Humanism

Humanism

Artistic Movements, Periods and Styles in 5 Points

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Humanism

• Humanism is not an artistic movement, but an intellectual one, which in turn is intimately related to the Renaissance. By “intellectual movement” we refer to a current of thought, a new way of seeing the human being, a new concept of the order of things and a whole universe of new values.
• Humanism puts the human being in the center of the scene. This is called “Anthropocentrism,” that displaced “Theocentrism,” when God and the Church were in the center of the scene. Humanism highlights the qualities of human nature. On one hand, arts were developed in a “rebirth” of the classical antiquity —antique Greeks and Romans— in a search of idealized beauty of the man and the earthly world. And at the same time sciences related to the human spirit were developed: philosophy, morals, history, literature, rhetoric (also admiring and studying the Greek and Roman classics).
• The birth and strong development of Humanism took place in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is not a coincidence then that in the 15th century the Middle Ages ended. The Medieval thought was “limited.” The power of the Church was such that every truth was already set: the one established by the Church. Reason was subordinated to faith (what was called “Scholasticism.”)
• With Humanism and the displacement of Church by men, even if that faith was not over, reason strengthened. And that reason led to a tireless search of new knowledge, new ideas and new values.
• The crucial figure of art patrons had a big influence during Humanism and Renaissance. They were the powerful —as the Medici family, in Florence— and gave economic and political protection to artists and intellectuals. At the same time, there was a multiplication of the spaces for knowledge and science development with the appearance of a great quantity of universities, academies, schools. The creation of the printing press (around 1450) contributed greatly to the spread of new ideas and knowledge which was very important for this movement. Its creation was so important that for example, many say that Luther Reformation against the Catholic Church (1517) took place in part due to the printing press as it helped greatly to spread Luther’s ideas.

Image: Dante and the Divine Comedy (1465), fresco. Domenico di Michelino.

Recommended links:

Characteristic Elements of Renaissance Painting.

Botticelli and the Return to Mythology.

“The Feminist of the Renaissance.”

Artistic Movements I: from Classical Antiquity to Rococo.

The Quattrocento.

Renaissance.

Piero della Francesca, the Master of Perspective.

Artistic Movements, Periods and Styles in 5 Points: The Flemish Primitives.

High Renaissance.

The Birth of Venus.

Lady with an Ermine.

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