A timeline of milestone paintings, first surviving examples of the achievements of the Italian Renaissance, from 1320-1596.
Botticelli
The significance of Alberti’s textbook on painting and simplified perspective, followed by Piero’s account of perspective, and Vasari’s new history of painting.
A selection of meals eaten outdoors, by the gods, in Boccaccio’s Decameron, Manet’s controversial luncheon, and by a boating party.
In Florence, stories told in paintings became increasingly secular, and ingeniously integrated multiple scenes from the single story into one painting.
From mythology, Mercury’s caduceus and the Aesculapian Staff, walking sticks as a device indicating age, and those carried by travellers.
Unlike the face and hands, feet are usually covered in paintings. There are plenty of exceptions, but even the naked Phryné wore a pair of sandals.
From Aphrodite to Vesta, a reference summary of all the major Classical goddesses, with links to individual accounts.
It was the patrons who funded, enabled, and occasionally directed the movement towards realism and secular subjects, and developed the genres.
Two masterpieces of the Western canon turn a minor tale about a nymph into major narratives: Botticelli and Poussin explored.
Aglaea (representing splendor), Euphrosyne (mirth), and Thalia (good cheer), who together represent the better aspects of human nature, bit got Burne-Jones into trouble.
The Eclectic Light Company 