Essay On How Did Humanism Effect The Renaissance
Many things and ideas led up to the formation of the Renaissance period. This period was the beginning of the evolution of art, music, and literature in which the people in society became more focused on. These things eventually became prioritized and very critical to evolution. Art, music, and literature are only the areas in which evolution occurred. Many would agree on different themes and people influencing these areas. Classicism, humanism, and tradition vs. Innovation were all themes of the Renaissance. Humanism is overall the idea of focusing on the importance of humans. Humanism in terms of the Renaissance was that in addition to the idea of transferring the view of the world from religious concepts to simple human concepts through showing emotion and talent. I firmly believe that humanism was the most important and influential theme to the formation of the Renaissance.
At the time of the Renaissance, focuses were upon goals that humans can achieve and the things that humans could accomplish. The world during the medieval period was centered around the Roman Catholic Church beliefs. However, humanism began to alter that. Wanting to know things that humans could accomplish, resulted in humans exploiting their given talents through the three areas of art, music, and literature.
The first area (art) is the most moving area. Art during the Renaissance not only showed image, but those same images carried significant meaning. Art displayed meanings behind significant people, places, and occurrences in the world. Leonardo de Vinci according to History.com Editors, “was a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.” This exert shows how important Leonardo de Vinci was. Leonardo de Vinci was an Italian artist. Italy was a location big for humanism. After the passing of Lorenzo de’ Medici, humanism began to spread more into Northern Europe. De Vinci had a very profound influence on this. Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are two of De Vinci’s most famous pieces of art. Both pieces exhibit humanism. The Last Supper was created to show the image of Jesus and his disciples at their last supper. The piece of art when viewed is very symmetrical in the middle. In this area, Jesus is in the middle and every feature painted behind him is symmetrical. Mainly, in The Last Supper, emotion was visible between each of the disciples. Humanism during the time of the Renaissance, consisted of the idea of showing emotion. Leonardo de Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa was created as a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. This painting demonstrated the face of a regular human rather than a religious figure. This showed humanism through this particular painting by Leonardo de Vinci. Mona Lisa also showed humanism by the detailed features of the human face which is correlated into realism. Many people noticed that the woman’s smile is not just normal. Many would say that her smile made the painting unique. Others agree that it displayed a sense of sadness. Regardless of how one perceives the meaning behind the painting, it helped influence humanism.
The next area that individuals showed their given talents during this period is through literature. There were writers who were now stating their personal beliefs through literature which resulted in more awareness of humanism. Niccolo Machiavelli was given the opportunity to be the leader of Florence upon the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici and the failings of Medici’s son to keep the empire in good hands after his death. Machiavelli wrote The Prince upon power being taken back over by the Medici family. In The Prince, Machiavelli explained his thoughts that religion had a negative correlation to government issues. If power was stronger within the churches, power within the government would be weakened. He believed that the only times that religion and churches should play a factor in decision making within government issues is only if they are religious and church-like issues. He supported all of this in The Prince.
The third and last area that resulted in humanism which resulted in the period of The Renaissance is music. Music as a whole is very versatile and has many different areas within it. Music itself can include different genres, instruments, etc. During the Renaissance period, the idea of acapella became more popular. In music, acapella is the ideal of a solo or group singing without instruments. The removal of instruments gave individuals an opportunity to sing while showing their true voice and identities. Acapella singing displayed the human voices which resulted in humanism within the Renaissance.
The Renaissance had many themes that led up to its occurrence. Along with these themes were ideas that helped to demonstrate humanism. Without humanism, the Renaissance would have not occurred. Society would still be focused strictly on the religious and church aspects of ideas and every day life compared to that of humans who live this everyday life. Art was the most influential area in humanism. Alongside Leonardo de Vinci, was numerous articles who had profound impacts on the Renaissance and displayed humanism through their work. Machiavelli’s work of literature exposed the main concepts of humanism alone along with other writes. Music was also influential. It allowed artists to be more human like through acapella without instrument assistance. Without any of these areas, humanism would not be present. With the absence of humanism, the Renaissance would have not occurred, and society today would not be the same. Hopefully in days to come, society still will evolve in these same areas!
