And like botanical fruit, this artistic fruit contains seeds that can be planted in the fertile ground of a new era. The beautiful art of the European Renaissance vividly demonstrates the operation of this fruit and seed phenomenon. The sacking of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks caused the monks and scholars who had preserved the knowledge of the ancient Greeks and Romans to flee to the Christian kingdoms of the north. The new access to the fruits of the ancients provided to the European artists and thinkers of this period was responsible for much of the cultural progress we now refer to as the Renaissance. As we examine the periodic periods of social progress throughout history, we can see how the upwelling of the collective unconscious and the rediscovery of the expressions of beauty of the past seems to occur in distinct episodes.
Collective inspiration comes in waves that break upon the shores of discrete periods in history.
This kind of inspiration does not just produce individual works of art, it produces art movements. The Spiritual Renaissance art movement is ultimately a value agreement. It is a movement of people who agree about the spiritual value of beauty and recognize its connection to truth, goodness, and love.