THE PHASES OF THE RENAISSANCE

The Italian Renaissance began at the end of the Middle Ages. There were various phases:

- Trecento (14th century, the end of Gothic art): the early features of the Renaissance appear. The first artist was Giotto.

- Quattrocento (15th century): in Florence, new Renaissance innovations appeared (harmony and proportion). The most important architects are Brunelleschi and Alberti; the most important sculptors are Ghiberti and Donatello; and the most important painters are Masaccio, Fra Angelico and Botticelli.

- Cinquecento (16th): Rome became the artistic centre. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael Sanzio belong to this phase. In Venice, a new style was developed by painters such as Giorgione and Titian, which spread throughout Europe.

- Mannerism (beginning in 1530, in Italy): harmony and proportion were abondoned. The most important painters are the Florentines Bronzino and Pontormo and the Venetians Tintoretto and Veronese, and the sculptures Cellini and Giambologna.