During our stay in Rome, we were lucky enough to have the chance to see many ancient structures and beautiful works of art. One of the most stunning being St. Peter's Basilica, the Papal Cathedral in the Vatican City. It was possibly the most beautiful building that I have ever seen. It was consecrated in 1626, so around the “end” of the Renaissance. In my opinion, the Basilica is the perfect example of Renaissance art at its highest. It held the four central concepts of the Renaissance, even secularism.
The giant and awe-striking structure absolutely blew my mind and then to think that this was constructed in the 1500 and 1600s, made it even more unbelievable. Humanism was expressed through the general celebration of mankind's relationship with God. Of course, churches are made for communing with God and then there were pictures and sculptures that depicted this relationship. One of the most memorable was the sculpture of Mary holding a grown Jesus in her lap. The expression on her face was pure sorrow.
Another large them was individualism. The fact that humans were able to construct such a massive and beautiful building is a celebration of versatility and virtuosity itself. I think the Basilica is a great example of Pico's argument, that mankind is capable of doing whatever they set their mind to. The thing that today's generation seems to have a hard time grasping is that it actually takes hard work and lots of time. I think the people of the Renaissance truly appreciated beautiful things and they knew that they were capable of achieving those things. The Basilica is a glorious example of these ideals, humanism, individualism, secularism, and historical self-consciousness brought together.
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