This particular artwork perfectly embodies all the things that northern European painters were thought to do best.
Location: Uffizi
A comparison of two Italian medieval crosses shows the transformation of Christ from transcendent to human.
The Crucifixion, c. 1200 (from Christus triumphans ...
This is a Mary like we’ve never seen before—she’s more monumental and sits in a space that makes sense.
Giotto, The Ognissanti Madonna and Child Enthroned
Set against gleaming gold, Mary and Christ sit on an intricately carved throne studded with gems.
Cimabue, Virgin and Child Enthroned, and Prophets ...
Girl, interrupted—Mary’s initial reaction to Gabriel adds human experience to the dignity and grace of this scene.
Simone Martini, Annunciation
Sure, decorative patterns and prismatic color impress us now, but gold and ultramarine once broadcast value.
Duccio, Heaven on earth— The Rucellai Madonna
The female nude emerged as a genre in the Renaissance.
Titian, Venus of Urbino
Touch an artwork? Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a Man with a Medal helped viewers to think about touch and physical experience.
Botticelli, Portrait of a Man with a ...
Brilliant golden brocades. Psuedo-Arabic. Turbans. Leopards and lions. The Adoration of the Magi speaks to the global flow of goods at this time.
Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi ...
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
She fled France in disguise, but Vigée Le Brun does little to conceal her face—or her sympathy to Marie Antoinette.
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait
No wonder Ruysch treats each element of this still life like a scientific specimen—her father preserved insects.
Rachel Ruysch, Fruit and Insects
This huge panel hints at the coming Renaissance, but the figures remain weightless and their features, elongated.
Cimabue, Santa Trinita Madonna and Child Enthroned
Only decades apart—but what a difference. Next to Giotto’s substantial Virgin, Cimabue’s appears flat yet elegant.
Cimabue and Giotto compared
That shell! That pose! That wind! So much in this painting seems impossible, not least its divine beauty.
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus
Mother and son gaze out with an aristocratic aloofness, yet they lack an inner life. Is all that brocade a shell?
Bronzino, Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo with ...
Inside and outside, these panels are suffused with symbolism and the two stark profiles exude formality and power.
Piero della Francesca, Portraits of the Duke ...
The receding columns and painted ceiling of this fictive temple mirror the Gothic environment of Siena Cathedral.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Presentation of Jesus in the ...
Human cadavers and dead cows—Leonardo dissected both. He kept his notes private, but paintings betrayed this work.
Leonardo, Adoration of the Magi
This sacred conversation bridges millennia and takes all types, from tough John the Baptist to faithful St. Lucy.
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!
