Renaissance Synthesis Period 1 Team 1

The Renaissance was a time period where humanism can to be. This idea focused on human nature and bolsters the ideas of reason and logic, but this was against the Catholic Church, and so prominent artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci had to find ways around this, creating works of art that portrayed both secular aesthetics and religious doctrines. One of the most famous examples of this synthesis is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. The Pope had asked him to create a work of art on the ceiling and Michelangelo despised the job, but he did it anyway. The painting portrays many religious ascetics such as the Creation of Adam and The Last Judgment, but looking at the Creation of Adam closely, God and his angels look like a brain. There are also various pictures where God’s neck looks similar to a brain stem. The Sistine Chapel reveals that there was a synthesis of religious and secular aspects. There were pictures of God and the heavens, and yet there are scientific images scattered throughout. This synthesis reflects the changing views because the artists of the Renaissance were becoming more humanist, and desired to explore humanity more than religion. The fact that there are pictures of brains and brain stems show how there was a shift in sensibility from religion to science. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been debated many times whether there are scientific mysteries behind it, such as bone structure and how it was even Da Vinci himself. He had paintings of inventions and studied the human anatomy and he reveals how there was a shift from religion to the desire for knowledge.