Humanism during the Renaissance

Topic for Essay #1
Choose one of the following major themes of the Renaissance (see the list below). In your essay, explain its importance to the formation of the period known as the Renaissance, and choose one example from the each of the disciplines of art, literature, and music of the Renaissance to support your thesis. Your thesis will answer the question why the theme is important to the formation of the Renaissance. To support your thesis, use the information in Chapters 12 and 13 of your textbooks, as well as the materials posted in Modules 1 and 2.
Major Themes of the Renaissance
Humanism–a movement toward a more human-centered world view and away from a Church centered world view
Classicism–a revival of the Classical ideals of ancient Greek and Roman cultures
Tradition vs. Innovation: Artists who strove to represent the current world view using traditional techniques and forms versus artists who produced works to expand the boundaries of art in new directions.
Major Tenants of Humanism
During the Renaissance, humanism was an ideal that emphasized human abilities and accomplishments. Humanism focused more on human achievements and less on the values and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, which had been the case during the Medieval period.
Humanism was based on a renewed interest in ancient Greek & Roman history, philosophy, and art
In antiquity, the humanities or liberal arts were believed to contain the skills and knowledge necessary for a human being to be truly free
The Renaissance humanists focused on disseminating the knowledge gleaned from the the writers and artists of antiquity through formal education.
Renaissance humanists saw humankind as a source of infinite possibilities, ideally developing a balance of physical, spiritual, moral, and intellectual abilities.
The goal of Renaissance humanists was to live a rich, noble, and productive life within a framework of Christianity.
While Humanism emphasized “humanity,” Christianity did not just disappear. Christianity was by far the strongest religion and institution in the Western world during the Renaissance. However, the Roman Catholic Church as an institution was suspicious of the turn toward Humanism during the Renaissance.
Example Using “Humanism” as the Key to Understanding the Renaissance
Thesis: Humanism was an important to the development of the arts during Renaissance because ??? (one reason is that as a philosophy it focused more on the individual and on human achievements, and less on the values and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, which had been the case during the Medieval period.)
Literature: To support your thesis, choose one example from the literature covered in Culture and Values: For example, Petrarch’s sonnets, or Machiavelli’s The Prince or Erasamus’ The Praise of Folly or Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier
Art: Choose one example from art or choose the work of one artist: Jan van Eyck, or the Limbourg Brothers’ paintings from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, or Campin’s Merode Altarpiece, or Donatello’s David and Mary Magdalene (sculptures), or Masaccio’s The Holy Trinity, or Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Suppper, or Michelangelo, or Raphael, etc.
Music: Choose one example from music and reference the specific work and how it expresses Humanism.
Elements of Humanism and Realism in Music
“Human” duple rhythms of heartbeat, respiration and walking were more prominent during the Renaissance.
The acapella ideal in which the range of human voices was the ideal for all instruments, and the grouping of instruments by kind (recorder, string, brass) and range (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) represented the acapella ideal of the human voice.
Rather than the symbolic dominance of one voice (the chant) during the Middle Ages, composers of the High Renaissance sought to create often independent, but equal voices—like in painting where realism, proportion and perspective replaced the symbolic representation of people as higher or larger regardless of their true position in space.” (This excerpt is from the Interactive File in Module 1)
Josquin’s (p. 448) use of polyphony (“many sounds”—texture is complex and is often imitative where one voice or part imitates another) in the Mass as well in the motet (a short piece of sacred choral music) illustrates the tenants of humanism. The development of polyphony in music is similar to the ground-breaking development of the use of linear perspective in the visual arts.
In the Body of Your Paper Use MLA-style parenthethical citations.
Case 1 when citing the C&V text: Use the first author’s name followed by et al. (meaning “and the others”) in the parentheses followed by the page number. Example: The statue of Apollo at Veii is “unquestionably related to Greek models” (Cunningham et al. 88).
Case 2 when citing the C&V text: If you use the author’s name in the sentence, supply only a page number in the parentheses. Example: Cunningham et al. state that the statue of Apollo at Vei

The only sources that can be used is the textbook and the information I provided from the Modules 1 & 2 for this assignment nothing from the internet is allowed. Professor is very strict. Giving automatic zeros for anything outside of the instructions. Paper can’t be cited more than 15% throughout the entire essay or automatic grade of zero. The information needed to complete task comes from Chapter 12/13 of the text. I provided as much information as possible to make this a smooth transition for the both of us.