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At the beginning of C. S. Lewis's novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the Pevensie children are astonished by how real a painting of a ship on the bedroom wall looks. It has depth and movement and is so lifelike they can almost feel the ocean spray. As they step forward to take a closer look, they are drawn straight through the frame of the painting into the world of Narnia. No longer spectators, they have become participants in the story.     

The painting in this chapter of Lewis's novel is not just a pretty picture on a wall to be admired but a window—even a doorway—into something beyond itself, a new kind of reality, a story that can draw viewers in and transform them. Many 21st-century Protestants may find this concept foreign, but in the 14th through the 16th centuries, this is precisely what artists were after. In an age whirling with changes, art—reaching a magnificent level of naturalism not seen since the days of the ancient Greeks and Romans—had a vital role to play.

A shift in outlook was sweeping through Western Europe, starting in Italy and spreading north into Germany, France, England, and the Netherlands. Those living in that time spoke of rinnovato—renewal—to describe their sense of entering a new age very different from the early Middle Ages. Nineteenth-century historians later called it the "Renaissance" (rebirth). For the church, it was a hinge between medieval faith, piety, and church order on the one hand and the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on the other. Some of the same impulses that drove the reformers to clear away the obstructions to pure, biblical Christianity motivated Renaissance artists to dive back into the past, recover the styles and techniques of classical sculpture, and make the Old into something radically New.

It was a time of experimentation—with artistic techniques, philosophical ideas, religious beliefs, political and scientific theories, and new technologies like the printing press. It was a time of exploration—to wild, undiscovered lands beyond the Atlantic Ocean and to the seemingly inexhaustible limits of human reason and creativity. It was also a time when ideals and reality didn't always match up.

It may seem strange to say that a culture that produced Machiavelli's political philosophy, a slew of corrupt despots constantly at war with each other, and a notorious pope like Alexander VI, devoted to women, wealth, and his ten illegitimate children, was also a culture thoroughly steeped in Christianity. But that was the case. Fifteenth-century Italy wove religion into the fabric of everyday existence. Life was liturgical—measured in holy days, feasts, festivals, baptisms, masses, penances, marriages, and last rites.

At the same time, many people knew that all was not well in the land of piazzas and pilgrimages. Over the course of the century and into the next, there was increasing dissatisfaction with the state of the institutional church and the moral decay of society, accompanied by a desire for more authentic expressions of faith. In the monastic communities, this took the form of "observant" orders, which called for a return to the moral standards and spiritual dedication of their founders. Laypeople sought out personal, emotionally engaging forms of spirituality, and new "confraternities" allowed the laity to actively participate in worship and in devotional rituals that were previously the exclusive privilege of clergy and monks.

In this highly visual culture, Christianity, society, and art were inextricably linked. Works of art were not made to hang passively in museums. They were essential parts of the public landscape, with specific purposes. Statues in town squares symbolized political clout or civic allegiance. Carved pulpits and stained glass windows preached biblical stories in pictures. Elaborately decorated crucifixes and altarpieces inspired spiritual feeling and devotional commitment. Grand buildings proclaimed the power of a pope or the prestige of an aristocratic family. Murals in monasteries or private chapels chronicled the lives of founders, ancestors, and saints.

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