The Renaissance

The Renaissance

            Florence has been for many years recognized as the masterpiece of art and the birthplace of the Renaissance. The Renaissance marked the literary transition from middle ages to modernism although several scholars have viewed it to be an extension of the middle ages. The Medici family comes in the middle of every discussion about the renaissance because they were the ruling family of the time, being wealthy wool merchants. Renaissance is always differentiated from middle ages by the development in humanism that happened then with the recognition of man as the measure of everything that is in existence. Renaissance was however seen to have brought into life cultures and beliefs that were immoral and were in line with paganism. The acceptance of art was not regulated, and different works of art were later interpreted to be in deliberate recognition of paganism. Although the renaissance has been defined as a rebirth after the fall of Rome, which was the center of religion, paganism has been discovered to have dominated the renaissance period of the 15th century.

The period of the Renaissance was dominated by science and the development of art. Many people in Florence, Rome, and Venice followed the beliefs of science due to the fascinations that came with new inventions and discoveries. Also, the works of art were appealing to the eye and thus were a more natural way of capturing the attention of followers who would accept the integration of such art into a culture without any idea of hidden ideologies (O’Brien, 2017). Initially, science and art were viewed as developments that would bring lifeline into the church especially after the fall of the Roman Empire during the middle ages. However, it was later discovered that paganism ideologies greatly influenced the works of science and art.

The development of the two fields around the church was deliberately done to divert the attention of the scholars and individuals who would question the authenticity of the relationship between science, art, and religion. One of the works of art that were later found to be of paganism origin was the drawing of the blessed virgin girl holding the torch of life, and the youthful winged-men resembling the angels. The use of the holy drawings to represent the paganism praise for nudity was one deliberately to ensure that nothing was left to be doubt in terms of criticism and to ensure that the paganism ideologies took firm roots in the Christian territories. The Renaissance was an indirect way of rebuilding a paganism culture that had faded several years ago when the Roman religion became strong.

The early Christians had a unique taste in the use of art to represent most of their beliefs. However, the use of art was used differently by the few remaining pagans who did not have well-established structures to spread their ideologies and therefore decided to use the leniency of the Christian faith to bring back to life their long forgotten ideas (Bullard, 2018). The acceptance of the work of art and the ancient philosophy was one deliberate move that Christians made and allowed paganism to thrive during the Renaissance. The ancient beliefs concerning the place of ancient philosophers in the church were slowly fading, and the church was allowing more and more philosophers to introduce their teachings in the church. The fact that the ancient philosophers were fond of praising human efforts at the expense of God’s recognition meant that they were pagans in nature. Therefore, Christianity had deliberately involved itself in unification with paganism. The unification has remained in force to the present with the present Christianity being based on pagan art to represent their divinity. On yet a contradicting point of view, the Renaissance could have been used as a way of mockery to the works of paganism.

The paintings of the renaissance in Christian works could be interpreted as works of mockery on an inferior religion that had tried to rebel Christianity. Before the renaissance, paganism appeared to be taking roots after the fall of the Roman Empire. The pioneers of the Renaissance such as the Medici family valued the work of art and used their wealth to finance the artists in their performance. The works of art that were being supported then had great aspects of immorality and paganism. However, the Medici family fell before the paganism belief became firm, and even their rise back to power did not allow them to go to their previous glory and paganism could not dominate. The attempts of the pagans to dominate were hit with several blows with Christianity taking over most of their works of art to represent the Christian divinity. The use of pagan art to represent divinity has received criticism from several individuals but could have served a great deal in ensuring the dominance of Christianity over paganism.

In sum, the relationship between paganism and religion was evident during the renaissance period. The relationship took form with religion relying mostly on art and science, which borrowed heavily from the pagans. Also, the allowance of the ancient philosophy into the church was a move that could have cost religion its dominance. However, the relationship between paganism and religion seems to have worked to the benefit of religion.