Diana Huang, Lorena Huang Liu, Rachel Yeo, Isabel Kim. Period 5. Team 5.
During the Renaissance, artists had much more freedom than their counterparts did in the Middle Ages. Religious institutions no longer imposed as many restrictions as they once did. That is not to say they did not limit work in other fields. Scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church because of their scientific discoveries that contradicted what was stated in the Bible. However, overall, religion served as less of an obstacle and merged with art to create paintings, drawings, and sculptures during this time period. Works from this time had a clear synthesis of religious asceticism and secular aestheticism. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in particular incorporated that synthesis into their forms of art. Michelangelo painted religious scenes but at the same time portrayed the subjects in his paintings accurately and precisely. He treated the human body as a piece of art. Leonardo da Vinci did the same. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa showed humans in perspective of a natural background. His other paintings had religious content, such as the one of Madonna, yet just like Michelangelo, da Vinci created his subjects in a realistic and somewhat scientific manner.
The merging of religion and art reflect the change in thinking and philosophy that was taking place in the Renaissance. People posed questions and wanted to learn about their surroundings. They were curious. They reverted back to the Ancient Greek principles of knowledge. Previously established ideologies in religion were challenged by those who discovered new ideas. An emphasis was placed on human life rather than those of gods.
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