Renaissance Values

In today's society most people who are asked to name a great artist of all time reply with names such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelengelo. These people created their genius masterpieces during a time of growth and change in Europe known as the Renaissance. I think that the Renaissance came about when it did for many reasons such as changes in the church, new money, trading, education, and humanism. Some of these same changes in our society have made it possible for us to have the new innovations in art we have today.

First, during the time of the Renaissance the Catholic Church was making great changes and the Reformation was right around the corner. Before this time people devoted much of their time and lives to trying to live by the church so they could have salvation. I think that was once the people became freer to live their lives they found new interest in things like art and education. On the other hand, I don't think that they lost total devotion to the church because they took many voyages to new lands in order to try and convert others. These voyages led to another change in their society, money.

It seems to me that before this time the aristocracy were the only ones who played a part in the making of art. I imagine that this was because the lower class had to use their money for things to survive with. This all began to change in the Renaissance because of things like trading. The people of these countries formed what is now the middle class, so they now had the wealth to invest in art and the other great achievement of the Renaissance, education.

I suppose that since the people now had more money and less time spent on religion they started to take interest in educating themselves with things like the classical times, science, and math. The printing press was even invented during this time which helped to spread these ideas. I think that this has a great deal to do with the amount of money that was spent on art. I can't imagine that the leaders of the towns would have been so quick to hire these artist to make their creations if the people of their society could not have found out about it like they could with the new press.

Above all of these things I have mentioned I think that the idea of Humanism that spread during the Renaissance was the main reason why society accepted and wanted these masterpieces. Humanism led the people to think that one man can achieve any amount of greatness and glorification. Therefore, I think the society was