how does the artist represent the ideals of the Renaissance

he High Renaissance represented to the artists who immediately succeeded the period as the pinnacle of naturalist art. All technical and naturalist ideals had been achieved. There was no more "perfect form" to strive to, no higher truth, for the High Renaissance giants like the likes of Michelangelo, Titian and Leonardo had already plundered what truth in reality as they had already perceived. The "perfect form" could already be seen in real life on the canvases and in the marble flesh of those who came before.

That was, in a nutshell, the'ideal' of Renaissance art. The ideal of the 'perfect form' and the striving towards at form in greater and greater efforts towards fidelity in cases where God had made reality perfect, and efforts of exaggeration in where He had not. The most obvious piece of art that represents this perfect form is Michelangelo's David. See David, a young shepard boy. Naked as the day he was born, his body perfectly slim and beautiful as his face and locks of curls. He is perfect in that he has everything he needs and nothing in excess.

This ties into the Greek Ideal of the perfect human being, and is the product of centuries of Byzantine influence up until its fall to the Turks in the mid-15th century. His statue harkens back to the impressive painted statues of ancient Greco-Roman culture; the highest compliment that you could give to an artist during the Renaissance was that not even they could do better than you. In that sense, the ideals of the Renaissance is a striving for perfection; that perfection being the revival of Classical culture that had been lost during the Migratory period of Western Europe.

how has the art been used in popular culture OR how COULD it be used in popular culture?

That's an easy one. How many times have we seen the Mona Lisa in a movie? Despite being painted by an Italian Florentine and made for an Italian merchant's wife, the Mona Lisa has become intricately tied with the Louvre and French culture. How many times has the Sistine chapel, more specifically the Creation of Adam panel of the Ceiling Fresco been tied with Italian culture? I urge you to just do a little digging and you'll find the tons of impact that Renaissance art has made on popular culture world-wide.