Editing Italian art (section)

=== Early Renaissance ===
[[File:El nacimiento de Venus, por Sandro Botticelli.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|The Birth of Venus]]'' by [[Sandro Botticelli]], 1484–1485]]

During the early 14th century, the Florentine painter [[Giotto di Bondone]] became the first artist since antiquity to depict nature and the human form in a convincingly realistic manner. He produced influential frescoes for churches in Assisi, Florence, Padua, and Rome. Giotto sought to render figures with a sense of physical presence and emotional expression, placing them in spatially coherent and naturalistic settings.

A remarkable group of [[Florentine Renaissance art|Florentine artists]]—including the painter [[Masaccio]], the sculptor [[Donatello]], and the architect [[Filippo Brunelleschi]]—emerged in the early 15th century, laying the foundations of the High Renaissance.

Masaccio's finest work is a series of frescoes painted around 1427 in the [[Brancacci Chapel]] of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. These frescoes depict Biblical scenes with dramatic realism and emotional gravity. Masaccio was among the first to apply Brunelleschi's recently developed system of linear perspective, allowing for more convincing spatial depth in painting.

Donatello revolutionized sculpture by reintroducing the classical ideals of the human form and individual expression. His works display a remarkable attention to anatomy and psychological depth. Among his most celebrated pieces is the bronze statue of David, completed in the 1430s. Standing approximately {{convert|5|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} tall, it is notable as the first life-sized, free-standing nude statue created in Western art since antiquity.

Brunelleschi was the first major Renaissance architect to systematically revive the forms and principles of ancient Roman architecture. He incorporated classical elements such as arches, columns, and harmonious proportions into his designs. One of his finest achievements is the [[Pazzi Chapel]] in Florence, begun in 1442 and completed around 1465, which exemplifies clarity, balance, and classical restraint. Brunelleschi also pioneered the use of ''linear perspective'', a mathematical method for rendering three-dimensional space on a flat surface.