THE RENAISSANCE: A TRANSFORMATION FROM RELIGIOUS DOMINANCE TO HUMANISTIC TRIUMPH

Before the renaissance, Religion was in power. Everything revolved around the teachings of the bible and anyone who proposed something that refuted bible’s teachings was charged with blasphemy. Scientists like Copernicus and Galileo were sentenced to death for their heliocentric theories, except Galileo apologized and was sentenced to house arrest for life. This shows that life during the dark ages revolved around religion and church rules the state. Monarchs were selected by the pope because it was believed that God talked through them, and chose monarchs for the earthly cities. After the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453, Europe started to flourish, and this period came to be known as “Renaissance” which translates to “Rebirth”.
This period gave birth to new forms of art, and literature, inspired from the Greek artworks. The classical languages like Latin flourished again, and a new form of literature started to spread. New techniques were discovered for 3D painting, and new architecture was found. Unlike the dark ages, this period was all for humanism, where human intellect triumphed.
One of the famous paintings of this time is Michelangelo’s “the creation of Adam”; a painting that represents the moment when Adam was created. The reason behind the mention of this particular painting lies in the forms of interpretation that you can drive based on very simplistic details hidden in the painting. The first and the foremost interpretation is rather simple and may even be the one that Michelangelo intended, which is:
To the left, we see a man lie on the grass, barely hanging on, and almost out of life, that is Adam, and we see a figure on the right levitating, reaching out to touch Adam, perhaps to give him life, and that figure is God. It may even be that the levitation symbolizes God’s superiority, while Adam being helpless and reaching out to God for life is a representation of how insignificant man is without God. The reason God and Adam look the same can be found in the book of Genesis “God created man in his own image” — Genesis 1:27.
The second interpretation is rather different and I might be seeing details that aren’t there, and it may not even be the one Michelangelo intended. Starting with the name “The creation of Adam”, one way to look at it was the moment when Adam was created, but we can translate it to “that which Adam created” as well, but the title of the painting isn’t the only thing supporting this, as we can see the object behind God closely resembles with an image of a human brain, which could be representing God as an idea of the human mind, and so it may very well be that the reason God and Adam look the same is because Man made God in his own image, because after all God has likes and dislikes, ideas of moral and immoral, and favorites just like we humans do.
All the art works after the renaissance signify human intellect, and rely very little on God for miracles.Before the renaissance, Religion was in power. Everything revolved around the teachings of the bible and anyone who proposed something that refuted bible’s teachings was charged with blasphemy. Scientists like Copernicus and Galileo were sentenced to death for their heliocentric theories, except Galileo apologized and was sentenced to house arrest for life. This shows that life during the dark ages revolved around religion and church rules the state. Monarchs were selected by the pope because it was believed that God talked through them, and chose monarchs for the earthly cities. After the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453, Europe started to flourish, and this period came to be known as “Renaissance” which translates to “Rebirth”.
This period gave birth to new forms of art, and literature, inspired from the Greek artworks. The classical languages like Latin flourished again, and a new form of literature started to spread. New techniques were discovered for 3D painting, and new architecture was found. Unlike the dark ages, this period was all for humanism, where human intellect triumphed.
One of the famous paintings of this time is Michelangelo’s “the creation of Adam”; a painting that represents the moment when Adam was created. The reason behind the mention of this particular painting lies in the forms of interpretation that you can drive based on very simplistic details hidden in the painting. The first and the foremost interpretation is rather simple and may even be the one that Michelangelo intended, which is:
To the left, we see a man lie on the grass, barely hanging on, and almost out of life, that is Adam, and we see a figure on the right levitating, reaching out to touch Adam, perhaps to give him life, and that figure is God. It may even be that the levitation symbolizes God’s superiority, while Adam being helpless and reaching out to God for life is a representation of how insignificant man is without God. The reason God and Adam look the same can be found in the book of Genesis “God created man in his own image” — Genesis 1:27.
The second interpretation is rather different and I might be seeing details that aren’t there, and it may not even be the one Michelangelo intended. Starting with the name “The creation of Adam”, one way to look at it was the moment when Adam was created, but we can translate it to “that which Adam created” as well, but the title of the painting isn’t the only thing supporting this, as we can see the object behind God closely resembles with an image of a human brain, which could be representing God as an idea of the human mind, and so it may very well be that the reason God and Adam look the same is because Man made God in his own image, because after all God has likes and dislikes, ideas of moral and immoral, and favorites just like we humans do.
All the art works after the renaissance signify human intellect, and rely very little on God for miracles.