The renaissance is defined as the period that followed the middle ages which was characterized by a dramatic cultural shift that started in Italy and later spread across Europe (Matthews, 2017). According to historians, renaissance developed partly in Italy due to reaction toward the Black Plague of 1348. According to statistics, the plague led to deaths that were estimated to be 75-200 million people. As a result of this, historians claim that those who witnessed the plague became more interested in life affairs than in the afterlife. Furthermore, after the plague, those who were working by then were in a better position than previously as food and land price dropped significantly. Therefore, as individuals lived better, they started engaging themselves with matters which were not directly linked to their mode of survival (Burckhardt, 2002).
In general, humanism was the main renaissance reason that caused the rebirth of the cult of beauty and the heroic ideal. In other words, the focus of human beings toward spiritual matters in most parts of the world resulted in rising of these two ideals. Humanism was positioned on the belief that the key to solving most civilization problems was through rational approaches. It also relied upon the church’s absolute authority which stated that people are innately good and not innately sinful (Matthews, 2017).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The heroic ideal constituted a perfect individual, and it arose in renaissance literature after the classics’ reemergence in the renaissance of Italy. This can be evidenced by the writes of the west in “Spenser and the Renaissance Ideal of Christian Heroism” (West, 1973). As part of the Renaissance, the cult of beauty emerged as a reflection of quickly growing belief of celebrating the physical instead of the purely spiritual. Also, it would also have been inherited from the Greek view that asserted that beauty was an ideal which in one way or another could be manifested in physical things.
References
Matthews-Grieco, S. (Ed.). (2017). Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy . Routledge.
West, M. (1973). Spenser and the Renaissance Ideal of Christian Heroism. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America , 1013-1032.
Burckhardt, J. (2002). The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Retrieved from http://talebooks.com/ebooks/818.pdf
