Paintings that don’t look like they were intended to be, from Leonardo’s Last Supper, to Manet’s cut-up Execution of Emperor Maximilian.
Leonardo
The meaning of one arm raised depends on the position of the fingers: is it an index finger pointing to heaven, or a sign of benediction?
From the fur-trimmed cloaks of Jan van Eyck, to the soft folds of Lisa Gherardini’s dress: clothing and fabrics painted in oils.
Classical and mediaeval dress was simple, and not tailored much until after 1000 CE. Painters were also constrained by fresco and egg tempera.
Major works from around 1500 by Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna, Botticelli, Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, and Fra Bartolomeo.
The shepherds become more real and tatty from the Renaissance and Giorgione to Murillo and Bastien-Lepage.
An overview and contents of the articles outlining the history of the Italian Renaissance, centred on paintings from Florence.
A timeline of milestone paintings, first surviving examples of the achievements of the Italian Renaissance, from 1320-1596.
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.
From Leonardo’s abandoned Adoration of the Magi from 1482, his development of pyramidal form in composition influenced Raphael and many others.
The Eclectic Light Company 