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already developed all the way back in the classical era and in the ancient Jewish tradition,39 the rise of individualism in its modern reincarnation was made pos- sible by secularization:40 individualism allowed man to abandon his ties to the moral structure of God’s universe in order to accept any “truth” he discovered. Somewhat paradoxically, individualism developed within Christianity de- spite the lack of freedom Christians experienced under the yoke of the Catholic Church. Christianity teaches the individual to distinguish between good and evil and allows him to “fulfil himself”. In Judaism and in the classical Greek tradition, the individual actually has less responsibility than in Christianity: the Christian doctrine emphasizes the power of spiritual activity and the potential of the in- dividual to increase his divine capacities through spiritual labour. By doing so, Christianity contributed to the development of self-awareness, and this self, the one who wields this authority, is perfected during the Renaissance.41 The process of secularization also influenced the way the West approached history. Up until the thirteenth century, historiography was decisively Christian and dependent on theology, i.e. the religious establishment, which determined categorically which sources were worthy of historical attentions and which were forbidden.42 The people of the Renaissance, by contrast, adopted the ap- proach of Cicero, who called history “the teacher of life” and focused on human drama, human relationships, human weaknesses and successes.43 History too went through a process of secularization, based on the arrow of earthly time, as it is characterized in the Bible. That is to say, it is informed by the idea that understanding human experiences of the past is helpful in understanding the present and can even be used to predict the future. These combined phenomena of secular individualism and the return to earth- ly time can be witnessed in Renaissance art.44 The link between art and cultural moods is rather complex. The study of art history is based on the nature of the connection between works of art and cultural trends or the zeitgeist in different fields of human culture.45 We can agree that Renaissance art celebrates the em- 39 The God of the Old Testament allows man to be free. Although God is a legislator, a reward giver and a punisher, reward and punishment are not arbitrary acts, such as Calvin’s God’s decisions about human destiny. The God of the Bible reveals to man the purpose of his life and how he must go about achieving said purpose, but he does not force him in any particular direction. While idolatry demands servitude, the monotheistic worship of God enables self-consciousness by experiencing life as a problem. See Fromm 1966, 47. 40 Shanahan 1992, 56. 41 Shanahan 1992, 53. 42 Arbel 2002, 87–88. 43 Arbel 2002, 90. 44 We must keep in mind that Renaissance culture as we know it was the culture of the upper classes, those with power and money, and not of the merchants and the petite bourgeoisie. See Fromm 1941, 47. 45 Arbel 2002, 105; Huizinga 1955, 244–245. 108 | Bina Nir www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 95–116