Historically the beginning of the Renaissance has been tied to the rediscovery of antiquity as the primary driver of the era’s artistic revolution. However, art historian Liz Lev proposes that it was the result of the new mendicant orders, which emphasized the human elements of the Gospel narrative. Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans, demonstrated profound holiness to his era, and when his “story went viral,” it inspired others including Giotto, Italy's foremost painter, and Dante, its greatest poet, to reform art to newly celebrate the human condition with its quirks, foibles, and heroic journeys.

Interweaving The Divine Comedy with frescoes from the Upper Basilica of Assisi and the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Lev unfolds the premise that the most captivating aspects of Renaissance art were propelled more by this new spirituality than the revival of pagan ideals.

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