How Did Humanism Influence Renaissance Art

Influence of Humanism in Renaissance Art

During the Renaissance Era, humanism became a central motif for painters, sculptors, and artists of the like. In the artistic periods prior, such as the Medieval Era, the content of most works was religious-based. In the High Renaissance, we start to slowly move away from this. Religious scenes or characters were still being depicted, but in a different light. Perhaps the messages conveyed by art in the High Renaissance are aimed toward more human-based ideals rather than religious themes. The beauty in the human form and humanity itself were discovered and, for the most part, replaced the beauty of divinity and holiness. The Renaissance marks a developing curiosity and keen interest in

Alberti’s technological applications of mathematics, and his influential statement that mathematics was the key to all sciences, grew out of his humanistic education at Padua. Vittorino, another student at Padua, went on to make mathematics a central feature of his educational program. Gerolamo Cardano, a scholar of renowned humanistic skills, made major contributions to the development of algebra. In short, the importance of mathematics in humanistic pedagogy and the fact that major humanists such as Vittorino and Alberti were also mathematicians may be seen as contributing to the critical role mathematics would play in the rise of modern science. Humanistic philology, moreover, supplied scientists with clean texts and clear Latin translations of the Classical works—Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and even Ptolemy—that furthered their studies. The richness of the Classical heritage in science is often underestimated. Galileo, who considered Archimedes his mentor, also prized the dialogues of Plato, in particular the Meno. The German philosopher Ernst Cassirer demonstrated the likelihood that Galileo was fond of the Meno because it contained the first statement of the “hypothetical” method, a modus operandi that characterized Galileo’s own scientific practice and that would come to be known as one of the chief principles of the “new science.” Humanism may also be seen as offering, of