Go to the Medici page to see just how important their patronage was. The family was one of the wealthiest in Europe and were among the most important patrons of the arts in Renaissance Italy. The Medici became patrons of art and lie at the heart of the early Renaissance. Renaissance Influences and events.įlorence was a major financial centre and, for around sixty years, was dominated by the Medici family.
Giotto made advances in representing the human body in a more realistic way, and his technique was the first to realise this change since the times of classical antiquity. 1267-1337) who is considered to be the first painter to have broken with the tradition of Byzantine art at the end of the middle ages. Italian Renaissance Art began with Giotto (c.
The Italians of the period considered themselves to be living in a golden age, superior to anything since the fall of the Roman empire a thousand years earlier, with painting, sculpture, music, poetry and architecture all awakening to a revival after sleeping for centuries. The beginnings of the Italian Renaissance centred on Tuscany and on Florence in particular. The lessons of classical antiquity, Greek and Roman sculpture, architecture and literature did not surface again until the start of the Renaissance in Italy. Europe had entered the Middle Ages or Dark Ages lasting for a thousand years. The Roman Empire was the centre of world civilisation until its demise in 476. We tend to assume that every age must be greater than the one that it preceded, but this is not always the case. Michelangelo sculptures Renaissance gems.