Introduction
The characters of Dante and St. Francis represent the changes that were occurring in the emergence of Romanticism. The Hero lives in a world that is created by his destiny and the hero makes use of his skills to overcome barriers to his goals of self-achievement. The Romantic hero was quite different from the typical hero and always stood outside the norms of the society. He questions the standards of the society and gets alienated in the process. Dante gives a good example of romanticism in The Divine Comedy, where the lead character struggles against society and achieves unity with God at the end. The concept of sainthood too changed with time and the Romantic hero also was understood as a saint who acts against the social norms, but is a leader through his acts of goodness for the society.
St. Francis earthly sacrifices are not seen as a burden to him, and he charters his own path towards oneness with the God. He is shown to be powerful in saying no to all the worldly things going after him. He enjoyed the pleasures of the world, but gave it all in his pursuit of God. He is a heroic example of selflessness, and his heartfelt beliefs help him achieve a harmony with all creations. His deep love for nature inspired Italian painters to bring naturalism into their work. He was an inspiration to others in his lifetime.
While Saint Francis and Dante emphasized on love, freedom, they converged the path of the hero and a saint. They both stressed on freedom and love and used romantic relationships to express their love for God. Michelangelo realized through art. Michelangelo takes years to get the right inspiration for his work and goes ahead to create a masterpiece. When he paints frescoes and murals on the ceiling of the private Sistine Chapel of the pope, he develops a friction with Pope Julius II. He has no time for the mounting impatience of the Pope. Clearly, Michelangelo believed in his own ideas on painting and his figurative expressiveness in art remains unequaled. Saint Francis and Dante were looking for perfection and truth in their lives, Michelangelo sought for those in his art. In Christian terms, Michelangelo was the messiah of art, and his work was simply divine. Michelangelo’s idea of himself as an epic hero brings us back to Dante. Dante created the innovative ideas of how a modern poet can be a hero. Michelangelo would exploit the idea to project himself as a hero on the basis of his art.
European Enlightenment, as the cultural heir to the Renaissance, ushered in a series of bold new experiments, related to the human search for meaning of religion and an independence from its authority. A new world was getting created based on the revolutionary forces of social change, political competition, and the economic rivalry. There was a dramatic reaffirmation of the worldview on heroic individualism with the rise of liberalism and capitalism. A series of critical cultural changes take place to mark the Enlightenment, a series of critical cultural changes marked the predominance of secularism and the Heroic worldview. There were ‘far-reaching consequences of Martin Luther challenging papal authority and the victory of empirical science. Luther introduced a division within Christian culture with this act and attacked the preeminence of individual experience and conscience. He stressed on the individual encounter between the believer and his faith rather than exercising divine authority through doctrine.
It must have been challenging for Kierkegaard's to portray Abraham, who recognizes his duties to be more powerful than social norms. Abraham believes in his duty to something higher and keeps his social duty of not to killing an innocent person at lower status. He feels more committed to obeying the God's commands.
