Renaissance sculptors, woodworkers,
jewelers, and painters depicted these dei-
ties, who replaced the biblical events and
themes that dominated the art of the
Middle Ages. At first, classical mythology
served as diversion, entertainment, and
simple decoration in the form of garden
sculptures and ceiling frescoes for private
salons and public halls. Serious art was
Christian art in the early Renaissance until
Sandro Botticelli—in works includingPri-
maveraandThe Birth of Venus— put pa-
gan gods at the center of his canvas, mak-
ing paganism a visual reflection of the
emerging humanism in literature. Mythol-
ogy allowed artists freer reign in their
choice of subject matter—they could treat
lust, pride, avarice, and other sins by
adopting an ancient myth and giving it a
personal interpretation, and not one con-
trolled by medieval pictorial traditions.
Eventually, political leaders took up my-
thology as well, identifying themselves
with the ancient gods and taking on their
attributes (Emperor Charles V, for ex-
ample, was often shown as the Roman god
Jupiter, and the Tudor dynasty of England
modeled itself on the ancient Trojans).
Eventually pagan mythology became
popular subject matter for the most re-
nowned of Renaissance artists, including
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonar-
roti, Michelangelo da Caravaggio, and
Titian, whose mythological paintings, in-
cludingVenus of Urbino, The Rape of Eu-
ropea, Diana and Actaeon, andBacchus and
Ariadne, are considered his masterpieces.
Writers, including Francois Rabelais, Lu-
dovico Ariosto, William Shakespeare, and
Pierre de Ronsard, drew heavily on my-
thology, while Diane de Poitiers, the mis-
tress of the French King Henri II, became
the subject herself of a pagan cult, in po-
etry and art, in which she was given the
attributes of Diana, Roman goddess of the
hunt. In the meantime, the use of classical
mythology had a subversive effect on
Christianity and its institutions. Giving a
prominent place in poetry and sculpture
to the Greek gods, for example, implied
that religious faith—whether that of the
pagans or the Christians—was simply a
reflection of the human imagination. At
the end of the Renaissance, ancient myths
began to prevail in public art and in seri-
ous poetry, accompanying an age of skep-
ticism that eventually resulted in the En-
lightenment, a movement that cast doubt
on religious faith of any kind.mythology