Chapter Sixteen

The Renaissance

     The period of European history known as "The Renaissance" covered approximately two hundred years, from around 1400 to 1600.  Of course, there are no exact beginning and ending dates.  What we notice with the onset of the Renaissance is exactly what the name implies - a "rebirth" of the quest for knowledge and understanding.  This is particularly seen in the arts - especially painting and sculpture - when artists began to look to ancient Greek and Roman examples instead of only the rigid rules of the Medieval church.

     For the first time in a thousand years, artists dared to study anatomy and use their new knowledge in their art.  No longer would the human body be seen as a thing associated with ugliness and shame.  Now artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael would present the human form as the ultimate form of beauty in God's creation. 

     Permit me to preach a little.  With every gift that we have, we are presented with the choice of using that gift for good or for evil.  A mother can use her hands to smooth a child's hair and wipe away her tears.  Or, she can use her hands to destroy that same life.  A man can use his voice to sing a child to sleep with a  lullaby. Or, he can use his voice to curse, abuse, and degrade.  A woman can use her body to give the ultimate display of love to her husband. Or, she can use her body to degrade herself through casual sex with a stranger. A knife can be used to prepare a meal for a guest, or to kill him. The evil is not, as the Medieval church taught, in the body, the hands, the tongue, or in the eyes.   Evil is in the act, not in the tool.

     A naked man, as portrayed by Michelangelo in his David, is no more an evil thing than is a naked horse.  Of course, we have to realize at the same time that much evil is in the world, all caused by people who respect neither others nor themselves.  Animals are not capable of evil acts.  The artists of the Renaissance sought to enlighten their patrons, as well as the whole of society, with this new attitude.