Natural Context: environment in which the art was made Despite its religious subject matter and location in the Renaissance tradition of papal patronage of art, Michelangelo's sprawling fresco across the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican impresses many contemporary viewers with its visu...

“The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.” ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti Michelangelo describes in the above quote what it is like to carve a lik...

Charlotte Dean H2G-06/pd. 3 Mr. Valentin April 10, 2000 Artistic Innovations of Renaissance Florentine Painters During the Renaissance, many new, different styles of painting were developed. Many of these techniques were perfected by Florentine painters. Some of these styles techniq...

"The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image." ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti Michelangelo described in the above quote what it is like to carve a likeness of a perso...

Each day hundreds of tourists flock to the Louvre Museum in Paris to admire the most famous painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa." This artist's legacy lives today as his creations continue to inspire artists, scientists, and the common man even four hundred years after his death. This arti...

The master figure of Elizabethan drama is Machiavelli. He was only known through the French of Gentillet, if that: but he was the great character of supreme intrigue that, however taken, was at the back of every tudor mind. Elizabethan drama--"the first terror-stricken meeting of the England of Eli...

Giotto, a pre-Renaissance artist and architect, was born 20 miles North of Florence Italy in the valley of the Mugello - it was described by his admirer John Ruskin as a lonely landscape. There were rugged mountains, rough ground, and olive trees. There were no gardens or lush landscapes for Giott...

Mona Lisa Artist, originator, and unique Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, began painting his portrayal of an Italian nobleman's wife in 1503 and completed it a number of years later, possibly around 1507. The painting was initially a custom-built work, but da Vinci didn't sell it to the man who ...

Michelangelo's Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici One of the most famous artists ever known since the 16th century is a man by the name of Michelangelo Buonarroti. He has composed art that is both breathtaking and unmatched in such skills as painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry. Som...