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In some ways, the Renaissance turned the world, and man’s place in the world, upside down. During the Middle Ages – the years between the fall of Rome and the mid-14th century – the Catholic Church dominated Europe. The world was viewed as God’s creation and mankind was a sin-filled hitchhiker going along for the ride. Around 1350, a rebirth of art and ideas, which we call the Renaissance, made its first appearance in Italy. Over time, these ideas spread to other parts of Europe. The question is, how did this ‘rebirth’ change man’s view of himself and the world. The Renaissance led to a more optimistic view, in which man was entitled to worldly pleasures, valued for his individuality, and capable of rational thinking.
During the Renaissance, individuality began to be celebrated. Man no longer saw himself as just a cog in the wheel. Unlike the heavy religious themes and portrayals in Middle Ages art, Renaissance art – such as Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa – was able to capture and reflect the inner life of real people and their place in the natural environment (Doc A). Leonardo shows a woman as she really looked. He uses shading, natural folds in the clothing, and a mysterious, human expression. This is very different from the medieval Madonna, with a face that has few features and child that looks like a small man (Doc A). It is easy to believe that all Buoninsegna’s women looked the same. Medieval artists were not so interested in the individual, Leonardo was.
Life is about change. This was just one of the novel ideas coming out of the Renaissance. During the Middle Ages, people concerned themselves more with the afterlife than the here and now (Doc B). This notion was reflected in the play, Everyman, which cautions, ‘For ye shall hear, how our Heaven-King Calleth Everyman to a general reckoning’ (Doc B). But during the Renaissance, people began to embrace the beauty and joy of this life (Doc B). Whereas medieval Everyman seems powerless as he marches grimly to his clay grave and his Day of Judgment, Shakespeare’s Renaissance man, practically somersaults through life, displaying the action of angels and the understanding of a god. This new outlook allowed man to turn his attention to worldly endeavors such as the arts and sciences.
A strong belief in man’s capacity to use reason was probably the most important shift to take place during the Renaissance. Scientists like Copernicus turned to observation and mathematics. Applying these skills, Copernicus theorized a whole new model for the universe wherein the sun, not the earth, was at the center (Doc C). While this theory made a lot more sense than Ptolemy’s geocentric model, it was dangerous and revolutionary because it went against the teachings of the Catholic Church. In anatomy too, we see rational thinking triumphing. By dissecting human corpses, Andreas Vesalius was able to better explain the human body. These discoveries were shared not only with his students, but also with a larger audience through his book On the Makeup of the Human Body (Doc D). Over time, because of the contributions of men like Copernicus and Vesalius, man-kind began to see himself as rational and capable of understanding the world in which he lived. This optimistic outlook was echoed in Shakespeare’s Hamlet ‘What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason!’ (Doc B).
The Renaissance, with its emphasis on this world and human potential, marked the beginning of the modern era. And while religion remained important for centuries to come, the Catholic Church’s monopoly on knowledge was seriously challenged for the first time. The doors to the Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution had been opened.
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