During the two hundred years between 1400 and 1600, Europe witnessed an astonishing revival of drawing, fine art painting, sculpture and architecture centred on Italy, which we now refer to as the Renaissance. It was given this name (French for 'rebirth') as a result of La Renaissance - a famous volume of history written by the historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874) in 1855 - and was better understood after the publication in 1860 of the landmark book "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy", by Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97), Professor of Art History at the University of Basel.
Characteristics of the Renaissance :
In very simple terms, the Italian Renaissance re-established Western art according to the principles of classical Greek art, especially Greek sculpture and painting, which provided much of the basis for the Grand Tour, and which remained unchallenged until Pablo Picasso and Cubism.
From the early 14th century, in their search for a new set of artistic values and a response to the courtly International Gothic style, Italian artists and thinkers became inspired by the ideas and forms of ancient Greece and Rome. This was perfectly in tune with their desire to create a universal, even noble, form of art which could express the new and more confident mood of the times.
Detail showing The Son of Man from The Last Judgement fresco on the wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, (1536-41) by Michelangelo. One of the great works of Biblical art in the Vatican.
