Explore the Italian Renaissance.

Discover the paintings, sculpture, and ideas of the Renaissance through the lives of its artists and the world around them.

Detail of a portrait of Simonetta Vespucci associated with Botticelli
Simonetta Vespucci · From the Fine Art Touch image collection

The faces behind the masterpieces

Artists, patrons, and the people they painted. Explore the stories behind some of the Renaissance’s most familiar works.

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From the library

Da Vinci in Verrocchio’s Studio

As a young man Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was apprenticed to the studio of Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor, Andrea del Verrocchio . Verrocchio has also been mentioned in connection with…

Art Patronage in the Italian Renaissance

Art patronage in the Italian Renaissance came from different sources, both public and private, religious and secular, much as it does today. It was not always so. Times were hard for…

Antonio Pollaiuolo | Dissecting Corpses for Art

Patronized by the Medici family, the workshop owned by the brothers Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo was a thriving business in Florence during the Early Italian Renaissance. The Pollaiuolo brothers executed bronze…

Ancient Pyramid Found in Sudan

SUDAN – 10/25/2008 – British archaeologists have recently found an ancient ruined pyramid in Sudan once populated by the powerful Kushite civilization. The Sudanese government plans to flood the Meroë area…

Women As Edible Art

This article was published in December, 2006 under the following title. Women As Edible Art There is a real art to saying something without really saying it. In other words, you…