PrimeLuck ArtsRenaissance
The Renaissance, meaning rebirth, was a period when artists looked again to ancient Greece and Rome and studied nature closely. It produced realistic space, anatomy and portraits.
- Period
- Renaissance and early modern art
- Approximate dates
- c. 1400 to c. 1600
- Place of origin
- Florence, Italy
- Key regions
- Italy, then Flanders, France, Germany, Spain and England
- Art forms
- Painting, sculpture, architecture, drawing, printmaking
- Major artists
- Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Albrecht Durer
Visual introduction
The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli · c. 1484 to 1486 · Tempera on canvas · Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Classical myth painted with graceful line, a sign of the Renaissance revival of ancient subjects.
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1503 to 1519 · Oil on poplar panel · Louvre, Paris
Soft shading and a calm, lifelike pose show the Renaissance study of the human face.
Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo · 1508 to 1512 · Fresco · Vatican City
Muscular, sculptural figures show the Renaissance focus on anatomy and human power.
Image: Photo: Jörg Bittner Unna, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Historical context
The Renaissance began in the wealthy city-states of Italy, where merchants, bankers and rulers such as the Medici family paid for art. Scholars rediscovered classical writing, and humanism placed new value on human life and learning.
Advances in science, mathematics and printing helped artists. Linear perspective was developed in Florence in the early 1400s, and artists studied anatomy by observing bodies. The ideas then spread north through trade and printed images.
Visual characteristics
Space: linear perspective makes flat surfaces look deep and measurable.
Form: figures have realistic anatomy, weight and natural poses, often arranged in balanced, stable compositions such as triangles.
Light and colour: soft modelling of light and shade, and later oil paint, give depth and detail. Subjects include religious stories, classical myth and portraits of real people.
Related movements
Sources and further reading
Further reading: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Tate, Art Terms. Smarthistory.