that was relieved of the sources/roots/basis of suffering.