Individualism And Secularism In The Renaissance

The Renaissance challenged the status quo of the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the Church had authority over most people. These people also had limited rights. All of this changed during the Renaissance. This period of time focused on the philosophy of humanism, which embodied the idea that humans were a significant part of the world. The Renaissance changed man’s view of man through the institutions of literature, astronomy, anatomy, and art.

The secularism and humanism of the Renaissance were reflected in its scholarship and education. Its concern was with this world rather than the hereafter, and its focus was on pagan classics rather than Christian theology. The father Of Renaissance literature, Petrarch, stressed that the new boarding schools were not to train priests but the sons of merchants.

The difference between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is most visible through art and architecture, demonstrated specifically through an emphasis on religion or classical antiquity, and humanity. During the Middle Ages, art was more religious because it had a very religious influence from the church having such great power in the community. When the Renaissance started, art became more focused on ancient Greece. The Greek influence was because scholars were broadly studying the revival of classical antiquity. The architecture was affected in the same way because in the Middle Ages the style of the buildings was being influenced by religion. The style in the Renaissance was being more influenced by ancient Greece.

During the Renaissance new ideas were gained and the values and features of the Classical World were brought back through art and architecture. Before the Renaissance began, art and architecture was done inside the church and was mostly on biblical themes, but this

The Renaissance was an efflorescence of the arts and changes in many different areas such as political, social, economical, and cultural. It was the rebirth of art, literature, and learning in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from an agricultural to an urban society. The Renaissance ideals emphasized ideas of humanism and human achievement. Artists and writers used realistic techniques, such as perspective, and they believed man should be the subject of study, not God.

Generalism was another value that changed from the Middle Ages. Generalism soon became a desirable quality during the Renaissance as more people desired to be good at everything. This was completely different during the Middle Ages, where there was barely any time for anyone to study anything other than religion. Days in the Middle Ages were spent providing for the manor, and making sure that everything a person needed to survive was obtained. “Peasants rarely traveled more than 25 miles from their own manor. By standing in the center of a plowed field, they could see their entire world at a glance...In Europe, the majority of the people were peasants. Most peasants were serfs.” (McDougal Littell, page 360) Serfs spent their days farming and providing food for their Lord and the entire manor. They were the “stabilizer” of the manor; without them everyone would starve and the manor would fall apart.“For most serfs, both men and women, life was work and more work. Their days revolved around raising crops and livestock and taking care of home and family.” (McDougal Littell, page 363). Most of the little free time that they had were used to pray. This made it practically impossible to study any other regions of education. As a result of their tedious days on the fields and the expectations of the Church, very few people, if any at all, would be considered the “ideal Renaissance person” during the Middle Ages.

The Renaissance had a profound part in the development of modern thinking, technology and art. The Renaissance influenced America to what it is today. The Renaissance way of thinking was based more on humanism and less on religion. That resulted in a newer way of thinking than the church's way of thinking. Before the Renaissance all thinking was geared towards religion in some way.

So first up let's talk about how the renaissance changed the popularity and style of art and architecture. First of all an entirely new form of art was created called flemish, this was where the artist would use oils to make portraits incredibly realistic. Overall, making a painting or sculpture of someone became extremely popular thanks to artists like Nicola Pisano and Giotto. Art was not the only thing that changed and became more popular though architecture also became different, for example the

The influences of any era is evident through artwork and architecture. During the Middle Ages the main influence was the church, this is evident through the focus on biblical and religious symbols. During the Renaissance the main focus was the study of people. This is shown through the increase in self portraits and classical antiquity-inspired buildings. The change between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is best shown through the art and architecture, demonstrated specifically through an emphasis on religion and classical antiquity, both suggesting a clear cultural change. The culture of both of these eras was greatly shaped by the studies of humanism and theology.

Many things changed from Medieval Times to the Renaissance. The catholic church saw it’s reign secede and individualism increase in the minds of the people of the time. Because of this, people in the Renaissance now looked at themselves in a way that was never seen before. Slowly but surely, the whole world changed. The rise in individualism and humanism signified a change in the way people thought about their purpose in life. In the Medieval Times, people believed that they were at the mercy of God, and they had no control over their own bodies or lives. From the change in Medieval Times to the Renaissance, whole fields were changed, especially art and the medical field, because of the rise of the individual and that way of life.

The Renaissance brought with it Freud's ego, and shunned Christian humility. People had been evil by nature and were required by the church, the crux of their religion, to live a pious and altruistic life in order to achieve the goal of salvation. Now, priorities shifted and ideals changed. Individualism had arisen, and man had the ability: "[Pico della Mirandola]." Individualism was a focus on the self. Now that this was true, people sought to gain as much as he or she could, for it would increase their standings amongst their fellows. People were no longer afraid to be unlike their neighbor. In the past, each person was the same, making a meager subsistence while maintaining absolute devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. Machiavelli demonstrated individualism in three important ways. Firstly, he put his name on The Prince. Authors of the Middle Ages, although few and far between, did not emphasize their

Individualism in the Renaissance produced many new types of people and new creative pieces. Thoughts of individualism quickly magnified after the feudal systems of the Middle Ages decayed. People didn’t have to stay in specific groups and could branch out and try multiple varying things. The ideas of doing a variety of trying crafts soon became recognized as being a “Renaissance Man”. One prime example of a Renaissance man is Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a painter, sculptor, humanist, philosopher, engineer, inventor and much more. These “Renaissance Men” and preponderance of other creators used individualism to their

The Renaissance change the way people looked at humanism.Humanism is a when you turned away from the medieval things and take interest in the important ones. Although many people wanted to have individualism, most people did. They took a habit of being independent and self reliant. The Renaissance period changed the way people viewed things, like the complexity of men, artistic expression, and individualism.

With the arts the artists began to think on their own and those movements began to spread. It was not just what the church said anymore that was right. Humanism, one of the new beliefs which was formed during the Renaissance, said that people should read the works of the greats and focus on writing, and the arts. Humanists believed that they were equal with the ancient Greek and Roman writers and philosophers. Petrarch was the original humanist, and a writer who wrote many letters to the people of ancient Rome. In those letters he spoke as if he was an equal with them. Another of the new beliefs was scholasticism, which was the opposite of humanism. Scholastics thought that people should spend more time the sciences, they also wanted the church and science to be brought together as one. As new scientific discoveries were made many of the churches theories were beginning to be questioned.

Many of these advancements came in the form of the arts and theology as well as politics. The arts went retro so to speak and focused more on the humanity of its subject rather than a rough interpretation of what the artist saw. The subject of the art was given a sense of personality and realism. This had not been seen since Greek and Roman art so it was heavily inspired by these societies. Arts became vivid and celebrated and beautiful works of art started to arise and amazing artist such as Michelangelo and DiVinci. In medieval time's arts was primarily for cathedrals and other religious needs and the worked seemed to lack spirit but when the Renaissance began art became an expression of the world around it. Just looking at this art you can see the vivid differences and mood of the artist that created these masterpieces. The ability to think outside the box heavily influenced these artists and had they been alive in a feudalistic society many of these works would never have been created.