A1. Previous historical artistic periodIn the early 1300s, Europeans began to free themselves from the dark and oppressive mentality of the Middle Ages. This sparked a revolution that would begin in Italy and spread throughout Europe, and is known today as the Renaissance. The word Renaissance literally (and fittingly) means "rebirth," making it an appropriate title for a period when interest in classical learning, philosophy, and the arts was reborn. Where the Middle Ages took away the meaning of the arts - using paintings and sculptures, for example, they were nothing more than decorations in places of worship - the Renaissance restored it. Artists began to experiment and came up with new and original ideas instead of acting solely on old ones. As people saw what art really was, their tastes began to grow and branch, meaning artists had to invent new content to satisfy their growing audiences. The city's population was also growing rapidly, resulting in an increase in wealth that provided funds with which the arts could expand. Paintings stopped focusing exclusively on religious models and took on new subjects such as portraits, landscapes, scenes of everyday life, and studies of the human form. Instead of focusing on the natural world and the afterlife, the paintings focused on the material world and the here and now. New techniques were developed, combining science and mathematics with art, such as linear perspective and the representation of light and shadow. Sculpture and architecture were largely influenced by the classical world. Sculptors used new materials, developed new techniques, became more expressive with their creations, and created three-dimensional figures that deviated from stylization. Architecture became calmer... in the center of the paper... to put an end to the idealistic tendencies that Romanticism had set in motion but which could never fully escape the era. It also later had some effect on the wild and passionate aspects of the Victorian period. He has never stopped influencing the art world. In literature, particularly Bildungsroman novels, the thought process of romance can be found when characters seek to know the world's answers and, after searching high and low, come to understand and reconcile with the fact that there there are too many of them. questions to which everyone has an answer. Even in today's literature the presence of individualism is strong. Works Cited Kren, E., & Marx, D. (2010, July 11). Art web gallery. Retrieved October 15, 2010, from http://www.wga.huLe déjeuner sur l'herbe. (2010, October 19). On Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved October 20, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/