Renaissance Ideals

The Ideals of the renaissance were that of humanism. Many Artists and authors had Christianity as a strong influence within their work. The Renaissance ideals of humanism are expressed in the Italian art of the period, through the works of various artists like the recognizable Leonardo da Vinci who emphasized humanism ideals and Michelangelo Buonarroti representing human divinity with his human sculpture of David Botticelli and finally, the impacting artist Raphael. Some artists used Greek influences in their paintings. In one of Michelangelo’s art it has Charon (the ferryman of Hades) sail the ferry down the Styx, leading the sinners into hell where they are greeted by Minos (judge of the dead in the underworld). Another feature of the renaissance is the developing of artist’s creating realistic linear perspectives. Also other artists started to take interest in the human body and the way it is, like Leonardo’s “Vitruvian man”. The renaissance started a new trend of writing in local languages. After the printing press was invented in 1439 in Germany by Johann Gutenberg, literature became easier to find for readers. In order to reach a greater reading audience, writers planned to replace Latin and Greek, languages used only by highly educated people. At the same time, they were attempting to prove that their native languages were
as good as ancient ones. Many scholars consider that in April 1340’s, when Francesco Petrarch was crowned Poet Laureate, marked the beginning of the Renaissance, a period that has been often defined as a transition between the Dark Ages and the modern age.
A period in European history that marked the start of,for the first time, the values of the modern world. Dante Alighieri was the first author who published the written version of his born with language, Italian, when he wrote, in the early fourteen century, his "Divine Comedy" in Italian. Many writers followed him, and eventually, Latin and Greek were completely replaced by native languages, like
Italian. In science Copernicus attempted to prove that the sun rather than the earth was at the center of our system, therefore altering the world view that had dominated the Middle Ages. Painters strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques to render light more naturally. Artists sometimes used dead body’s to examine their structure and complexity illegally. Many of them put a lot of work into their art, like the painting of the Sistine chapel. Artists and writers influenced the renaissance and partly gave its meaning, love for classics, rebirth of art and writing,