Part II

Humanism, an important cultural force of the Renaissance, meant a renewed interest in man, his environment, and in the values and forms of classical Greece and Rome. A famous Renaissance humanist wrote about man: “He is a little world in which we may discern a body mingled of earthly elements­, and ethereal breath, and a vegetable life of plants, and the senses of the lower animals, and reason and the intelligence of angels, and a likeness to God.”

The most concrete expression of an interest in man is the Renaissance artist's rediscovery of anatomy. To appreciate this we must make a comparison.

This is an early medieval crucifixion. The torso is emaciated and flat and the arms are mechanically attached. The artist ignored the body to achieve a symbol of the soul. This Renaissance crucifixion portrays Christ with scientifically detailed anatomy.

These saints from a medieval cathedral seem to have no body beneath their clothing. By the time of the Renaiss­ance, the nude body had become a prime vehicle for artistic expression. Renaissance artists ­dissected cadavers and carefully recorded their observations in their notebooks. This was the beginning of anatomy as a science.

For Renaissance man, as for the men of ancient Greece and Rome, man's body was the symbol of humanism, and of his awareness of and pride in himself.

The Renaissance artist imposed reason and order upon his world through the use of perspective. This is a geometric method of creating the illusion of space upon a flat surface. Thus, perspective was the conquest of space in art - in the same way and achieved at the same moment in history when the explorer conquered space as he sailed to unknown shores.

This is the way the Renaissance artist learned about perspective - by making elaborate drawings, using the tools of perspective. These tools are the vanishing point, the horizon line, and disappearing lines. Architectural backgrounds for his subjects were the artist's excuse for creating illusions of space.

Piero Della Francesca's painting of the Flagellation of Christ uses a classical architectural setting. The most prominent figures in the painting stand in the foreground. Christ is not among them. In fact, these figures are indifferent to the tragic event behind them. Christ stands insignificantly in the background. The scene should be charged with emotion. Instead, it is calm and reasonable. The explanation for this is the dominance of the architecture and linear perspective. They have become the real subject of this work.

Occasionally, anatomy and perspective were joined to become the subject of a painting. In the Dead Christ by Mantegna, the muscular body of Christ is viewed as if we were standing near his feet.

Classicism was an important element of Renaissance life, thought, and art.

Greek and Roman statues were plentiful and provided inspiration for Italian artists. Both the architecture and the sculpture of pagan antiquity provided the models - even though they were converted into Christian subject matter. This is the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian. In this painting, the Renaissance artist gives his impression of the home of the gods, Parnassus. Here the muses dance to the music of Apollo's lyre, while Mars and Venus look on from above. Vulcan, the god of fire, is at his forge where he shapes the armor for the gods. And, to the right stands the winged horse, Pegasus.

In this Renaissance painting, Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, is placing a laurel wreath on the head of a centaur - a mythological beast who has the body of a horse and the torso and head of a man.

This typical Roman triumphal arch became the setting for this Renaissance painting and for this fresco, also of the 15th century.

Here again, in this fresco by Raphael, triumphal arches frame the figures below. This painting, called The School of Athens pays the highest homage to the greatness of classical Greece.

To the man of the Renaissance, these two - Plato and Aristotle - were the greatest philosophers of Western civilization. Plato, on the left, points upward toward the world of ideas, while Aristotle, on the right, gestures earthward, referring to the importance of the physical world. Thus, spirit and body are reunited, as they were in classical antiquity.

The man of the Renaissance had a new faith in learning and scientific experiment. Scholars believed that man could solve all problems through the use of his reasoning powers.

This man, Luca Pacioli, a monk and teacher, wrote several important books on mathematics. He seems to have paused here in his explanation of Euclid's theories of geometry.

Renaissance man liked to be portrayed holding a book or in intellectual discussions with friends and fellow scholars­. The man who best embodied the many ideals of the Renaissance was Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo was the universal man, for whom painting was only one of many interests. He was an artist, architect, musician, engineer, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. His notebooks are filled with designs, schemes, and inventions which suggest his confidence that man could control his environment – the world around him – through his intelligence and skill. Leonardo designed machines of war as well as of peace. He observed and noted the movements of man and facial characteristics. He was one of the first artists to sketch out-of-doors, directly from nature.

This famous drawing by Leonardo shows man in the center of two perfect geometric forms - a circle and a square. Man, thus, is at the center of a rational world order.

In this Renaissance painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds, you will find a summary of the aspects of the Renaissance, which we have observed. Anatomy, perspective, classicism, and an interest in learning. The painting also illustrates Renaissance man's love of nature, his youthfulness, and his pride and individualism.

Lorenzo de Medici, the great patron of the arts, summed up the spirit of the Renaissance with these lyrics:

Fair is youth and free of sorrow,

Yet how soon its joys we bury;

Let who would be, now be merry,

Sure is no one of tomorrow.

Perhaps the best summation of Renaissance philosophy comes from its greatest poet, Shakespeare, who said:

This goodly frame - the earth.

This most excellent canopy - the air,

Look you, this brave o'erfire

What a piece of work is man!

How noble in reason!

How infinite in faculty!

In form, in moving how express and admirable!

In action how like an angel!

In apprehension, how like a God!