Known equally the Renaissance, the menses immediately following the Centre Ages in Europe saw a groovy revival of involvement in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Against a backdrop of political stability and growing prosperity, the development of new technologies–including the printing printing, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration of new continents–was accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially fine art. The fashion of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th century; it reached its zenith in the tardily 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In add-on to its expression of classical Greco-Roman traditions, Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the private and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

The origins of Renaissance art tin can be traced to Italy in the belatedly 13th and early 14th centuries. During this so-called "proto-Renaissance" menstruation (1280-1400), Italian scholars and artists saw themselves every bit reawakening to the ethics and achievements of classical Roman culture. Writers such every bit Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) looked dorsum to ancient Greece and Rome and sought to revive the languages, values and intellectual traditions of those cultures later on the long period of stagnation that had followed the autumn of the Roman Empire in the sixth century.

The Florentine painter Giotto (1267?-1337), the most famous artist of the proto-Renaissance, made enormous advances in the technique of representing the man trunk realistically. His frescoes were said to accept decorated cathedrals at Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence and Naples, though at that place has been difficulty attributing such works with certainty.

In the afterwards 14th century, the proto-Renaissance was stifled by plague and war, and its influences did non emerge again until the first years of the next century. In 1401, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378-1455) won a major competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, chirapsia out contemporaries such as the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and the young Donatello (c. 1386- 1466), who would later sally equally the chief of early on Renaissance sculpture.

The other major creative person working during this menses was the painter Masaccio (1401-1428), known for his frescoes of the Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1426) and in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Ruby (c. 1427), both in Florence. Masaccio painted for less than vi years only was highly influential in the early Renaissance for the intellectual nature of his piece of work, every bit well equally its degree of naturalism.

Though the Catholic Church remained a major patron of the arts during the Renaissance–from popes and other prelates to convents, monasteries and other religious organizations–works of art were increasingly commissioned by ceremonious government, courts and wealthy individuals. Much of the art produced during the early Renaissance was commissioned by the wealthy merchant families of Florence, nearly notably the Medici.

From 1434 until 1492, when Lorenzo de' Medici–known as "the Magnificent" for his strong leadership also as his back up of the arts–died, the powerful family unit presided over a golden age for the city of Florence. Pushed from ability past a republican coalition in 1494, the Medici family spent years in exile merely returned in 1512 to preside over another flowering of Florentine art, including the assortment of sculptures that now decorates the city'southward Piazza della Signoria.

By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the primary center of Renaissance art, reaching a high point nether the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (a son of Lorenzo de' Medici). Three great masters–Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael–dominated the catamenia known as the High Renaissance, which lasted roughly from the early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Espana in 1527. Leonardo (1452-1519) was the ultimate "Renaissance human" for the breadth of his intellect, involvement and talent and his expression of humanist and classical values. Leonardo's all-time-known works, including the "Mona Lisa" (1503-05), "The Virgin of the Rocks" (1485) and the fresco "The Final Supper" (1495-98), showcase his unparalleled ability to portray light and shadow, as well as the physical relationship between figures–humans, animals and objects alike–and the mural around them.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) drew on the human body for inspiration and created works on a vast calibration. He was the ascendant sculptor of the High Renaissance, producing pieces such as the Pietà in St. Peter's Cathedral (1499) and the David in his native Florence (1501-04). He carved the latter past hand from an enormous marble cake; the famous statue measures five meters high including its base. Though Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor first and foremost, he accomplished greatness as a painter also, notably with his giant fresco covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, completed over four years (1508-12) and depicting diverse scenes from Genesis.

Raphael Sanzio, the youngest of the iii peachy High Renaissance masters, learned from both da Vinci and Michelangelo. His paintings–virtually notably "The Schoolhouse of Athens" (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the same time that Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel–skillfully expressed the classical ideals of beauty, serenity and harmony. Among the other bang-up Italian artists working during this period were Bramante, Giorgione, Titian and Correggio.

Many works of Renaissance art depicted religious images, including subjects such as the Virgin Mary, or Madonna, and were encountered by contemporary audiences of the catamenia in the context of religious rituals. Today, they are viewed as great works of art, but at the fourth dimension they were seen and used generally as devotional objects. Many Renaissance works were painted equally altarpieces for incorporation into rituals associated with Catholic Mass and donated by patrons who sponsored the Mass itself.

Renaissance artists came from all strata of society; they usually studied as apprentices before existence admitted to a professional social club and working nether the tutelage of an older principal. Far from being starving bohemians, these artists worked on commission and were hired by patrons of the arts because they were steady and reliable. Italy's ascension eye grade sought to imitate the aristocracy and elevate their own status past purchasing art for their homes. In addition to sacred images, many of these works portrayed domestic themes such as marriage, birth and the everyday life of the family.

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