ABSTRACT
Creative artists advanced their skills in the Renaissance as they grasped that material effects reflected invisible forms. Action, gesture and expression flowed from the soul of the individual concerned, whether the subject was the Virgin Mary, a saint, a contemporary individual or a battle scene. This perception was believed to spring from the artist's power of self-scrutiny and his capacity to project himself into the soul of his subject. It was not theorists, but imaginative artists like Raphael and Leonardo who recorded their belief in these ideas. They derived ultimately from the Ciceronian idea of phantasia (fantasia in Italian) and the notion - preserved by Cicero - that the artist could perceive the mind of the gods.
