V&A SOUTH KENSINGTON COURSE

Artists of the Italian Renaissance aimed to create an entirely new style of art which emulated and appreciated the ancient art and architecture of Greece and Rome. It was in the wealthy merchant city of Florence during the early 15th century that this extraordinary flowering of the visual arts began with exceptionally talented artists transforming architecture, painting and sculpture. New religious practices placed greater emphasis on naturalistic art that could tell stories lucidly and the system of mathematical perspective, employed to create an illusion of depth, was invented in Italy.
Donatello was a pioneering sculptor, both in style and technique. He imbued his figures with a lifelike quality, movement and expression of emotion, whilst developing entirely new ways of carving and modelling in a variety of materials. By studying the human body from life, together with a vigorous observation of nature, Italian Renaissance artists, such as Michelangelo and Leonardo, brought art to life and achieved great innovations in the believable representation of the world around them, which would influence future generations of artists for centuries.

Renaissance is a French term which describes the ‘rebirth’ of interest in classical art, architecture, sculpture and literature above all in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries. The close study of ancient classical architecture led to an innovative style of building which was an architecture of a new era, in which the forms of classical architecture were freely used to create new modes of harmony and beauty. This style of architecture, created by Brunelleschi in the early 15th century and continued by architects such as Sangallo in the later 15th century, went on to be followed by the architects of Europe and America for nearly 500 years.
High Renaissance masters of painting, including Perugino and Raphael worked in Florence, Urbino, Perugia and Rome, receiving many commissions from significant and influential patrons, including the popes. Beauty of line and colour, harmony in composition, spatial clarity, a sense of depth and the use of Leonardo’s soft ‘sfumato’ technique to model faces and figures, characterise the style developed by these painters. Raphael’s accomplished skill in painting developed further and his innovation was the achievement of perfectly harmonious compositions of moving figures.