How Humanism and Individualism Shaped the Italian Renaissance

Paula N Stevenson

Introduction
When the new social class movement, the Italian Renaissance, occurred around the 14th century, so

began a revival of the classical forms originally developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, a deep

concern with profane life, and interest in humanism and assertions of the importance of the individual.

This intellectual movement developed in Italy, specifically Florence. Thus, artists like Masaccio and

Giotto represented art that, in contrast to the Middle Ages, showed emotions, feelings, and bright colors

thereby, demonstrating a deep concern for naturalism within society. Individualism also played a

significant role within the Italian Renaissance. The lives of humans were worthy of artistic recreation.

Parallel to naturalism was the idea of humanism, the liberation and discovery of the individual, and it

left a large impact on the arts. Alternative concepts surfaced throughout this era, for example, secularism

and realism. Some artists, such as Giovanni Bellini, made use of those ideas, and showed their art

through secular and non-secular themes, as well as concepts exhibited through landscapes and portraits.

As new forms of linear and aerial perspective and pyramid structures came into use by Piero della

Francesca and Alberti, paintings were ready to carry more recognizable concepts. As a result, the

paintings became clearer and more vivid. Lastly, artists of the High Renaissance, such as Leonardo da

Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael, developed paintings within the narrative style. They

illustrated the body in an exceedingly natural and scientific manner, so demonstrating the various

characteristics of everyday life. Overall, using a mixture of the two beneficial notions, individualism and

humanism, craftsmen were expected to be skillful in more than one profession concurrently, such as

literature, sculpture, design, and, most significantly, art.1

1
Brown, 1936: 9-37; Adams, 2013: 28; Franklin,
 Humanism in Religion
Humanism emerged. This stressing classical authors, classical studies. The studies of grammar, rhetoric,

philosophy, poetry, and history, humanism taught that no man was higher than criticism. To really learn,

you need to come back to the initial

text. This was the first major plan the

Renaissance delivered to Italy. They

applied humanistic beliefs to religion,

and used paintings as a medium to

represent these views. For example,

Figure 1: Masaccio, Tribute Money, ca. 1424-1427, fresco, 8ft 1in x
19ft 7in, Brancacci Chapel Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy

Florentine Masaccio, a significant figure within early Renaissance

art, represented society’s belief of faith through the style of realism

and perspective in works such as the Tribute Money (fig. 1) and the

Holy Trinity (fig. 2), that displayed concepts of simplicity, unity,

and quality. Giotto, another

Italian creator, used the

concept of realism for which

a face was given defined

characteristics and color.

Thus, his painting the

Expulsion of Joachim from

Figure 3: Giotto, Expulsion of Joachim
from the Temple, 1304-1306, fresco,
78.7in x 72.8in, Scrovegni Chapel the Temple (fig. 3), Figure 2: Masaccio, Holy Trinity,
(Arena Chapel), Padua ca.1424-1428, fresco, 21ft x 10ft 5in
demonstrated a priority for Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italys
naturalism as well as a revival of Classical forms.2 Discussing Giotto’s piece, Laurie Schneider Adams

states, “[i]n the context of the humanist movement, [the forms] denote newness and thus the future

events of the new dispensation.”3 This quote by Adams displays how Giotto was able to alter religious

imagery more naturalistic. Sandro Botticelli, a

famous painter in Renaissance Florence and favorite

of the Medici family, created ornamental and

colorful paintings. In his work, Botticelli exhibited

many religious and pagan motifs and allowed the

clear establishment of elegant pictures, however Figure 4: Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, ca. 1484-
1846, tempera on canvas, 5ft 8in x 9ft 1in, Uffizi
keeping the degree of chiaroscuro to a minimum. Gallery, Florence, Italy

His known and recognized work, however, the Birth of Venus (fig. 4) uses a mixture of mythology and

religion, a preferred humanistic understanding adopted from the Greeks. In the article, The Otherness of

the Venetians, Patricia Brown states, “[d]uring the Renaissance, Venice’s artistic participation in the

revival of antiquity was marked by a romantic nostalgic approach that grew out of this dual heritage of

mythic origins.”4 The focus had turned from people as religious beings, to include the problems of

people and nature in the human world.

Humanistic Style Change

With the continuous growth of paintings and artists, prestige for art increased dramatically to the point

in which religious aspects were shown through landscapes, portraits, and temperas. Space became

broken down mathematically in design and painting to convey an illusion of reality. This allowed for the

creation of new styles and mathematical input that manifested lifestyle with spiritual aspects. One artist

2
Adams, 2013: 31-34.
3
Adams, 2013: 32.
4
Brown, Otherness Venetians: 17
who introduced bright, rich, strong colors into his palette and landscapes that expressed the happiness,

calmness, and prosperity that Italy carried throughout the Renaissance was Giovanni Bellini. Afterward,

the characteristics became a preferred Venetian cornerstone in painting. Other, important figures in the

Italian Renaissance that demonstrated conceptual

movements, in addition to a new form of knowledge,

through their ingenious work, were artists Piero Della

Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti. Francesca was skilled

not only in art, but also in mathematics, he developed the

idea of perspective. Adams and Nussdorfer, describe

Figure 5: Leon Battista Alberti, West
Francesca’s method best stating, “[a]s in a painted
façade of Santa Maria Novella, ca. 1458-
1470, Florence, Italy
perspective, where the viewer’s eye is drawn along the

orthogonals to the heart of the painting, so too in [the] relationship of building to street a focus on the

building and by extension on its owner is produced.”5 Leon Battista Alberti, however, applied classical

forms into architecture, and developed the pediment that became well-liked throughout the Italian

Renaissance. His monasteries and churches represented several spiritual concepts, evident in his work of

the Santa Maria Novella (fig. 5). All in all, the employment of common spiritual themes, like the

annunciation, adoration, crucifixion, and also the common Madonna and Child paintings, were widely

utilized by several Italians, particularly the Northern Renaissance.

Humanism in the High Renaissance

As the Renaissance hit its climax around the 16th century, a brand new generation of artists like

Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian developed paintings that uncovered anatomic

structure of humans for the people of Italy. The ability to draw a distinction between the past and present

5
Adams and Nussdorfer, The Italian City: 213.
 is new age. The Renaissance results

in a view that society has come out

of the darkness. Nature had

previously been viewed negatively,

but throughout the Renaissance,

nature is perceived as something

stunning and worth studying. This

Figure 6: Michelangelo, The
Last Judgment, 1534-41, fresco, was otherwise called naturalism,
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City,
Rome, Italy which became apparent in the arts.

Artists were attempting to portray life as it was. In the past, drama

typically included personified moralities. A more naturalistic portrayal

Figure 7: Michelangelo, David,
of humans begins in the Renaissance. There was a more naturalistic use 1501-1504, marble, 13ft 5in,
Accademia Gallery, Florence,
of space that demonstrated the concepts of pride and freedom that the Italy

body and people should carry throughout the Italian Renaissance. One

in every of the foremost known of those four geniuses was

Michelangelo who in his renowned piece, The Last Judgment (fig. 6)

represents the notions of religious themes and in his sculpture of the

David (fig.7), Michelangelo demonstrates the idealism of the nude

Another artist like Leonardo, in figural technique, was Raphael, who

additionally followed a similar pattern as seen in some of his known

Figure 8: Raphael, Madonna of
paintings, exemplified by the Madonna of the Meadow (fig. 8). Another the Meadow, 1505, oil on panel,
3ft 8 1/2in x 2ft 10 1/4in,
great creator that followed the same techniques to render nudity was Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna
Titian.
 Rona Goffen expresses:

“[f]or Titian, humanity (male as well as female) was

defined by sexuality, not merely by gender, and
human sexuality has interpreted as a potent, positive
quality central to the individual’s identity and a
concomitant of her (or his) personality.”6

In Titian’s international style, he drew bold secular

paintings that stressed many concepts regarding life and

discovered its accomplishment within the High

Figure 9: Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on
Renaissance. He created several nude paintings like the canvas, 4ft x 5ft 6in, Uffizi Gallery, Florence,
Italy
Venus of Urbino (fig. 9) that demonstrated the

distinctive theme of status throughout the High Renaissance.

Conclusion
In conclusion, several of the foremost Renaissance concepts of society, religion, and life became evident

within the paintings and the art created. Humanism was the main concern for the people of Italy; to

become powerful, creative individuals in a dynamic secular world. Starting from the beginning of the

Renaissance, new ideas of naturalism and realism were embraced by important artists like Masaccio and

Giotto. Other artists like Giovanni Bellini indicated new concepts of secularism through several

landscapes. Whereas alternative artists, like Francesca and Alberti, devised new techniques specific to

their spiritual motifs. Lastly, within the High Renaissance tolerance for nudes and concepts regarding

life as well as the body began to expand in many of the paintings thus symbolizing freedom. Genius

artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian began to gain status thus creating deep

prestige for the arts. In the Italian Renaissance, methodological constraints from the old were abandoned

and new artistic discoveries made in the birth of elements, such as composition, perspective and color

6
Goffen, Profane Love and Marriage: 112
application. To fully understand, we must see “the Renaissance as fundamentally defined by a revival of

antiquity, [and] especially as inspired by the work and creative energies of the humanists.”7 Moreover,

through the varied themes, morals, and ideas that every painting carried, because of these important

changes in society and religion, a brilliant period of rebirth took place in Italy. Art ceased to be a

spiritual expression in the supernatural and became an expressive path for humanity and all that

concerns man.

7
Dempsey, Introduction: 16
 Works Cited
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Italian Renaissance Art. 2nd ed. Boulder (CO: Westview
Press, 2013): 31, 90, 101, 160, 318-293.

Adams, Nicholas and Nussdorfer, Laurie. “The Italian City, 1400-1600” in The Renaissance from
Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: The Representation of Architecture, ed. H.A. Million. (New York,
1997): 205-220.

Brown, Patricia Fortini. “Venezianita: The Otherness of the Venetians.” Art and
Life in Renaissance Venice (1997): 9-37.

Dempsey, Charles. “Introduction.” The Portrayal of Love (1992): 3-19.

Franklin, David. "Perugino and the Eclipse of Quattrocento Mannerism." Painting

in Renaissance Florence, 1500-1500. Yale University Press, 2001.

Goffen, Rona. “Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love and Marriage.” Studies in the
History of Art (1991): 111-125.