Quattrocento

The Quattrocento is the period of Italian art and culture during the 15th century, preceding the High Renaissance. It saw renewed study of classical antiquity and major developments in painting, sculpture, and architecture.

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Renaissance humanism: An intellectual movement that revived classical learning and emphasized human potential and civic life. Humanist scholarship supplied artists and patrons with classical texts, subjects, and ideals.
Dome of Florence Cathedral: The masonry dome completed by Filippo Brunelleschi for Florence Cathedral in the 15th century. Its construction became a defining architectural achievement of the period.
Filippo Brunelleschi: A Florentine architect and engineer known for the dome of Florence Cathedral and experiments in perspective. His engineering and architectural work helped define the period's new approach to space and construction.
International Gothic: A refined late medieval style of art that spread across European courts in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Its decorative elegance contrasts with Quattrocento interest in classical form and spatial depth.
Renaissance architecture: A European architectural movement inspired by classical antiquity and characterized by proportion, symmetry, and ordered forms. Quattrocento architects established principles later spread across Renaissance Europe.
Linear perspective: A system for representing three-dimensional space on a flat surface through converging lines. Its mathematical construction gave Quattrocento painters a new way to organize convincing pictorial space.
David (Donatello): A bronze statue by Donatello depicting the biblical David after his victory over Goliath. Its freestanding nude form demonstrates the renewed engagement with classical sculpture.
Masaccio: An Italian painter whose early 15th-century frescoes used perspective, light, and solid figures. His work established influential models for naturalistic figure painting.
High Renaissance: The phase of Renaissance art around 1490–1527 associated with artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. It followed the Quattrocento and consolidated many of its artistic innovations.
Renaissance sculpture: European sculpture from the 14th through 16th centuries, marked by renewed classical influence and naturalistic forms. The period's sculptors revived freestanding figures and helped shape this broader tradition.