The Role Of Beauty In Renaissance Art

The arts that had been created in the Renaissance period such as paintings, sculptures, and literature represented advanced ideas about humanity such as the newfound importance of beauty, the free will of man, and the changing relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the individual. Beauty had a presence in art in a way that it had not before, and the focus of a lot of art shifted from the church to the individual. The focus on the individual also explored the free will of man, not just the beauty and exterior layer.

Before the Renaissance, art was not very focused on beauty of the individual. Art focused mainly on religious events or figures, which is understandable because at the time the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) held most of the power. Some visual art and artists were able to tie in religion alongside the focus of beauty of man, such as Donatello. Donatello created a bronze statue of the religious figure David, which was the first free standing bronze figure made since rome. Donatello's David was different from other

sculptures of David though. Even though it was of a religious figure, the statue was less tough than other David's, softer, and in some ways even erotic. Nudity was very uncommon at this time because of the RCC having so much influence. The nudity of the statue helps show how Donatello's creation strayed from the focus on religion, and looked directly at the beauty and humanity of the man it was portraying.
Botticelli was another artists in the Renaissance whose works represented the new focus on human beauty.

However, unlike Donatello’s David, Botticelli's works did not tie in with christianity. The paintings he created such as La Primavera and The Birth of Venus strayed very far from it. The two paintings used mythology to portray beauty through female nudes. These women did not represent christian figures, and they were not taking part in an activity centered around religion. Both paintings included and focused on the Roman goddess Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. La Primavera and The Birth of Venus focused purely on beauty. They emphasized the beauty of the women, as well as the beauty of celebration and nature. Pre Renaissance art was not created to show and emphasize beauty. These works of art represented changing ideals and views of the individual as product to display religion to a representation of

beauty.
Changing views of man were not just represented in visual art, they were shown in literature as well. Humanism, a concept that began to take off during the Renaissance, was a movement that placed importance on man and humanity rather than only divinity. This was well represented in Ficino’s writing The Soul of Man and Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man. Instead of splitting humanity and divinity into two separate topics (something the church did often), he writes about how humanity in itself is divine and godlike. Ficino believes that “Man is a great miracle...for he transforms himself into God as if he were God himself.” Throughout The Soul of Man Ficino discusses how man is godlike because he is a god over the earth and the things on it. Since humans are what God chose to “inhabit the earth and cultivate all of its bounty”, they must be what God uses to represent himself. This was a new idea for a lot of people because under the Catholic church it is believed that human beings are born sinful. By saying humans are god like, Ficino challenges this and looks deeper into how man is important and divine. Mirandola also challenges the church with his humanist views and writings.