In this course, we will look at the major developments in painting theory and technique to emerge from fifteenth-century Florence, the "cradle of the Renaissance." In a short time, a recognizable Florentine style had coalesced, defined as much by its treatment of form, depth, light, and space as by its embrace of Greco-Roman Classical subject matter, signalling a big break from what had been the exclusively Christian content of Medieval artworks in churches. We'll break down the timeline of how and where Renaissance painting developed for students of all levels.

In this course you'll learn about:

-How the rules of linear perspective developed by Filippo Brunelleschi guided a new generations of artists who transformed flat surfaces into illusionistic windows onto infinitely receding space.

-How Masaccio and other artists took the pursuit of creating this realistic trompe l'ceil (a phrase that means"trick the eye") effect to new heights, bringing in such fundamental innovations as the consideration of a single, directed light source on the figures and objects of a given scene.

-What makes a fresco special? From technical execution to artistic expression, learn about this medium of art and how it took center stage in Early Renaissance Florence.

-The "new look" of painting in the Early Renaissance, the major works and artists to know, key vocabulary terms, and more!