Proto-Renaissance in Italy, 1280–1400 :
The Lamentation, c. 1305,
Scrovegni Chapel, foreshadows the Renaissance.|alt= Square fresco. In a shallow space like a stage set, lifelike figures gather around the dead body of Jesus. All are mourning. Mary Magdalene weeps over his feet. A male disciple throws out his arms in despair. Joseph of Arimethea holds the shroud. In Heaven, small angels are shrieking and tearing their hair. In Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the sculpture of
Nicola Pisano and his son
Giovanni Pisano, working at
Pisa,
Siena and
Pistoia shows markedly classicising tendencies, probably influenced by the familiarity of these artists with ancient Roman
sarcophagi. Their masterpieces are the
pulpits of the Baptistery and
Cathedral of Pisa. Contemporary with Giovanni Pisano, the Florentine painter
Giotto developed a manner of figurative painting that was unprecedentedly naturalistic, three-dimensional, lifelike and classicist, when compared with that of his contemporaries and teacher
Cimabue. Giotto, whose greatest work is the cycle of the
Life of Christ at the
Arena Chapel in
Padua, was seen by the 16th-century biographer
Giorgio Vasari as "rescuing and restoring art" from the "crude, traditional, Byzantine style" prevalent in Italy in the 13th century.
Early Renaissance in Italy, 1400–1495 '' (1440s?). Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Although both the Pisanos and Giotto had students and followers, the first truly Renaissance artists were not to emerge in Florence until 1401 with the competition to sculpt a set of
bronze doors of the Baptistery of
Florence Cathedral, which drew entries from seven young sculptors including
Brunelleschi,
Donatello and the winner,
Lorenzo Ghiberti. Brunelleschi, most famous as the architect of the dome of Florence Cathedral and the
Church of San Lorenzo, created a number of sculptural works, including a
life-sized crucifix in
Santa Maria Novella, renowned for its
naturalism. His studies of perspective are thought to have influenced the painter
Masaccio. Donatello became renowned as the greatest sculptor of the Early Renaissance, his masterpieces being his humanist and unusually erotic statue of
David, one of the icons of the
Florentine republic, and his great monument to
Gattamelata, the first large equestrian bronze to be created since Roman times. The contemporary of Donatello, Masaccio, was the painterly descendant of Giotto and began the Early Renaissance in Italian painting in 1425, furthering the trend towards solidity of form and naturalism of face and gesture that Giotto had begun a century earlier. From 1425 to 1428, Masaccio completed several panel paintings but is best known for the fresco cycle that he began in the
Brancacci Chapel with the older artist
Masolino and which had a profound influence on later painters, including
Michelangelo. Masaccio's developments were carried forward in the paintings of
Fra Angelico, particularly in his frescos at the
Convent of San Marco in Florence. The treatment of the elements of perspective and light in painting was of particular concern to 15th-century Florentine painters.
Uccello was so obsessed with trying to achieve an appearance of perspective that, according to
Giorgio Vasari, it disturbed his sleep. His solutions can be seen in his masterpiece set of three paintings, the
Battle of San Romano, which is believed to have been completed by 1460.
Piero della Francesca made systematic and scientific studies of both light and linear perspective, the results of which can be seen in his fresco cycle of
The History of the True Cross in
San Francesco, Arezzo. In
Naples, the painter
Antonello da Messina began using oil paints for portraits and religious paintings at a date that preceded other Italian painters, possibly about 1450. He carried this technique north and influenced the painters of
Venice. One of the most significant painters of Northern Italy was
Andrea Mantegna, who decorated the interior of a room, the
Camera degli Sposi for his patron
Ludovico Gonzaga, setting portraits of the family and court into an
illusionistic architectural space. The end period of the Early Renaissance in Italian art is marked, like its beginning, by a particular commission that drew artists together, this time in cooperation rather than competition.
Pope Sixtus IV had rebuilt the Papal Chapel, named the
Sistine Chapel in his honour, and commissioned a group of artists,
Sandro Botticelli,
Pietro Perugino,
Domenico Ghirlandaio and
Cosimo Rosselli to decorate its wall with fresco cycles depicting the
Life of Christ and the Life of Moses. In the sixteen large paintings, the artists, although each working in his individual style, agreed on principles of format, and utilised the techniques of lighting, linear and atmospheric perspective, anatomy, foreshortening and characterisation that had been carried to a high point in the large Florentine studios of Ghiberti, Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio and Perugino. , self-portrait (1450). The earliest
portrait miniature, and possibly the earliest formal
self-portrait.
Early Netherlandish art, 1425–1525 ,
The Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), oil on oak panel, .
Museo del Prado, Madrid. The painters of the
Low Countries in this period included
Jan van Eyck, his brother
Hubert van Eyck,
Robert Campin,
Hans Memling,
Rogier van der Weyden and
Hugo van der Goes. Their painting developed partly independently of Early Italian Renaissance painting, and without the influence of a deliberate and conscious striving to revive antiquity. The style of painting grew directly out of medieval painting in
tempera, on panels and
illuminated manuscripts, and other forms such as
stained glass; the medium of
fresco was less common in northern Europe. The medium used was
oil paint, which had long been utilised for painting leather ceremonial shields and accoutrements because it was flexible and relatively durable. The earliest Netherlandish oil paintings are meticulous and detailed like tempera paintings. The material lent itself to the depiction of tonal variations and texture, so facilitating the observation of nature in great detail. The Netherlandish painters did not approach the creation of a picture through a framework of
linear perspective and correct proportion. They maintained a medieval view of hierarchical proportion and religious symbolism, while delighting in a realistic treatment of material elements, both natural and man-made. Jan van Eyck, with his brother Hubert, painted
The Altarpiece of the Mystical Lamb. It is probable that
Antonello da Messina became familiar with Van Eyck's work, while in Naples or Sicily. In 1475, Hugo van der Goes'
Portinari Altarpiece arrived in Florence, where it was to have a profound influence on many painters, most immediately
Domenico Ghirlandaio, who painted an altarpiece imitating its elements. A very significant Netherlandish painter towards the end of the period was
Hieronymus Bosch, who employed the type of fanciful forms that were often utilized to decorate borders and letters in illuminated manuscripts, combining plant and animal forms with architectonic ones. When taken from the context of the illumination and peopled with humans, these forms give Bosch's paintings a surreal quality which have no parallel in the work of any other Renaissance painter. His masterpiece is the triptych
The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Early Renaissance in France, 1375–1528 ,
The Moulins Triptych, c. 1498, oil on panel,
Moulins Cathedral The artists of France (including duchies such as
Burgundy) were often associated with courts, providing illuminated manuscripts and portraits for the nobility as well as devotional paintings and altarpieces. Among the most famous were the
Limbourg brothers,
Flemish illuminators and creators of the
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry manuscript illumination.
Jean Fouquet, painter of the royal court, visited Italy in 1437 and reflects the influence of Florentine painters such as Paolo Uccello. Although best known for his portraits such as that of
Charles VII of France, Fouquet also created illuminations, and is thought to be the inventor of the
portrait miniature. There were a number of artists at this date who painted famous altarpieces, that are stylistically quite distinct from both the Italian and the Flemish. These include two enigmatic figures,
Enguerrand Quarton, to whom is ascribed the
Pieta of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, and
Jean Hey, otherwise known as "the Master of Moulins" after his most famous work, the Moulins Altarpiece. In these works, realism and close observation of the human figure, emotions and lighting are combined with a medieval formality, which includes gilt backgrounds.
High Renaissance in Italy, 1495–1520 The "universal genius"
Leonardo da Vinci further perfected the aspects of pictorial art (lighting, linear and atmospheric perspective, anatomy, foreshortening, and characterisation) that had preoccupied artists of the Early Renaissance in a lifetime of studying and meticulously recording his observations of the natural world. His adoption of oil paint as his primary media meant that he could depict light and its effects on the landscape and objects more naturally and with greater dramatic effect than had ever been done before, as demonstrated in the
Mona Lisa (1503–1506). His dissection of cadavers carried forward the understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy, as seen in the unfinished
Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (c. 1480). His depiction of human emotion in
The Last Supper, completed 1495–1498, set the benchmark for religious painting. ,
The Creation of Adam, c. 1511, from the
Sistine Chapel ceiling The art of Leonardo's younger contemporary
Michelangelo took a very different direction. Michelangelo in neither his painting nor his sculpture demonstrates any interest in the observation of any natural object except the human body. He perfected his technique in depicting it, while in his early twenties, by the creation of the enormous marble statue of
David and the group
Pietà, in the
St Peter's Basilica, Rome. He then set about an exploration of the expressive possibilities of the human anatomy. His commission by
Pope Julius II to paint the
Sistine Chapel ceiling resulted in the supreme masterpiece of
figurative composition, which was to have profound effect on every subsequent generation of European artists. His later work,
The Last Judgement, painted on the altar wall of the
Sistine Chapel between 1534 and 1541, shows a
Mannerist (also called Late Renaissance) style with generally elongated bodies which took over from the High Renaissance style between 1520 and 1530. Standing alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo as the third great painter of the High Renaissance was the younger
Raphael, who in a short lifespan painted a great number of lifelike and engaging portraits, including those of
Pope Julius II and his successor
Pope Leo X, and numerous portrayals of the Madonna and Christ Child, including the
Sistine Madonna. His death in 1520 at age 37 is considered by many art historians to be the end of the High Renaissance period, although some individual artists continued working in the High Renaissance style for many years thereafter. In Northern Italy, the High Renaissance is represented primarily by members of the Venetian school, especially by the latter works of
Giovanni Bellini, especially religious paintings, which include several large altarpieces of a type known as "
Sacred Conversation", which show a group of saints around the enthroned Madonna. His contemporary
Giorgione, who died at about the age of 32 in 1510, left a small number of enigmatic works, including
The Tempest, the subject of which has remained a matter of speculation. The earliest works of
Titian date from the era of the High Renaissance, including the massive altarpiece
The Assumption of the Virgin, which combines human action and drama with spectacular colour and atmosphere. Titian continued painting in a generally High Renaissance style until near the end of his career in the 1570s, although he increasingly used colour and light over line to define his figures.
German Renaissance art ,
Apollo and Diana German Renaissance art falls into the broader category of the Renaissance in Northern Europe, also known as the
Northern Renaissance. Renaissance influences began to appear in German art in the 15th century, but this trend was not widespread. Gardner's
Art Through the Ages identifies
Michael Pacher, a painter and sculptor, as the first German artist whose work begins to show Italian Renaissance influences. According to that source, Pacher's painting,
St. Wolfgang Forces the Devil to Hold His Prayerbook (c. 1481), is Late Gothic in style, but also shows the influence of the Italian artist
Mantegna. In the 1500s, Renaissance art in Germany became more common as, according to Gardner, "The art of northern Europe during the sixteenth century is characterized by a sudden awareness of the advances made by the Italian Renaissance and by a desire to assimilate this new style as rapidly as possible." One of the best known practitioners of German Renaissance art was
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), whose fascination with classical ideas led him to Italy to study art. Both Gardner and Russell recognized the importance of Dürer's contribution to German art in bringing Italian Renaissance styles and ideas to Germany. Russell calls this "Opening the Gothic windows of German art", This is contrasted with Dürer's tendency to work in "his own native German style" Artisans such as engravers became more concerned with aesthetics rather than just perfecting their crafts. Germany had master engravers, such as
Martin Schongauer, who did metal engravings in the late 1400s. Gardner relates this mastery of the
graphic arts to advances in
printing which occurred in Germany, and says that metal engraving began to replace the woodcut during the Renaissance. However, some artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, continued to do woodcuts. Both Gardner and Russell describe the fine quality of Dürer's woodcuts, with Russell stating in
The World of Dürer that Dürer "elevated them into high works of art".
Britain Britain was very late to develop a distinct Renaissance style and most
artists of the Tudor court were imported foreigners, usually from the
Low Countries, including
Hans Holbein the Younger, who died in England. One exception was the
portrait miniature, which artists including
Nicholas Hilliard developed into a distinct genre well before it became popular in the rest of Europe.
Renaissance art in Scotland was similarly dependent on imported artists, and largely restricted to the court. ==Themes and symbolism==