What is Renaissance?
Renaissance is an artistic movement that developed in Italy in the 14th century and spread throughout Europe reaching its peak with the 16th century art of the Italian masters Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Renaissance, a French word meaning “rebirth”, indicates the period that came after Medievalism and saw the humanistic of classical art. Moving away from the religious atmosphere that dominated the Middle Age, Renaissance artists turned their attention to the beauty and mystery of the natural world and to the individual man, who was considered the centre of this new era.
Renaissance developed when Humanism, the philosophy that focused on human interests and needs, considering people rational beings, was spreading throughout Italy and Europe. It followed followed the Middle Ages when art was almost exclusively religious and although a religious view of the world continued to play an important role in art, in Renaissance there was a growing interest in the natural world and in the individual human being. In their canvas amongst religious themes, Renaissance artists also included other subjects such as Greek and Roman mythology, history and portraits of individuals. The main aim was to represent subjects not in an idealistic vision, as it was the case in Medievalism (i.e. the period before Renaissance) but in a more humanistic way. The focus on the human body, which led artists like Leonardo to study human anatomy in detail, allowed them to paint figures that looked human and real. The bodies of Christ and other religious figures have no ideals and sacred connotations, but instead they emphasise the dignity and worth of the person.