Renaissance Art | Definition, Characteristics, Style, Examples, & Facts

Home » How Did Art Change During The Renaissance » Renaissance Art | Definition, Characteristics, Style, Examples, & Facts

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Beginning of the Renaissance period

Lorenzo Ghiberti: Gates of Paradise
Lorenzo Ghiberti: Gates of ParadiseGates of Paradise, gilded bronze doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1425–52; on the east side of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence. (more)

In 1401 a competition was held at Florence to award the commission for bronze doors to be placed on the Baptistery of San Giovanni, in the Piazza del Duomo. Defeated by the goldsmith and painter Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello left for Rome, where they immersed themselves in the study of ancient architecture and sculpture. When they returned to Florence and began to put their knowledge into practice, the rationalized art of the ancient world was reborn. The founder of Renaissance painting was Masaccio. The intellectuality of his conceptions, the monumentality of his compositions, and the high degree of naturalism in his works mark Masaccio as a pivotal figure in Renaissance painting. The succeeding generation of artists—Piero della Francesca, Pollaiuolo, and Andrea del Verrocchio—pressed forward with researches into linear and aerial perspective and anatomy, developing a style of scientific naturalism.

copy of Donatello's St. George
copy of Donatello's St. GeorgeSt. George, copy of a marble statue by Donatello, c. 1415; in a niche of Orsanmichele, Florence. Donatello's original sculpture is now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.(more)

The situation in Florence was uniquely favorable to the arts. The civic pride of Florentines found expression in statues of the patron saints commissioned from Ghiberti and Donatello for niches in the grain-market guildhall known as Orsanmichele, and in the largest dome built since antiquity, placed by Brunelleschi on the Florence cathedral. The cost of construction and decoration of palaces, churches, and monasteries was underwritten by wealthy merchant families.

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