What word am I looking for?

I'm writing a paper and there is a very specific word (may be a two word phrase) that I'm looking for. The sentence goes as follows:

"The beautifully articulated contours of the cutouts provide enough information to give life to each character, but not so much that the meaning and story are already decided for the viewer as was the ________ of Renaissance art."

The word basically means it was very important.