By the end of the 15th century, the remains of the ancient gods littered the landscape of Western Europe. Christianity had erased the religions of ancient Greece and Rome and most Europeans believed the destruction of classical art was God's judgment on the pagan deities. How, then, did
European artists during the next three centuries create such monumental works as Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Raphael's Parnassus?
In The Mirror of the...