Italian Renaissance

By the fourteenth century, especially in northern Italy, artists created a foundation for new understandings in art, especially in the manipulation of light and darkness. The many discoveries included aerial perspective, chiaroscuro, foreshortening, linear perspective and sfumato. This time period also saw the first non-religious themed paintings. The most famous painters from this period are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael whose works of art are among the most widely known throughout the world.