In the Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, there is a cathedral church whose octagonal dome, built without the aid of scaffolding, was considered the greatest engineering feat of the early Renaissance. Dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore, Our Lady of the Flower, it is also known as the Duomo, after...

Revolution in ExpansionIn Florence, and also in the surrounding cities, the Renaissance was a time of awakening and rebirth. A time of examining the present and looking towards a future that would turn out to seem entirely different from the past, but at the same time hold striking similarities. How...

At the end of the fourteenth century, gothic architecture began to wear off and renaissance architecture moved in. Europe was evolving out of the middle ages and in the Renaissance period. The beliefs in humanity were growing in popularity. Along with the changes in ways of life, politics, families ...

Renaissance the renaissance was a cultural awakening for western Europeans from about 1350 to 1600. The renaissance began in the city-states of Italy first. It was a continuation of the middle ages, but it also signaled the beginning of modern times also. From this Europeans developed new attitude...

The transition from the Middle Ages to modern times between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries is referred to as the Renaissance, which originated in Florence, Italy. During this time, Italian artists studied the art of the Greeks and Romans, whom they learned a lot from. The Italian artists ha...

Humanism During the Renaissance The Renaissance was an incredibly important turning point in Western Intellectual and Cultural Tradition. All of these changes centered on the idea of Humanism -- in which, people became less God Centered and more Human-centered. I have narrowed down these changes, an...

Prior to the fifteenth century, very few works of art were signed and virtually no information on their artists, male or female, was recorded. However, beginning in the early Renaissance, the identities of artists and their stories begin to be preserved. Any study of the art of this period will undo...

The Development of Opera in Italy "Although opera did not originate in Venice...it found a most nurturing environment in the Most Serene Republic" (Rosand, p. 8). Much of Europe's music was dominated by Italian opera during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The ...

Leonardo was born in the small town of Vinci, near Florence. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In 1460 the family moved to Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education. About 1466 he was apprenticed as a studio boy to Andrea Del Verrocchio, the leading Flore...

Donatello\'s work has forever changed the way that art is created, viewed, and interpreted. Generally, this Italian Renaissance sculptor is considered by most experts to be one of the greatest sculptors of all time (A History of Art 46); he is also thought of as the founder of modern sculpture. Alth...

Leonardo Bruni was born circa 1369-70 in Arezzo, Italy, which was the same place Petrach was born years before. Sometimes referred to as Aretino because of the city in which he was born, Leonardo went on to become almost as much a figure in the humanistic movement as Petrarch. Griffiths states tha...

The statue of David is 517 centimeters (17\') tall and weighs well over nine tons! It sits on top of a six-foot pedestal. It was carved during the High Renaissance period from a block of marble that another sculptor had left unfinished. Michelangelo had been dissecting corpses for about five years a...

The RenaissanceThe renaissance first appeared in the Italian city states because of the similarity between their language and the Latin language. Humanism used classical works to improve speaking and writing skills; therefor the Italians had a great advantage. More manuscripts were made available ...

When one thinks of a great painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, scientist, an intelligent man, and a well-rounded person, Leonardo da Vinci is a perfect example. With his precise drawings, anatomical studies of people, animals, and plants, studies of astronomy, geology, geometry and opt...

A key idea of republicanism is self-government. Republicanism was revived in renaissance Italy to fight against the right to rule of the church, and the given divine right to rule of a monarch. The term republic most commonly means the system of government in which the head of the state is elected f...

Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 14, 1452 in the town of Vinci located near Florence, Italy. He lived during the fifteenth century, which is a period when the people of Europe become fascinated with art. This period of time was known as the Renaissance period. As history tells it, Leonard...

The Italian Renaissance was as the name implies the rebirth of painting. This does not imply that all the advances of painting came from this period but that the masters learned to combine new and old. The list of artist who contributed to the advancement in painting during the renaissance is as div...

The Palazzo Ruccelai was one of the first works by Leon Battista Alberti. He was an Italian architect, architectural theorist, and universal genius. Albert was the most important early Renaissance architect after Filippo Brunelleschi (Gympel, 44).The "Palazzo" originated in Florence. The monument...

Italy: A Place of Romance Picture this: You and someone you love sitting on a balcony with a view of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, sipping fine wine and watching all the beautiful lights of the city. Some people could never imagine themselves in Italy. Rumors of the m...

RenaissanceRenaissance was more than just a time period, it was a state of mind. No longer did the world think in turns of conquering, power, and the catholic church. It was a time of change politically, socially, economically, and culturally. The arts were explored, and the minds of many were expan...

Raffaello Sanzio, better known by his father and the rest of the world as Raphael, was born in the great city of Urbino, Italy, on April 6, 1483. His father Giovanni de' Santi, a painter of no great merit, but of good intelligence, had in his mind from the beginning that his only son would study t...

My annual summer trips to Italy seem to get better every year. I can see the Couplella de Bruneleschi in Florence a millions of times, and still be amazed by its ancient Byzantine architecture, which is just one of many reasons why it is such an irreplaceable landmark of Italy. It fascinates me how ...

The great age of the Renaissance was a time when old beliefs were tested. It was a period of intellectual ferment that prepared the ground for the thinkers and scientists of the 17th century. It was an age that bore many great artists, including two of history\'s most renowned: Leonardo da Vinci and...

Alessandro Scarlatti was a composer during the "Baroque Era". When compared with its music predecessors, "Baroque" music is said to be have more lavish textures, and more intense. This period of music introduced Operas, Oratorio's, and Cantata's. It also brought along o...

Niccolo Paganini and His Moto Perpetuo Niccolo Paganini is the greatest violinist of all time. Raised by a harsh and demanding father, Niccolo practiced incessantly as a child. Early on his skill was already as sharp and majestic as a perfectly cut diamond. He was so good at his music some ...