Arts & Culture - Religion
Religion was a consistent subject of art throughout the early modern period, and inquiry into religious art can help us to think about attitudes towards religion as they evolved throughout this era. Religion, in this period, was the explanation for why and how humans lived. As such, religious art can tell us a great deal about the worldviews of the artist and society that created it.
As European society moved through the early modern period, religious aesthetics and arts styles changed. We should be skeptical of the idea that art "got better", and instead take away the ways that it changed. The most obvious change is naturalism – in the Renaissance and beyond, we see a broad trend towards paintings being more realistic, with real-looking textures and lighting. We also see an increased trend in depicting the humanity of Jesus, versus earlier depictions which more often stressed his power and divinity. This humanization of Jesus and other holy figures corresponded broadly with the emergence of Renaissance humanism.