 In Renaissance art and culture, personifications that had taken on unclassical appearances during the Middle Ages were restored to classical forms – such as the idealization of the human figure – but also retained some aspects of medieval imagery.The medieval use of differentiated virtues (virtutes) was replaced by that of Virtue in general (with a recollection of the antique virtus), personified first by Hercules, later (c.1510) as a female figure sitting or standing on a rectangular block to emphasize her stability.This exact personification can be seen in Botticelli's Fortitude Virtue.