Introduction
It is known that Humanism is a theory that has influenced design, art and architecture over years and this theory has changed the production of works related to design, art and architecture in various ways. It is obvious that to get clear about the influences of Humanism on design, art and architecture can help the production of design, art and architecture works. Therefore this paper would like to explore the influence of Humanism and ethical considerations on design, art and architecture, which will be elaborated on the below three aspects: the appearance of ergonomic design, the freedom of art and self-expression and the characteristics of the Renaissance architecture.
Influence of Humanism and Ethical Considerations
Firstly, the appearance of the ergonomic design can be used to account for the influence of Humanism on design. Humanism can be found within design due to its beginnings on discovering proportions through the study of the human body, leading to ergonomic design (HeatherlyBliss. 2016). At the same time, the changes of human rights as well lead to the changes in design. Based on this, it is not hard to find that Humanism will influence design in various ways. And the ethical considerations in design are that it is necessary to reach contingency while designing, which can be detected from “To go to the furthest shores of humanity is to begin to understand that the war on ambivalence and the ridding of contingency are not benign processes” (Jeremy Till. 2003).
Moreover, Humanism’s influence on art can be indicated from the freedom and self-expression in art. Detailed speaking, art is not a way to glorify God anymore while it is a way to show creativity and individualism of the self of one person (Artscolumbia. 2017). Apart from that, Humanism shaped many aspects of Renaissance art, such as the subject matter, content, and style of all kinds of different art forms (Artscolumbia. 2017). According to this, a fair knowledge can be obtained that Humanism can enable the artists to put forward their works based on their own thoughts without taking any regard of glorifying God. And the ethical considerations in art are that the artworks have to be moral and they should fit in well with the moral principles embraced by the wide public.
Last but not the least, Humanism’s influence on architecture can be justified by the characteristics of the Renaissance architecture. The writings of Vitruvius will exert impacts on the definition of beauty toward Renaissance architecture and the Renaissance architecture is characterized by a unit of measurement related to the human scale, mathematical proportion and harmonious form (The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2000-2018). Or maybe it can be put in another way that the architects during the Renaissance will right by trained as humanists. And the ethical considerations in architecture can be seen from the ethical functions of architecture, which can be seen from “…those postmodernists who proclaimed themselves humanists and charged modernism not so much with aesthetics as with moral failure ” (Karsten Harries. 1998).
Conclusion
To sum up, a reasonable conclusion can be drawn that Humanism has really caused influences on design, art and architecture as long as the below three aspects are taken into account: the appearance of ergonomic design, the freedom of art and self-expression and the characteristics of the Renaissance architecture. And the ethical considerations have to be considered while discussing the influence of Humanism on design, art and architecture. There is no doubt that there are many other aspects concerning the influence of Humanism on design, art and architecture that have not been mentioned in the above, which calls for further discoveries in the future.