With the passing of the Medieval age, an interest in scholarship was rekindled by introducing a new curriculum.  That is, by the end of the 15th century, classical references and motifs were joined to established Christian themes.  The close integration of Christian belief and humanist philosophy became widely acknowledged, and an appreciation of pagan antiquity was not seen as antagonistic to Catholic values.

One of the most famous Italian humanists was Leon Battista Alberti.  His aesthetic formula influenced academic teaching throughout the next four hundred years of Western art.  Alberti's love for the arts was matched by a love for science.  For instance, while living in Rome he constructed a camera obscura, a pre-electronic invention that was used to transfer images upon a wall so that an artist could trace the likeness onto a canvas or other surface.  This is, perhaps, the clearest example of Alberti's dual approach to painting -- the stylistic and the scientific.

Raphael's painting above, The School of Athens (1510-11), in both its subject and composition represents the pictorial aims of humanism.  It not only depicts historical figures from ancient Greece who had made important contributions to the fields of science, philosophy, poetry and mathematics, but it also honors contemporary genius (e.g., Michelangelo -- who can be seen near the center seated at the bottom of  the stairs).  Likewise, its composition corresponds to Alberti's aesthetic formula by balancing the rationally arranged recession of space with a strict sense of symmetry.  The figures decending a flight of stairs, for example, are purposely placed at the exact center of the composition to heighten the sense of order.

The humanist approach survived until the seventeenth century when the most famous sculptor of that age, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), achieved an expression in his art that was fundamental to the humanistic theory.  In general, his theory maintained that by depicting the outward, physical movements which accompany human actions and passions, the artist could excite the inner feelings and therefore influence the behavior of the beholder.