In the early 1400’s a new movement in art and literature began in Italy, This movement was known as the Renaissance. It spread all over Europe, and its influence has been felt to this day. The spirit of the Renaissance affected not just the arts but all phases of life. As a result, the name of this artistic movement has been given to the whole period of history of the 15th and 16th centuries.
 
The word “renaissance” means “rebirth” or “revival.” In the 14th century, many Italian scholars believed that the arts had been declining in quality for 1,000 years. They admired the art and writing of the Classical Age (400 BC—AD 400), the time of the Greek and Roman empires. To revive the glory and grandeur of the ancient past, these scholars eagerly studied classical literature, architecture, and sculpture.
 
But the Renaissance was much more than a rebirth of classical art. It was a rejection of the Middle Ages, which were just ending. During medieval times, the arts were concerned mainly with religion, with the life of the spirit, with the hereafter. Little importance was given to life on earth except as a preparation for the next world.

But as the 15th century began, Italians were turning their attention to the world about them. People started to think more about secular, or non-religious, matters. They began placing faith in their own qualities and their own importance. This new spirit was called humanism. Discipline, unquestioning faith, obedience to authority—these medieval virtues were no longer blindly accepted. People asked questions and wanted to find their own answers.
 
Artists were among the first affected by the new spirit of humanism. In their work, they began to focus on human life on earth.
 
The spirit of humanism was expressed by the painter Giotto di Bondone (1267?-1337) a century before the Renaissance began. Giotto’s religious pictures were painted with great sympathy for the human qualities of his subjects. Holy figures are shown in countryside settings, dressed in worn and commonplace clothing. Giotto’s lovely paintings seem to have been created especially for the common people of his time. Never before in Christian art had viewers been reminded that the saints of their religion were peasants like them.
 
Soon after Giotto died, a terrible plague, followed by small but destructive wars, swept through Italy. Progress—including the progress of art—was slowed. At least 50 years passed before Giotto’s ideas became popular. But then it became clear that Giotto had been the forerunner of Renaissance painting.
 
In the 16th century, the center for Renaissance artists shifted from Florence to Rome. Almost every great name in 16-century art went to Rome either to work on some project for the popes or the nobility or to just see what was going on. It was a time for splendor, and it was called the High Renaissance.