Renaissance art is the painting, sculpture and decorative arts of the period of European history, emerging as a distinct style in Italy in about , in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy , literature , music , science and technology. Renaissance meaning "rebirth" art, perceived as the noblest of ancient traditions, took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity , but transformed that tradition by absorbing recent developments in the art of Northern Europe and by applying contemporary scientific knowledge.
Renaissance art, with Renaissance humanist philosophy , spread throughout Europe, affecting both artists and their patrons with the development of new techniques and new artistic sensibilities. Renaissance art marks the transition of Europe from the medieval period to the Early Modern age. Renaissance art, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature produced during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Europe under the combined influences of an increased awareness of nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man.
The influences upon the development of Renaissance men and women in the early 15th century are those that also affected philosophy, literature, architecture, theology, science, government, and other aspects of society.
The following list presents a summary, dealt with more fully in the main articles that are cited above. In Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the sculpture of Nicola Pisano and his son Giovanni Pisano , working at Pisa , Siena , and Pistoia shows markedly classicising tendencies, probably influenced by the familiarity of these artists with ancient Roman sarcophagi.
Their masterpieces are the pulpits of the Baptistery and Cathedral of Pisa. Contemporary with Giovanni Pisano, the Florentine painter Giotto developed a manner of figurative painting that was unprecedentedly naturalistic, three-dimensional, lifelike and classicist, when compared with that of his contemporaries and teacher Cimabue. Giotto, whose greatest work is the cycle of the Life of Christ at the Arena Chapel in Padua , was seen by the 16th century biographer Giorgio Vasari as "rescuing and restoring art" from the "crude, traditional, Byzantine style" prevalent in Italy in the 13th century.
