The Italian Renaissance, commencing in the early 1400's, was characterized by a rich period of development following the barbaric, solemn dark ages. Out of the Renaissance emerged many new ideas and creations by scientists, writers, painters, architects, and sculptures. Two of these infamous innovators were Da Vinci and Raphael. Through Renaissance paintings we can see the shift from the medieval mindset. Subject matter shifted to a humanist focused matter. We begin to see perspective illusion, science, reason and rhough behind the works. Spiritual beings weren't necessarily the subject matter; there was a deeper meaning. This can be seen in both Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and Raphael's School of Athens. .
Da Vinci created the Vitruvian Man based on Vitruvius", an ancient Roman architect, studies. Vitruvius wrote De Architectura in the 1st Century BC in which he studies city planning, temple construction, and human proportions. Vitruvius believed that buildings should be based on the proportions of a human body which is the model of perfection. He defends this by stating that the human body with arms and legs extended fits into the perfect geometric forms, the circle, and the square. Da Vinci incorporated such proportions into his drawing of the perfect model - man. His work is the first successful one to depict Vitruvius" notions. Prior to Da Vinci, Pythagoras and Cesarian both attempted the Vitruvian man but failed. He started by drawing the perfectly proportioned man and then fitted it into the circle and square, which are tangent at the base. "The result is a figure of classical proportions- echoing the divine ratios of the ancient Greeks. (Leonardo Da Vinci Sheet) .
The School of Athens was pained by Raphael Sanzio in 1520 for Pope Julius II on the Vatican walls. Some hypothesize that Raphael based his painting on Dante's Divine Comedy. Supposedly he used the passage where Dante and Virgil come across virtuous pagans including heroes, poets, and philosophers as a model for his painting.
