History 

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Italy and in northern Europe saw great changes in religion, politics and society. The new interest in the classical culture of Greece and Rome and the whole humanist movement was particularly fruitful in painting, sculpture and architecture, and styles were created which were to influence Western art for all the succeeding centuries.

One of the best ways to approach the visual arts in the Renaissance is to understand the changing role of the artist and his attitude to patrons and public.

Rosa Maria Letts has written a vivid and perceptive account that moves from artistic experiment and rivalries in Medici Florence to the moment of equilibrium in art and life at the court of Urbino; from the Venetian sophistication of Titian and Giorgione to the grandeur of papal Rome and the masterpieces of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.