What conclusion can be inferred from this photo of the famous ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo? The Church dictated the themes and styles of Renaissance artists.

The earliest impact of humanism on Renaissance art can be seen in 14th-century artists’ efforts to infuse their paintings with a greater sense of naturalism, or the sensation that their paintings were painted after real people or real life.

It was “A. Sir Thomas More” who wrote about his vision of an ideal society, in which people live in peace and harmony.

Peter Paul Rubens

The Northern Renaissance was famous for its advanced oil painting techniques, realistic, expressive altarpiece art, portraiture on wooden panel paintings, as well as woodcuts and other forms of printmaking. Stone sculpture was not popular, but wood-carving was a German specialty.

Italian Politics. Italian politics during the time of the Renaissance was dominated by the rising merchant class, especially one family, the House of Medici, whose power in Florence was nearly absolute.

10 of the Most Important Renaissance Figures

• Lorenzo de’ Medici. Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-1492) was a member of the Medici family, one of the wealthiest European families in history and the de facto rulers of Florence.
• Leonardo da Vinci.
• Michelangelo.
• Nicolaus Copernicus.
• Petrarch.
• Raphael.
• Galileo Galilei.
• Michel de Montaigne.

Thus, one of the main factors that helped the Renaissance spread beyond Italy was increased trade.

Humanism was a term invented in the 19th century CE to describe the Renaissance idea that directly studying the works of antiquity was an important part of a rounded education (but not the only part). This education did not create an all-encompassing philosophy or worldview in its adherents.

Three basic types of perspective — one-point, two-point, and three-point — refer to the number of vanishing points used to create the perspective illusion. Two-point perspective is the most commonly used.