Haynes 1 Rachel Haynes John Selby, Roberta Roos World History January 10, 2014

The Impact of the European Renaissance

The European Renaissance was considered a time of roaring interest in the artistic side of life. But the events that occurred in this time period didnt just remain there. The people and occurrences of the European Renaissance still affect the people of the 21st century. One way we still see the Renaissance alive today, is through science. Before the Renaissance, it was frowned upon to dissect humans. It wasnt till Leonardo da Vinci used to steal corpses and examine them carefully. He recorded the different things he saw in the body and it helped us today figure out how the body works. So without the Renaissance, there is no way that surgery, medicine and doctors offices would be the same as they are today. The Renaissance also greatly affected our theology and philosophy. Today, most of the world follows a good portion of the secular views of the Renaissance. People strive to live life for the here and now, as to where the culture before the Renaissance was extremely religious. Religious people lived as if they were in poverty because they believed God wanted them to live humble lives. In the Renaissance, they believed that even as a Catholic or Christian, having wealth and luxuries werent going directly against Gods Law. Also, like humanism was a big theme of the Renaissance, it is still prominent in our society today. Our culture allows free education to all people in hopes that it would help us improve our view on life. People around the 1500s discovered that learning and deep thinking really helps improve ones world view. Education has also been tremendously affected by the Renaissance. In a basic world history course, kids learn about different artists and receive different ideas about life itself. Not only is it just something we learn about in history, but it completely changed the way schools look at art. Now in most schools, there is some sort of art program. In these art programs, they can learn techniques from the Renaissance like perspective, and texture. Even some schools have programs for architecture, art history, anatomy and philosophy. Also famous authors from the Greek culture that were reintroduced during the Renaissance are studied in a basics English course. Authors like Aristotle and Plato, whose importance revived during the Renaissance, are still studied today. Also, places like museums, which have the purpose of educating the public, love the Renaissance era. Dozens of museums feature historical paintings from this famous era. There are even some exhibits specifically for a single artist of the European Renaissance. The European Renaissance has completely changed the way we look at different aspects of life in todays society. Through Leonardo da Vincis study of anatomy and health, we can now preserve our

Haynes 2 population with thousands of medical procedures derived from his observations. In theology and philosophy, the world is able to look at life through different lenses of creativity. Also, through art and education, we have seen how to learn from the world around us, and take what we have learned and use it as a way to incredibly and uniquely express ourselves.