Renaissance Art Movement – Characteristics

1400 – 1600

Timeline of Renaissance Art

How to identify Renaissance art?

Click on any of the characteristics of Renaissance art below to see examples.

1. 3-D is finally here: Artists used a combination of accurate and believable proportions and spaces to create, for the first time in the history of art, a very realistic, three-dimenstional representation of the world. Gazing at some of their paintings, you’ll feel like you’re part of the scene, or you could just step into it.

San Marco Altarpiece by Fra Angelico

This painting is considered a masterpiece for its three-dimensionality and also for being a great example of tompe l'oeil (explained below, feature #4).

Herod's Banquet by Domenico Ghirlandaio

Madonna and Child with Saints by Alvise Vivarini

Perspective View with Portico by Canaletto

Saint Luke drawing the Virgin by Rogier van der Weyden

San Zaccaria Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini

The Alms of St Anthony by Lorenzo Lotto

Mystical Marriage of St Catherine by Paolo Veronese

The Apotheosis of St Roch by Tintoretto

2. Look for geometric divisions of floors or ceilings: The geometric pattern in a painting does more than give an illusion of deep space, it's also the reference point for the artist while composing the painting. Renaissance artists reinvented the way paintings were constructed, by using new techniques, such as linear perspective, which gave a sense of depth. They understood that objects and figures seem smaller as they recede into the space, and that's how they depicted them on a flat surface.

The Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno

Note the classical pillars (more on this below in feature #12) and the unusual addition of griffin statues (sphinx-like mythological creatures found in ancient Greece and Egypt)

Execution of Savonarola on the Piazza della Signoria by Francesco Rosselli

The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci

Holy Trinity by Masaccio

The Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael

The School of Athens by Raphael

St Mark Enthroned by Titian

3. Foreshortening is another important technique used by artists. It's when an object is visually compressed to give the illusion of depth.

The Creation of the Sun and the Moon by Michelangelo

Lamentation of Christ by Andrea Mantegna

The Apotheosis of Venice by Paolo Veronese

The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello

4. Some artists went as far as creating optical illusions known as tromp l'oeil (literally, a trick of the eye) where you'll find them in fake domes, for example.

The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck

As hard as it is to believe, this is a painting, not sculpture.

Camera degli Sposi Ceiling Oculus (circular opening) by Andrea Mantegna

Main hall of Palazzo Lancellotti by Agostino Tassi

Sala delle Prospettive of Villa Farnesina by Baldassare Peruzzi

5. The subject matter is mostly religious. If it's not biblical stories, then it's hagiographies (i.e. biographies of saints).

The Sermon of St. Stephen at Jerusalem by Carpaccio

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne by Leonardo da Vinci

The Annunciation by Fra Angelico

Note the Annunciation scene is taking place in a Italian-style loggia (explained below, feature #12).

Torture of St John the Evangelist by Filippino Lippi

The crucifixion aka the Calvary by Andrea Mantegna

St. Sebastian by Andrea Mantegna

Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden by Masaccio

The Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden

The Damned Cast into Hell by Luca Signorelli

Salome With Head of John the Baptist by Titian

Contarini Madonna by Giovanni Bellini

6. Look for people with symbolic hand gestures, dressed in flowing, swirling robes, all in bright colors, and unprecedented level of detail.

San Giobbe Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Transfiguration by Raphael

Assumption of the Virgin by Titian

The Sistine Madonna by Raphael

7. Continuous narrative: It's the illustration of multiple events at different moments from the same story within a single frame.

Resurrection of the Boy by Domenico Ghirlandaio

Stigmata of St. Francis by Domenico Ghirlandaio

Legend of Saint Ursula - Arrival of the English Ambassadors by Vittore Carpaccio

Disputation with Simon Magus and Crucifixion of St Peter by Filippo Lippi

The Tribute Money by Masaccio

8. Although most of the creative output was religious, some artists painted pagan works with Graeco-Roman mythological themes.

Danaë by Correggio

Putti Fighting by Guido Reni

Libyan Sibyl by Michelangelo

The Inspiration of the Poet by Nicolas Poussin

The Triumph of Galatea by Raphael

The Feast of the Gods by Giovanni Bellini and Titian

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

An Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Agnolo Bronzino

This is a Mannerist masterpeice. Typical features of Mannerism are twisted figures and crowded canvases (more information below, Mannerist features #1 and #3).

Venetia between Justitia and Pax by Paolo Veronese

Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche by Raphael

Wedding Night of Alexander the Great by Il Sodoma

Minerva Sending Away Mars from Peace and Prosperity by Tintoretto

Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian

Venus with a Mirror by Titian

The Rape of Europa by Paolo Veronese

Venus Blindfolding Cupid by Titian

Sacred and Profane Love by Titian

9. That era also witnessed the rise of non-religoius individual portraits, of people who were rich and famous. Many of them were donors of chapels and patrons of art.

Bia de' Medici by Agnolo Bronzino

Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici by Agnolo Bronzino

Mona Lisa, aka La Gioconda, by Leonardo da Vinci

Portrait of Innocent X by Diego Velazquez

Portrait of Girolamo Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo

Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni by Domenico Ghirlandaio

Charles VII (1403-1461), King of France by Jean Fouquet

Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza) by Piero della Francesca

Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck

Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami by Raphael

The Woman with a Veil ("La donna velata") by Raphael

Man with a Glove by Titian

Self-Portrait by Titian

10. Although painting on canvases (stretched fabrics on single wooden frames) became prominent during the Renaissance, some artists, especially ones from the early Renaissance, continued to paint on polyptychs as was the custom during the medieval era. Polyptychs were wooden panels with folding wings mainly to serve as altarpieces in churches.

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch

The Hermit Saints by Hieronymus Bosch

St. Peter of Verona Triptych by Fra Angelico

Triptych of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist by Hans Memling

Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes

Ghent Altarpiece by Jan and Hubert van Eyck

Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) by Robert Campin

11. Paintings in a tondo format (plural is tondi). A tondo is a circular painting, which was an alternative to the rectangular frame.

Madonna of the Magnificat by Sandro Botticelli

Doni Tondo (The Holy Family) by Michelangelo

This tondo is Mannerist style. Typical features of Mannerism here are contorted poses and exaggerated muscles (more information below, Mannerist feature #1 & #2).

Madonna della seggiola (Madonna of the Chair) by Raphael

12. Look for paintings that seem like they're scenes from a bizarre dream or a virtual-reality game where time and place are fluid. Artists fused the contemporary with the biblical and classical. You'll find figures from events that belong to the first century in biblical villages like Jerusalem, Bethlehem or Nazareth teleported to Tuscan landscapes or inside Flemish houses of the fifteenth century. Other times, the scene's location is unidentified but surrounded by ancient Roman architecture; columns, niches and round arches. You'll realize it's not a biblical locale when you see anachronistic details such as castles on green Tuscan hills or typical Florentine palaces and villas. You'll easily spot the clean-shaven fashionable Florentines among robed bearded biblical characters, floating angels and popular Franciscan or Dominican monks. Not only would the painter sometimes plant the wealthy art patron who's paying him into the ancient scene, along with his family, but he, the artist himself, is occasionally there, with a couple friends too.

The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci

Da Vinci painted a bizarre rocky landscape behind the Virgin, Jesus and John the Baptist. A similar landscape is more likey to be found in Europe than the Near East.

Adoration of the Shepherds by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Click here to read an analysis of Ghirlandaio's painting.

The Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Click here to read an analysis of Ghirlandaio's painting.

The Visitation by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Click here to read an analysis of Ghirlandaio's painting.

Madonna in the Meadow by Raphael

Note the Tuscan landscape in the background of Raphael's painting of the Virgin, Jesus and John the Baptist. Anachronistically, Jesus takes the cross from John, a sign of acceptance of his future sacrifice.

Cestello Annunciation by Sandro Botticelli

Madonna and Child with Two Angels by Filippo Lippi

Holy Allegory by Giovanni Bellini

A cryptic and bizarre painting: Christian saints, the Virgin Mary enthroned, a baldachin (canopy over a throne) with a scene from the Marsyas myth, two unknown women, a man in a turban, a shepherd, a centaur and four children playing with silver fruits under a tree.

Cutting the Stone by Hieronymus Bosch

Altarpiece: Martyrdom of St. Denis by Henri Bellechose

Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Stealing of the Dead Body of St. Mark by Tintoretto
Click here to read an analysis of Tintoretto's painting.

The Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Click here to read an analysis of Ghirlandaio's painting.

The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin by Jan Van Eyck
Click here to read an analysis of Jan Van Eyck's painting.

Brera Madonna by Piero della Francesca

Madonna of the Pesaro Family by Titian

Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter by Pietro Perugino

How to distinguish the Mannerist (Late Renaissance) among Renaissance artworks?

Note: Mannerism (1520 to 1600), being a Renaissance style, share the above characterisitics but the following sets it apart:

1. Figura serpentinata (Italian for serpentine figure): Elongated figures in twisted poses and strange body positions

The Holy Trinity by El Greco