Renaissance Paintings

Renaissance painting brought renewed attention to classical art, the human figure, and the organization of convincing pictorial space. In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy, artists developed perspective and studied anatomy while continuing to paint Christian subjects, portraits, and civic commissions. Workshops and patrons shaped the relationship between religious purpose, artistic learning, and the practical making of images. Masaccio's Holy Trinity uses architectural perspective to suggest a chapel within a wall, while Raphael's School of Athens gathers classical philosophers within a papal decorative program. Preparatory sketches, studies from living models, and full-scale drawings helped painters develop figures and transfer designs to larger surfaces. Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael developed distinct approaches to line, light, gesture, and ideal form. Northern European painters, including Jan van Eyck, pursued their own traditions of detailed surfaces and luminous oil color.