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The portrait attributed to Dosso Dossi, dated to about 1520, depicts a gentleman whose
left hand is gesturing to a graffito of a labyrinth that appears on the horizontal surface
of the parapet to his left. Gibbons explains that "the central lesson of the
medieval labyrinth was that life itself is a maze
through which the Christian must thread his perilous way, guided from wrong turns by Christ’s teachings. The Renaissance inherited this Christianized interpretation but typically gave it a more worldly and a more personal implication" (Gibbons, 110-111).
Regarding the iconography of the labyrinth in the painting he states that it is in a "rather conservative and still quite Christian sense that Dosso uses the labyrinth as the chief concern of his moody sitter. Here was a man ... beset with troubles" (Gibbons, 111). He clarifies that "the sitter’s pointed indication of the labyrinth suggests that his life was confused by roads leading nowhere" (Gibbons, 111).
Although the previously mentioned examples of the labyrinth symbol still reflected medieval interpretations, a few noteworthy developments regarding the labyrinth occurred during the Renaissance, a period whose name literally means "rebirth", which again is one of the premier concepts symbolized by the labyrinth. The return of humanistic thought heralded the "birth of the self-empowered human being", and the labyrinth-related developments reflect the resulting change in attitude.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) designed an invention, which he titled "mirror", that has been related to certain qualities of the labyrinth. Leonardo’s explanation of his invention reads, "If you make eight flat surfaces, each one two cubits long and three cubits high, and arrange them in a circle so that they form an octagon ... then a man inside can see himself infinitely from all sides" (Jaskolski, 87). This "mirror" can be associated with the concept of the initiate gaining self-recognition, or self-awareness, in the center of the labyrinth.
Other developments
that occurred during the Renaissance reflect an increased interest in the actual physical
sense of labyrinthine designs. Examples include the elaborate knot designs by
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), and the knot labyrinths (concatenations) designed by Leonardo
da Vinci. These intricate designs were achieved through the depiction of a single
line that "runs in such a way that it feeds without beginning and end back into
itself" (Jaskolski, 123). The relationship between the labyrinth and these knot
designs has been examined, and one interpretation is that the knots "represent a
translation of the idea of the maze into three-dimensional terms" (Bord, 86).
Another interpretation identifies them as "cryptographic symbols of the age-old
cosmological conception of the cosmic knot" (Jaskolski, 123).
Love and War in the Modern Era
Another example is found in the Renaissance development of ‘garden labyrinths’, that are more commonly referred to as ‘garden mazes’ or ‘hedge mazes’. Their popularity, evident by both their widespread construction and their depictions in paintings, would continue throughout the Baroque and Rococo periods. Their playful purpose has been described as having eased "the need for sociable movement. Finding the solution to them made one forget the boredom of court life, or perhaps every corner of the maze was already known and the maze was a place for a pleasant stroll" (Jaskolski, 89).