Homosexuality in Italian Renaissance Art & Culture
The Renaissance, spanning from approximately the fourteenth to seventeenth century, is defined as the historical period bridging Medieval and Modern Europe. Its name coming from the French word for “rebirth,” the period is defined by its revival of interest in visual culture and its renewal of artistic standards of beauty, a juxtaposition to the aesthetics of its “dark and dreary immediate predecessors.” (Johnson, Geraldine A., Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford University Press, 2005). Naturally, with this newfound emphasis on beauty and aestheticism came a wave of fine art unlike those seen in any era before or after. Not only were artistic styles and techniques refined to perfection, but with them came a “powerfully self-conscious creation of identity” (Brotton, Jerry, The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford University Press, 2006) that any artistic works prior to those composed in the Renaissance lack. Even if it is difficult to grasp the motivation or emotion behind a painting, it is still possible to identify with them as “recognizably modern.” (Ibid). This is due to the fact that prior to the fifteenth century, people “lacked a powerful sense of individual identity,” (Ibid) and the period is representative of this shift in intellectual ignorance.