Fra Filippo Lippi, The Reluctant Friar
Born Filippo di Tommaso di Lippo, the Florentine painter known to history simply as Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) was raised in a Carmelite friary. Although he took his vows in 1421,…
Explore the Italian Renaissance.
Discover the paintings, sculpture, and ideas of the Renaissance through the lives of its artists and the world around them.
The faces behind the masterpieces
Artists, patrons, and the people they painted. Explore the stories behind some of the Renaissance’s most familiar works.
Browse the articlesFrom the library
For That Knee Alone, A Tale of Italian Renaissance Rivals Part 2
<< Previous 1 [2] Next >> Raphael’s work in the Vatican Stanze was open to the curious; while Michelangelo left strict orders that no visitors were to be allowed in the…
Early Renaissance Art
The Early Renaissance time period in art falls between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the High Renaissance. Early Renaissance art first developed in the city of…
EBay Auction of Unsigned Art Nets Over $600,000
02/08/2007 – Imagine being from a middle-class family from southern California struggling to pay college tuition for your daughter, then having a $600,000 eBay auction windfall fall into your lap. Well,…
Donatello Sculpture of Gattamelata
This Donatello sculpture ca. 1447 of famous Venetian condottiere, Erasmo da Narmi, was popularly called Gattamelata (The Honeyed Cat). This Donatello sculpture was very controversial at the time of its creation…
Donatello
Italian Renaissance artist, sculptor Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi), was born ca. 1386 and died in 1466. Donatello is a dimunitive form of his proper name Donato. Around 1405,…
Donatello’s David
An innovative work, Donatello‘s David, a bronze sculpture executed ca. 1425-1430, is the first large-scale, free-standing nude statue of the Renaissance. Donatello’s David statue with its sensual contrapposto stance eventually ended…
Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man
Da Vinci’s Vitruvian ManPen ink on loose leaf linen paper, ca.1492 Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man drawing was made around the year 1492. Leonardo drew a standing nude male figure with…
Da Vinci’s Bronze Horse Sculpture
While Leonardo da Vinci surpassed his master Verrocchio in fine art painting as a young man, Verrocchio’s true genius was as a sculptor. In 1479 Verrocchio began work on his famous…
Da Vinci’s Portrait of Ginevra de’Benci
An early work by Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci, is a portrait of a young woman named Ginevra de’Benci. The sixteen year old daughter of a Florentine banker, da Vinci’s…
