The Vitruian Man

Ashlee Lawrence - Honors History 10 - 10/25/2007

The Roman Catholic Church, Leonardo da Vinci and da Vinci's study of the anatomy of the human body had one unique impact on the world. That impact was the Vitruian Man, which impacts the study of anatomy today.

The Roman Catholic Church is one of the largest religious groups, with a pope as the head. In the Renaissance period it was a major part of life for people, including their political lives as well as their social and religious. It was not just something you do, but a way of life.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 and died on May 2, 1592. He was a very talented artist who developed the technique of sfumato; gently transitioning from one color to the next in a painting. He also developed the theory of optical illusions which he used in his paintings. Leonardo was a major leader in Priory of Sion: a secret mystical organization claiming to know privileged religious information. He would deliberately put secret religious messages in his paintings. As a teenager he apprenticed with Andreadel Verrochio. Through the years 1485 to 1490 he produced studies on everything from churches to fortresses along with designing weapons. He was so compelled to learn new things that most of his works went unfinished. His main study was science, whether in nature or in the human body. In 1490 he started to document his studies. Leonardo da Vinci was an artist who incorporated art into everything that he did.

The anatomy of the human body was really studied and put together by Leonardo da Vinci. Ptolemy's method in geography was a starting point for Leonardo in his study of the anatomy of the human body. Leonardo was the first to realize that more was needed to understand the human body than just the information given by dissecting. He began to make models of the organisms in the exact form that they are in in the human body. He wrote more as a "how to" guide then just some research. In his documents he isolated every organ and viewed it from multiple angles. He would then put it with other organs to see how it interacted and helped the other organs. Da Vinci's goal was to make the anatomy of the human body transparent. By studying each organ in depth, also bringing in the factor that humans change over time (studying a child, a young man, and an old man), it makes it easier to find a problem in this mechanism and fix it. Leonardo in essence made a working functioning model of the human body which took away the distance factor for those who had weak stomachs or just didn't want to see a dead body. He changed the way of looking not only at the human body but at everything else that could be made transparent.

The Roman Catholic Church, Leonardo da Vinci as an artist, and his studies of the anatomy of the human body impacted the study of the anatomy of the human body in the future through Leonardo's piece of art, the Vitruian Man. This piece of art and the research behind it changed the was people looked at the human body.

Loenardo da Vinci started the in depth study of the anatomy of the human body; he was also a very skilled artist. With these two talents combined he created "The Virtruian Man"; a drawing of a man with four arms and legs, showing proportions of the human body. It was Leonardo's job to be a perfectionist; getting every little detail just right. His art talents helped him to fulfill this. The Roman Catholic Church plays an important role in Leonardo's studies and drawings. The church was open to scientific growth but only to the extent of the church. Like Galileo, studies outside of the church or studies the church did not feel biblical would be looked down upon and called heresy.

The Roman Catholic Church, Leonardo da Vinci as an artist, and his studies of the anatomy of the human body had a big impact on the way we study anatomy through "The Vitruian Man". This one drawing would change the way we saw the human body and the way we studied it.

Today when you are sick you take your body to the hospital and through previously conducted studies they can analyze your body's functions and tell you what is wrong. Before Leonardo there was nothing to compare your body's actions to. Leonardo's meticulous study of the human body was the first stepping stone to a long trail of studies. With that simply beginning we have now been able to study even more in depth the functions of the human body to help prevent malfunctions in our bodies. What was once a "how to" guide on how to dissect your finger, is now a chemical makeup of virus' floating through the air that we breathe.

Revolution-P.E.R.S.I.A.?

Ashlee Lawrence - Honors History 10 - 10/15/2007

All parts of P.E.R.S.I.A. play a role in revolution, though some play bigger parts. Religion was the causative factor of the Renaissance Revolution. Without the P.E.S.I.A. there would be no revolution; each part is important in its own way. Religion being the causative factor controlled what happened in each other aspect of P.E.R.S.I.A.

Revolution is defined by Merriam Webster as, "a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something". The renaissance revolution was just that. It took the thoughts of unum sanctrum, solo scriptora, and solo fidelis and diminished them. It was the jump from one standard of living and life to many different standards. What was then one church that believed everything the same, is now hundreds of churches believing only minor details different. Another example would be the art of people. When once a single face was shared by all, now each person is their own; depicting their emotions and feelings through their body language.

P.E.R.S.I.A. summarizes the main ideas and or topics of historical events. Standing for, Politics, Economics, Religion, Society, Intellect, and Aesthetics, you can fit any historical event into one of these categories. With revolution not just one of these topics covers it all. Revolution is such a big thing that it is practically impossible to say that only one aspect caused a revolution. All five of these aspects run hand in hand and are equally important.

In the Renaissance period the world revolved around the church. Every part of life was based around the religious beliefs. When the church was thought to be corrupt by some people, (Martin Luther & Erasmus Desiderius ) there was change. Martin Luther produced his 95 Thesis about why the Catholic church was wrong.

religion-economics

Today money controls the world. It was the same with the Renaissance only it was hidden by the church. Usury was condemned a sin by the church, so instead of openly committing usury everyone had to do it in secret. Tim Parks says on page 23 of Medici Money, "When the Church asked for loans from a bank, for example, the bank could not ask for interest in return, because usury was a sin. So in its role as trading company, it would increase the price of the goods it sold to the Church to the tune of the interest it felt it deserved from the loans it had made." Usury was still used it was only done incognito. Martin Luther questioned the pope's indulgences with his 95 Theses. On page 20, Parks discusses how Rome had moneys coming in from all over the place. "Delayed payment was punishable with excommunication. Don't pay and you go to hell." The authorities had everyone scared to death that they were going to go to hell but they bribed them with "plenary indulgence". The Pope was money hungry, he made laws against usury, then hid his sins with religion.

The Medici family was an important part of Florence's politics because they had money. Parks says on page 3, "....and moves decisively into politics to the point of more or less running the Florentine Republic." They had to be careful as to how they went about with their money though. With usury condemned how can the bank make money? This is where they had to be catty about how they got their money.

Unum sanctrum, one church, is how the society worked. Everyone believed in the church except the few that challenged it. The people of Florence hated Martin Luther because he was splitting the church. Martin Luther and Erasmus Desiderius brought realization into the church. No longer did everyone believe the same things. This caused the many different branches of Catholicism.

Religion majorly effected the intellect of the people. If your life is the church, the church is all you know. This was the case with Florence. Until Martin Luther came along there was nothing that disagreed with the church. Once the questioning started and points were made about the church being corrupt people wanted to find out what the real truth was. The research that these people did was from the Bible. Luther translated the Bible into Greek and allowed many more people to read it.

In conclusion, Religion is the causative factor for the Renaissance revolution. Before the revolution the church was life, so when the church changed so did these people's world. In changing "the world" there are more aspects than just religion and this is where the P.E.S.I.A. ties in. Religion along is not enough to make a revolution, but religion and the effects it has on P.E.S.I.A. is!