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1350–1550 How did art reflect new Renaissance ideals? 61

Plate Showing the Abduction of Helen of Troy Filled
with well-muscled men, curvaceous women, and exotic
landscapes, this colorful plate with a gold rim depicts a
well-known scene from Greek mythology, the abduction
of Helen, which sparked the Trojan War. Such
tin-glazed pottery, known as maiolica and made in
many places in Italy beginning in the late fifteenth
century, was sold throughout Europe to wealthy
consumers, who favored designs with family
crests or legendary or historical scenes, known
as istoriato (“painted with stories”). (Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy/Bridgeman Images)

Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
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from the countryside or the rich merchant of the city, ideals, often portrayed in the more realistic style
a grand urban palace represented the greatest outlay increasingly favored by both artists and patrons. The
of cash. Wealthy individuals and families ordered Florentine painter Giotto (JAH-toh) (1276–1337)
gold dishes, embroidered tablecloths, wall tapestries, led the way in the use of realism; his treatment of the
paintings on canvas (an innovation), and sculptural human body and face replaced the formal stiffness
decorations to adorn these homes. Expanded trade and artificiality that had long characterized repre-
brought in silks, pearls, gemstones, feathers, dyes, and sentation of the human body. Piero della Francesca
furs, which tailors, goldsmiths, seamstresses, furriers, (frahn-CHAY-skah) (1420–1492) and Andrea
and hatmakers turned into magnificent clothing and Mantegna (mahn-TEHN-yuh) (1430/31–1506)
jewelry. Men and women wore clothing that displayed pioneered perspective, the linear representation of
many layers of expensive fabrics, with golden rings, distance and space on a flat surface, which enhanced
earrings, pins, and necklaces to provide additional the realism of paintings and differentiated them
glamour. from the flatter and more stylized images of medi-
eval art. (See “AP® Claims and Evidence in Visual
Changing Artistic Styles Sources: Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Magi,
ca. 1495–1505,” page 63.) The sculptor Donatello
Both the content and style of Renaissance art often (1386–1466) revived the classical figure, with its
differed from those of the Middle Ages. Religious balance and self-awareness. In architecture, Filippo
topics remained popular among both patrons and Brunelleschi (1377–1446) looked to the classical past
artists, but frequently the patron had himself and for inspiration, designing a hospital for orphans and
his family portrayed in the scene. As the fifteenth foundlings in which all proportions — of the win-
century advanced and humanist ideas spread dows, height, floor plan, and covered walkway with
more widely, classical themes and motifs figured a series of rounded arches — were carefully thought
increasingly in painting and sculpture, with the out to achieve a sense of balance and harmony.
facial features of the gods sometimes modeled on Art produced in northern Europe tended to be
living people. more religious in orientation than that produced in
The individual portrait emerged as a distinct artis- Italy. Some Flemish painters, notably Rogier van der
tic genre in this movement. Rather than reflecting a Weyden (1399/1400–1464) and Jan van Eyck (1366–
spiritual ideal, as medieval painting and sculpture 1441), were considered the artistic equals of Italian
tended to do, Renaissance portraits showed human painters and were much admired in Italy. Van Eyck

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