The most important city artistically in the Renaissance is Florence. The Renaissance started with humanism and a study of classical Greek and Roman culture, history, and science and those studies would lead artists to rediscover in those ancient worlds the ideas of perspective, and depth, and realism in sculpture and painting. And while Medieval or Gothic buildings soared fantastically toward the heavens or were often unplanned, fanciful structures, architects during the Renaissance would bring buildings back to classical human proportions.

We can date the beginning of the Early Renaissance to a competition in Florence for the doors on the St. Giovanni baptistery in front of the Florence Cathedral. Lorenzo Ghiberti's winning design used a newly rediscovered method from antiquity to give the panels depth and perspective. The method, rediscovered by Donatello, uses very shallow figures in relief and one point linear perspective to convey realistic space. Each panel tells stories from the Old Testament.

A closeup of one of Ghiberti's panels showing the expulsion of Eve from the Garden of Eden

Giotto, Masaccio and Brunelleschi were hugely important in Florence for their study of one point linear perspective and their use of chiaroscuro to convey light and shadow. Note the classical architecture, realistic human forms and faces, and sense of depth in the painting. This painting is called The Tribute Money and it tells the story of St. Peter, the first Pope.

The High Renaissance is marked by an intense focus on the human form and was informed by artists' dissections of cadavers. This practice had been outlawed by the church in Medieval times. Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael are the three main artists of the High Renaissance in Italy.

This is The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci and it achieves and perfects all of the principles of the Renaissance. Check out SmartHistory online for some great commentary on this painting.

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/leonardo-last-supper.html

This is a panel from the Sistine Chapel depicting the creation story of Genesis. You can see that Michelangelo is really focusing on the human form and is able to depict different and difficult poses correctly as well as all the subtleties of human musculature and structure.

Compare Michelangelo's David with Donatello's and you will see the difference between the early and high Renaissance. You'll also see how art is used differently for public and private purposes. Donatello's David was commissioned for the Medici's garden in Florence while Michelangelo's was commissioned originally for the top of the Florence Cathedral. David was a favorite subject of Florentines and this one was meant to be heroic and a public symbol. It was ultimately displayed in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of government for Florence.

This is Michelangelo's Pieta and depicts Mary holding the dead figure of Christ. This theme was very popular in the Northern Renaissance and is a little odd that it shows up in Italy. It is the only piece that Michelangelo every signed. It is noted for it's realism and naturalism and while the figures are slightly out of proportion, there is an intimacy between them. The sculpture is in a classic pyramid with Mary's drapery becoming wider and the rock of Golgotha anchoring the base. Michelangelo has again balanced the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty and naturalism.

Raphael's School of Athens is a perfect example of the values of humanism and Greek and Roman antiquity in the Renaissance. Here we have many of the most well known ancient philosophers (sometimes depicted with the faces of famous Italians) gathered together. This could be a metaphor for Italian society and art during the Renaissance, as it gathered all the expertise and knowledge of antiquity into one time period. Again, check out Smarthistory for more detailed commentary.

This is Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow.

The Renaissance would not have been possible without the concentration of wealth in the Italian City States. This wealth enabled artists to make a living and paid for the incredibly complex and large works of the period. This particular work, The Adoration of the Magi by Sandro Boticelli depicts the Medici family members as some of the wise men that came to honor Christ upon his birth. The artist himself is also pictured on the far right facing the viewer.

Jan van Eyck was a Dutch Renaissance painter known for his portraits and religious panels commissioned for churches called diptychs (2 panel) or triptychs (3 panel). Northern Renaissance subjects were more likely to be realistic or naturalistic portraits of the living and if they were religious they had none of the heroism and idealism of Greek mythology in them like paintings from the Italian Renaissance. They were much less likely to include subjects from Greek and Roman mythology. The use of oil based paints rather than working in fresco allowed the artists to work more slowly and produce paintings that were almost photo-realistic. See the incredibly accurate reflection in the convex mirror in the background.

Pieter Bruegel is known for his portrayal of peasants or everyday people in his paintings. Even in the midst of terrible death and destruction we can see the life of peasants, what they wore, their daily activities, and the ways they entertained themselves with games and other pastimes. This picture of ordinary life would be extremely hard to find in the Italian Renaissance which was very focused on its wealthy patrons. Northern Renaissance paintings were also more likely to contain contemporary everyday landscapes rather than grand Roman or Greek architecture.