Brilliant golden brocades. Psuedo-Arabic. Turbans. Leopards and lions. The Adoration of the Magi speaks to the global flow of goods at this time.
Early Renaissance in Italy: 1400s
Don’t stand so straight! Relax. Shift your weight. Bend a knee. Just respond to the world, like this spear-bearer.
Contrapposto
Brotherhoods lent stability to religious and civic life. These wealthy institutions also commissioned paintings.
Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
10 inches—that’s how far Venice has sunk. As sea levels and tourism rise, can this historic city survive?
Saving Venice
When the citizens of Florence looked up at St. Mark, they saw a mirror of their own dignity—and of ancient nobility.
Donatello, St. Mark
Look for a revival of classical forms, increasingly precise anatomy, naturalistic movement, and convincing space.
How to recognize Italian Renaissance art
Romanesque, Gothic, or ancient Greek? Whether you divide this façade by styles or squares, its stones come alive.
Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
This canvas was rolled, varnished, reworked, and revised again. A classical scene, it once hung in a study.
Giovanni Bellini and Titian,The Feast of the ...
Three men arrive to bless Christ. Are they wise—or just rich? Better defer to that young painter in the crowd...
Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi
When reconstructed, the panels of this altarpiece resemble the architecture of an Italian Gothic cathedral.
Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Italian Altarpiece
These gilded bronze doors are a masterpiece of clarity and illusionism. Space coheres, and figures move with ease.
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East Doors ...
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Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi
Capturing figures in thought, stonemasons understood what it meant to be human—just like the ancient Romans.
Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
Their island climate didn’t suit fresco, so the Venetians tried oils instead—these paints blend when wet.
Oil paint in Venice
This difficult sculpture is an exercise in contrasts: frailty and power, pure spirituality and anatomical accuracy.
Donatello, Mary Magdalene
No Photoshop! Just a vanishing point, a horizon line, and some orthogonals—that’s the magic formula for reality.
How one-point linear perspective works
Bellini opens up this painting’s space, but holds the viewer at bay. The mood is calm, solemn, and contemplative.
Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece
Mantegna was fascinated by perspective. His radical foreshortening and realism focus attention on Christ’s wounds.
Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ
With its decorative marble and golden light, this space looks a lot like San Marco. Shall we? St. Francis beckons.
Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece
The secrets of large-scale casting were lost for a thousand years, but bronze horses were no sweat for Donatello.