From 1300 to 1600, Europe saw the Renaissance, the rebirth of art and learning. Worldliness was a key part of their artwork through the individualism shown in the portraits with earthly backgrounds and through the glorification the human body. Realism was a major part of the artwork; a lot of attention was given to detail and setting. The artists were influenced largely by humanistic ideas such as human potential and achievement. Artists portrayed many different kinds of people, from peasants to royalty. The Italians were especially effective in incorporating realism into their paintings.
             Some Renaissance portraits and paintings of individual people are almost mistaken for photographs, due to their realistic atmosphere and detailing. A great example of this is Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa that seems so real that many writers have tried to analyze and explain the reason for her inward amusement and beauty. This painting was also on an earthly background that helped to show her reality. Portraits showed every detail including scars and moles and were done on kings, as well as peasants. The portraits done on more prominent citizens revealed what was distinctive about them. Although the art was created for many different purposes, they all show the Renaissance influence of emphasis on the individual. Before the Renaissance, there were no portraits, but since a theme of the Renaissance was individualism, artists started to show that emphasis by only painting one person and focusing in on them.
             Individualism was also shown in art by glorifying the human body. The paintings communicated what an ideal body looks like and what potential it has through showing both graceful movements and a sense of strength and power. Some artists started to reuse the idea of showing people in the nude, which had not been done since the classical period. The bodies seem idealized and idolized. For example, Michelangelo shows the...