Soaring to New Heights – The Renaissance in Italy TODAY Florence—The School of the World: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Others: Lorenzo the Magnificent; Maturing of Italian Humanism and Renaissance Ideals

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Filippo Brunelleschi - Dome of the Cathedral Duomo, Florence

Donatello David c Bronze, height: 185 cm Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Masaccio - The Expulsion The Brancacci Chapel, Florence 1426

Fra Angelico - c Deposition of Christ - Florence: San Marco

Fra Filippo Lippi - Madonna with the Child and two Angels 1465 Tempera on wood, 95 x 62 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Piero della Francesca - Baptism of Christ Tempera on panel, 167 x 116 cm National Gallery, London

Andrea del Castagno - The Youthful David c Tempera on leather on wood, width at bottom 115,6 x 41 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington

Lorenzo de’ Medici, also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters, the most brilliant of the Medici. He ruled Florence with his younger brother, Giuliano (1453–78), from 1469 to 1478 and, after the latter's assassination, was sole ruler from 1478 to Raphael – Portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici, 1518.

Leon Battista Alberti Italian humanist, architect, and principal initiator of Renaissance art theory. In his personality, works, and breadth of learning, he is considered the prototype of the Renaissance “universal man.”

Basilica 550 B.C.E. – Paestum, Italy

Leon Battista Alberti Palazzo Rucellai facade Florence

Leon Battista Alberti - Exterior of Tempio Malatestiana S. Francesco, Rimini

Leon Battista Alberti Santa Maria Novella - Florence

Leon Battista Alberti Santa Maria Novella - facade Florence

Paolo Uccello Florentine painter whose work attempted uniquely to reconcile two distinct artistic styles—the essentially decorative late Gothic and the new heroic style of the early Renaissance. He was the first painter to complete a work in precise linear perspective.

Paolo Uccello - Creation of Eve and Original Sin Fresco, 244 x 478 cm - Green Cloister, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Paolo Uccello - Birth of the Virgin - c Fresco, 302 x 361 cm Duomo, Prato

Paolo Uccello - Bernardino della Ciarda Thrown Off His Horse s Tempera on wood, 182 x 220 cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Paolo Uccello – Crucifixion Tempera on panel, 45 x 67 cm - Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Sandro Botticelli One of the greatest lyrical painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His The Birth of Venus and Primavera are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance. At the same time, he never wholly lost the influence of the International Gothic Style.

Sandro Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi – Tempera on panel, 50 x 136 cm - National Gallery, London

Sandro Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi - c Tempera on panel 111 x 134 cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Sandro Botticelli – Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici 1478 Panel, 54 x 36 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Sandro Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi – Tempera on panel 70 x 103 cm - National Gallery of Art, Washington

Sandro Botticelli – Primavera - c Tempera on panel, 203 x 314 cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Sandro Botticelli - The Birth of Venus - c Tempera on canvas, x cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Fra Filippo Lippi - Madonna with the Child and two Angels

Leonardo da Vinci Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time.

Verrochio - The Baptism of Christ Tempera and oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Verrochio The Baptism of Christ Detail by Leonardo da Vinci Tempera and oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci - Automobile Metalpoint, pen and brush on paper, 27 x 20 cm Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Leonardo da Vinci - Crossbow Machine Drawing Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Leonardo da Vinci - Assault chariot with scythes - c Silverpoint, pen and ink on paper, 210 x 292 mm - Biblioteca Reale, Turin

Leonardo da Vinci – Drawings of a woman’s torso and torso and arms - Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Leonardo da Vinci – Flying Machine – 1487 (LEFT) Giant Crossbow (RIGHT)

Leonardo da Vinci - Comparison of scalp skin and onion 1489 Pen, ink and red chalk on paper, 203 x 152 mm Royal Library, Windsor

Leonardo da Vinci - Vitruvian Man 1492 Pen, ink, watercolour and metalpoint on paper, 343 x 245 mm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Leonardo da Vinci – Annunciation Tempera on wood, 98 x 217 cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci - Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci Oil on wood, 38,8 x 36,7 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington

Leonardo da Vinci - St Jerome c Oil on panel, 103 x 75 cm Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome

Leonardo da Vinci - Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine) Oil on wood, 54,8 x 40,3 cm Czartoryski Museum, Cracow

Leonardo da Vinci - Madonna Litta c , Tempera on canvas, transferred from panel, 42 x 33 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Leonardo da Vinci - Virgin of the Rocks Oil on panel, 199 x 122 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

Leonardo da Vinci - Studies for the Last Supper - c. 1495

Leonardo da Vinci - The Last Supper Mixed technique, 460 x 880 cm Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

High Resolution Image of Restored Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci - The Battle of Anghiari (detail) Black chalk, pen and ink

Michelangelo Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then, he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence.

Laocoön marble sculpture attributed to Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus of Rhodes (or perhaps a Roman copy) 2nd century B.C.E.–1st century C.E. – Vatican Museum

Michelangelo Madonna of the Stairs Marble, 55,5 x 40 cm Casa Buonarroti, Florence

Pazzi Madonna – Donatello s Marble, 74,5 x 69,5 cm - Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Michelangelo Battle - c Marble, 84,5 x 90,5 cm Casa Buonarroti, Florence

Michelangelo – Vatican Pietà Marble, height 174 cm, width at the base 195 cm - Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican

Madonna and Child - (Bruges Madonna) - Michelangelo Marble, height: 128 cm (including base) O.L. Vrouwekerk, Bruges

Michelangelo David 1504 Marble, height 434 cm Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence

Michelangelo - Battle of Cascina (part) – Cartoon Private collection

Michelangelo - The Holy Family with the infant St. John the Baptist (the Doni tondo) c Tempera on panel, diameter 120 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Raphael Master painter and architect of the Italian Renaissance. Raphael is best known for his paintings of the Madonna and for his large figural compositions in the Vatican in Rome. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition, and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur.

Pietro Perugino c Francesco delle Opere Florence: Galleria degli Uffizi

Raphael Angel (fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece) Oil on wood, 57 x 36 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

Raphael Crucifixion (Città di Castello Altarpiece) Oil on wood, 281 x 165 cm National Gallery, London

Raphael - The Granduca Madonna 1504 Oil on wood, 84 x 55 cm Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Raphael - Madonna and Child (The Small Cowper Madonna) Oil on wood, 58 x 43 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington

Raphael - The Three Graces Oil on panel, 17 x 17 cm - Musée Condé, Chantilly

Raphael - St Michael and the Dragon c Oil on wood, 31 x 27 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

Raphael - Self-Portrait 1506 Oil on wood, 45 x 33 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Raphael - Portrait of Maddalena Doni 1506 Oil on panel, 63 x 45 cm Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Raphael - Madonna of Belvedere (Madonna del Prato) 1506 Oil on wood, 113 x 88 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Raphael - The Entombment 1507 Oil on wood, 184 x 176 cm Galleria Borghese, Rome Painted in Umbria

OUR NEXT TOPIC The Italian Schools: Redefinitions of Classical Art; Expulsion of the Medici; Girolamo Savonarola; The Republic, Florence loses her “sons”