Page 62 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

60  I n TRoduCI n G IT AL y

The Renaissance

Fifteenth-century Italy saw a flowering of the arts and
scholarship unmatched in Europe since the days of
Greece and Rome. Architects turned from the Gothic to
Classical models for inspiration, while painting, with its
new understanding of perspective and anatomy, produced
a generation of artists that included such giants as Leonardo
da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. The patronage for this Italy in 1492
cultural “rebirth” came from the wealthy families that ruled Republic of Florence
the city-states of the north, led by the Medici of Florence. Papal States
In spite of intense rivalry, they oversaw a period of uneasy Aragonese possessions
stability out of which the Renaissance grew.
Piero de’ Medici,
Galeazzo Maria Lorenzo’s father, was
Sforza was the given the nickname
son of Milan’s ruler. “the Gouty”.

Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter
Perugino’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel (see p430)
links the authority of the pope to the New
Testament and, through the Classical buildings
in the background, to ancient Rome.
Self-portrait of
the artist

Execution of Savonarola (1498)
Having assumed the leadership of Florence
in 1494, the fanatical monk was hanged, then
burned for heresy in Piazza della Signoria.

1420 Martin V 1435 Publication of 1458–64 War between
re-establishes On Painting by Alberti, Houses of Aragon and 1469 Lorenzo
papacy in Rome which contains the 1436 Brunelleschi Anjou over Kingdom the Magnificent
first system for the use completes dome of of Naples becomes ruler
of linear perspective Florence cathedral of Florence
1400 1425 1450
1434 Cosimo de’ Medici 1442 Naples 1452 Birth of
comes to power in Florence captured by Leonardo da Vinci
Alfonso of Aragon
1453 Fall of Constantinople
1444 Federico da Montefeltro
Cosimo de’ Medici becomes Duke of Urbino Filippo Brunelleschi

060-061_EW_Italy.indd 60 20/03/15 10:59 am
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Starsight history template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1)
Date 26th July 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm