The Renaissance was a time when humanity began to rise from the intellectual decline of the Middle Ages. During this time, scholars began to look to the ideals of the ancient philosophers of the classical world, a time of high standards and of human achievement. During this Renaissance, or "Rebirth," there were many historical, theoretical and artistic issues that informed and shaped the aesthetic attitudes in Italian and Northern European art. .
The interest in the ancient philosophy sprung the notion of Humanism, which is thought to have brought back the ideas of classical antiquity (learning and literature) that had been lost in the Middle Ages. Antiquity, not a Christian notion, was a very sensuous ideal that embraced sexuality and was about the human body. In relation to this, Humanism embraced the physical and literary records of the ancient world, as well the human itself. The idea of humanism has large basis in the term, "Imagio De i," the image of God, and taught that everything and everyone was of God. This new way of thinking made the idea of mankind divine, turning man into a mimesis or a reflection and resemblance to God in all his glory. St. Francis of Assisi, extremely popular at the time, also taught these ideals. He embraced the world, since he similarly thought that everything emanates or was in the image of God.
These reformed ideals had certain dramatic influences over the art, sculpture and architecture of the time eventually leading to the International Gothic style. Known for its focus on naturalism, it was also an art of great ornamentation and color. This gothic art soon became the style of the dominant French-Catholic Avinon Papacy, a courtly culture of love, manner and style. Art naturally left the classification of being a strictly laborious craft such as carpentry, to a more liberal art that wealthy nobles and other sophisticated men supported. .
