Those who like to interpret historical facts symbolically may recognize in this the spirit of a specifically "modern" conception of the world which permits the subject to assert itself against the object as something independent and equal; whereas classical antiquity did not as yet permit the explicit formulation of this contrast; and whereas the Middle Ages believed the subject as well as the object to be submerged in a higher unity.
Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts
antiquity, art, classical, individuality, individuation, middle-ages, modern, modernity, objectivity, renaissance, subjectivity, unity