The era known as the Renaissance began in the 14th century. The word Renaissance means rebirth, those who lived in this era witnessed the dawn of a new era. It began as a literary movement among educated, upper-class men in the cities of northern Italy (Wiesner 210). Writers and artists studied Roman models, and Petrarch, a Renaissance writer, proposed a liberal arts curriculum to recapture Rome's former glory. The philosophy of humanism became popular resulting in curiosity about life and learning, individualism, virtue, secularism, and the classical past. Individualism emphasizes the new importance of defining oneself by one's sense of uniqueness and individuality rather than in the context of a group, virtue is the focus on making an impact in one's chosen field of endeavor, and secularism is the belief that people and objects are important enough to require verbal description with images. These new values ​​are what constituted the attitude of the Renaissance era. This new attitude slowly spread throughout Europe, affecting the surrounding areas at different times. With the Renaissance came ideals for men, women and rulers. The ideals for men, women and rulers were very different from each other and from previous ideals of these social roles. When we hear Renaissance, we think of the luxurious and desirable lifestyle that the people of that time must have lived and we look to written descriptions and visual aids to gain information about the people and this time period, but to what extent is a Accurate impression of Renaissance Lifestyle? A Renaissance man was the ideal man of the time period. As described in documented sources, such as that of Vergerius, the ideal man must be multifaceted and capable of...... middle of paper ......making his face recognizable and gaining the support of his people. With information provided, it can be concluded that ideals for social classes and genders differ in many ways despite having very little in common. Men, women, and housekeepers have different social norms, behavioral expectations, and areas of knowledge. But it seems apparent that descriptions and images of Renaissance men, women, and rulers may not be accurate in demonstrating how Renaissance people live. Information is omitted from all descriptions, and it's hard to tell how much bias each source has. Considering that these sources are written by aristocrats, that the paintings were self-portraits or commissioned, and that both the paintings and the written evidence may have been used as propaganda, it is easy to see that the sources depict ideal, prescriptive, not realistic individuals. people.