After the Middle Ages comes the Italian Renaissance: between the fourteenth and sixteenth century, this was an era of prodigious cultural change and success that rooted in Italy. This movement sprouted from the philosophy of humanism (an emphasis on individual achievement). The Renaissance was aloud to thrive in Italy because the merchants and political officials recognized the importance of the arts and commissioned pieces from artists. Developing in stages, the Renaissance took its time to cultivate into what we know as the Renaissance. According to Vasari, those stages are: Infancy (Giotto in the 14th cen.), Adolescence (Masaccio in the 15th cen.), and Manhood (Michelangelo in the 16th cen.).
Italy was consumed by city-states, each with it’s own twist on the Renaissance. The world was much bigger during the Italian Renaissance, in terms of communication, travel, etc., so each city-state was able to give the arts their own persona. City-states in Italy were also able to foster their own charms based on different governing styles. The Medici family (the financial backbone and one of the biggest patrons of the arts) led the city-state of Florence to be the birthplace of the Renaissance. Rome, which was controlled
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A prime example of this is Giotto’s Christ Entering Jerusalem, where he gives viewers a sense of three dimensions with the entire painted scene in the foreground (bringing everything closer to the viewer). The rounded forms or subjects create an illusion of space. Due to his experimentation with perspective, Giotto surpassed his teacher, Cimabue (historian do not know this as fact), in the techniques of translating light and dark. Cimabue, a masterful artist before Giotto, turned light into a system of golden lines; where as, Giotto unveils gradual association or shading from light to dark (creating a stronger three dimensional