Importance of the Renaissance

Renaissance refers to the rebirth and revival of art and architecture in the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy. The Renaissance is fascinating to study and is still culturally significant even today because of the high level of artistic and architectural production that was able to be produced during this time.

Thus, one of the fundamental reasons as to why this period was significant is directly connected to the fact that the works which were captured during this time continue to captivate the imagination of most people, and continue to impress and amaze. The Renaissance is important not just because of the high level and innovation of work that was created, but because it demonstrated a higher level of intellectualism and understanding about the human condition that was manifested through art.

The Renaissance is significant today, not merely because of the high level of art that was produced, but because this high level of art was able to take inspiration from the past, particularly from those who came before us over thousands of years earlier. Much of the marvelous art of the renaissance was developed from the inspiration of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Thus, there was an ability of the artists and designers of this period to be able to appreciate the great beauty and intelligence which was behind classic art and which had been overlooked and underappreciated for hundreds of years. In gathering inspiration from this period, the artists of the renaissance were exhibiting their astute intelligence and taste by being able to select the works of such fine artists.

By engaging in this tremendous rebirth of classical art, classical techniques and classical artists, there was also an embrace of some of the themes of this period, which also meant a rejection of the Middle Ages. "During medieval times, the arts were concerned mainly with religion, with the life of the spirit, with the hereafter. Little importance was given to life on earth except as a preparation for the next world. But as the 15th century began, Italians were turning their attention to the world about them.

People started to think more about secular, or nonreligious, matters. They began placing faith in their own qualities and their own importance. This new spirit was called humanism" (Landau, 2014). Thus, values like unwavering faith and unquestioning obedience to authority were no longer accepted without hesitation. This marks another significant reason as to why the Renaissance was so tremendous: it marked an awakening of intellectualism and the importance of independent thought.

Just as a more classical aesthetic was embraced, a more unwavering embrace of the importance of autonomy and autonomous thought was also embraced. Thus, the Renaissance had a strong connection with humanism and a focus upon how human life on earth worked and how it struggled. For example, one hundred years before the Renaissance even began, the painter Giotto di Bondone created paintings that had a strong focus on humanism. His paintings were created with a tremendous sympathy for the human qualities of individuals portrayed in his work.

Thus, holy figures were portrayed in ways that the spectator had never seen them before, in countryside settings, wearing common clothing. This marked a remarkable trend that had never been experienced before in the arena art: spectators were reminded that the beloved saints of their religion were once peasants like them: there was a sense of the ordinary and the human which was connected to these great religious figures, which in many ways was able to connect the divine more closely to the human.

Thus, in some ways the Renaissance's embrace of humanism was able to connect people more closely to religious figures through a suggested sense of sameness. The refinement in perspective of artists of the renaissance also assisted in allowing the level of art to evolve. This trend, coupled by the fact that artists instilled their human subjects with more human details meant that the spectator was forced to experience a higher level of empathy for them, also indicated that spectators were evolving in turn with the art produced.

Consider the work of Tommaso Guildi Masaccio: this artist distinguished himself from others in his ability to use perspective as a device to give a greater appearance of the real in his work. For example, the Saint Andrew panels that Masaccio did showcased the saint with a degree of dignity and emotion that had never been seen before. The details added to the panels were able to give the saint a sense of struggle and anxiety.

"The modulation of light and shadow in Saint Andrew's robe gives the illusion of physical weight and solidity to the figure underneath. Masaccio was famous for his innovative depiction of three-dimensional forms in painting and his ability to portray figures with convincing physical and emotional presence" (Getty.edu). Likewise, the sculptor Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi was one who studied human anatomy with such intensity and precision that his sculptures almost looked like scientific studies of biology and physicality.

Bardi's sculptures drew on nature itself and were instilled with a degree of realism that they raised the level of excellence in the art of sculptures. Bardi was able to move a sculpture to life with the precision that he invested in it, along with a level of realism and emotion. However, it wasn't just his precision which made his work so excellent.