10 Early Renaissance Artists and Renaissance Artworks

Early Renaissance art reigned supreme over Europe as the primary artistic style throughout the fifteenth century. The artists of the Quattrocento (a shorthand reference to the 1400s) reached far back to classical antiquity for inspiration. In visual art, sculpture, and architecture alike, these early Renaissance artists conveyed their philosophy of humanism through their realistic yet reverential depiction of the human form.

Art historians situate the start of the Early Renaissance period at 1400. As this century began, the forward-thinking artists of the prior hundred years (such as the painter Giotto and the sculptors Nicola and Giovanni Pisano) inspired individuals to explore more realistic, humanistic, and experimental forms than those which characterized the Middle Ages. Treatises by the humanist writer and artisan Leon Battista Alberti also laid ground rules for the style.

Throughout the period, wealthy bankers like Cosimo de’ Medici and other members of the Medici family bankrolled countless artists to paint and sculpt primarily in the city of Florence. By the start of the sixteenth century, these artists and their patrons had left behind a rich body of work to inspire Leonado da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and other greats of the High Renaissance period (roughly 1495 to 1520) to take the style to even greater heights of ingenuity.

Early Renaissance art makes an impression due to its balance of realism and idealization when it comes to depicting the human form and natural surroundings. Here are four key characteristics:

1. 1. Chiaroscuro: Early Renaissance painters made many of their works true studies in contrast. Chiaroscuro, or a juxtaposition between dark and light shades, was formative in making subjects appear more three-dimensional than ever before.
2. 2. Naturalism: In the centuries leading up to the Renaissance, painters put many priorities above realism. The Early Renaissance artists reached back to Greek and Roman sculpture to inform how they would paint their subjects—they aimed to make them look as true-to-life as possible.
3. 3. Perspective: Early Renaissance artists used linear perspective obsessively. They hoped to make their art look like it stretched far beyond the canvas by using different proportions to give the illusion of depth. The artist Giorgio Vasari even described his colleague Paolo Uccello as being “intoxicated” by his focus on perspective.
4. 4. Religious subject matter: Although Christianity was also the subject of much medieval art, artists of the Early Renaissance sought to humanize religious figures like the biblical Magi or the Virgin Mary (or the Madonna) in new ways. They also returned to Greek and Roman mythology for inspiration.

The Early Renaissance was a period of intense and widespread artistic inspiration. Here are just ten of the most influential artists of the time:

1. 1. Andrea Mantegna: This Florentine artist had a knack for depicting scenes of tragedy. His Lamentation of Christ depicts the agony of those grieving the corpse of Jesus shortly after his crucifixion. The painting now hangs in Milan.
2. 2. Domenico Veneziano: This painter made his career in Florence, where he often painted saints and biblical figures.
3. 3. Donatello: Before Michelangelo chipped his own majestic sculpture out of marble, Donatello brought the Old Testament’s King David to life in bronze. He also sculpted the New Testament’s Saint John and Saint Mark.
4. 4. Filippo Brunelleschi: This Italian Renaissance architect made one of the most important contributions to the visual art of the period. His pioneering system of linear perspective informed artistic design and building construction in equal measure throughout the Early Renaissance.
5. 5. Fra Angelico: A master of the fresco, Angelico made his mark in the Italian art world by painting the walls of many a cathedral, convent, and friary. His Annunciation might be his most prominent contribution to the Early Renaissance era.
6. 6. Giovanni Bellini: This Venetian artist and his family inspired many other luminaries of the Renaissance. Titian and Tintoretto are just two other prominent painters from Venice who either directly collaborated with or drew prominent inspiration from the Bellini clan.
7. 7. Jan van Eyck: The Italian Renaissance style both borrowed from and inspired this Dutch painter. Domenico Ghirlandaio, in particular, painted altarpieces in the style of van Eyck and other artists from the Netherlands.
8. 8. Lorenzo Ghiberti: The bronze doors at the Florence Baptistery are perhaps Ghiberti’s greatest claim to fame. Michelangelo was so taken by the baptistery’s east doors and the images from the Book of Genesis they depict he called them the Gates of Paradise.
9. 9. Masaccio: Born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, Masaccio preferred going by his pseudonym. Although he painted frescoes in buildings throughout Italy, the ones in the Brancacci Chapel might be his most famous. Another Italian painter, Filippino Lippi, had to complete many of the Brancacci Chapel frescoes after his death.
10. 10. Sandro Botticelli: Borrowing from the mythology of Rome, Botticelli’s most remembered masterwork is The Birth of Venus. In it, the goddess of love emerges fully formed after her birth from the sea.

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