The World of Rennaisance

The World of Renaissance
The Medieval times were different in many ways from the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, Medieval people were dominated by the church and the only recognized religion was the Catholic religion. They were living a stagnant life were they were bound by rules of religion as even the education taught was based on religion which was mainly for boys. The Middle Ages was immediately followed by the Renaissance which means “rebirth” because in many ways this time period was the rebirth of the Middle Ages. People broke free from the boundaries of the church as people became aware of mathematics, science and even music. These are the differences between the mindset of the Medieval people and people from Renaissance. The mindset of people can also be seen through art of Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Art of the Medieval times was very restricted to religion as they focused on symbolizing Christian concepts and values which left the paintings and statues with no realism. If the paintings presented the human body, it would be out of proportion and the statues were “shallow and flat”. The Renaissance art was very realistic as it used perspective in art which involved less emphasis on religion and more on the human body. “Perspective is a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface.” An example of such art is Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” from 1485 which involves mastered perspective by Botticelli because of the portrayal of Venus, use of background and the proper representation of the human body. The outlook of Medieval people and Renaissance people was very different in terms of attitude and art.

Renaissance is the French word for “rebirth”. The major characteristics of the Renaissance are Secularism, Humanism, and Classical antiquity. Secularism mainly means rejecting religious beliefs. It focused on understanding thing separate from religious thought. It started with focusing on things other than religion and its concepts that were portrayed through art. Secularism was the rejection of religious beliefs that started with the representation of humanism through art. Humanism is the philosophy that people are “rational beings”. It became really popular during the Renaissance. It was a movement that started with the study of speaking, grammar, poetry, ethics and history and the more educational approach towards sciences and mathematics. Humanism was based on flexible thinking and openness to all possibilities in life and less concerned with thinking of the past. The role of antiquity in the Renaissance art was very clear. The paintings strived to revive antiquity through symbolism and the concepts portrayed through them.