The High Renaissance in Italy: Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael
- Date
- c. 1490–1530
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Italy (Florence and Rome)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
Between roughly 1490 and 1530 Italian art reached the apex known as the High Renaissance, dominated by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael. Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa (c. 1503) and The Last Supper, embodying scientific observation, anatomy and atmospheric perspective.
Michelangelo carved his David (1501–04) and frescoed the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–12) for Pope Julius II, while Raphael decorated the Vatican Stanze, producing The School of Athens (1509–11) at the very time Michelangelo worked overhead. Centred on Florence and papal Rome and funded by the Medici, the papacy and other patrons, these artists synthesised classical ideals of harmony, proportion and the human form with mathematical perspective and naturalism. Their work redefined the status of the artist from craftsman to creative genius and set technical and aesthetic standards that shaped Western visual culture for centuries. The movement coincided with the broader humanist recovery of classical antiquity and demonstrated how concentrated wealth, competitive patronage and intellectual revival could produce an extraordinary flowering of creativity.
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Empires active in c. 1490–1530
- Inca Empire1438 CE – 1533 CE
- Aztec Empire1428 CE – 1521 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Malacca Sultanate1400 CE – 1511 CE
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Construction of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkandc. 1399-1404
- Kan'ami and Zeami refine Noh theatre under shogunal patronage1374
- The Djinguereber Mosque founds monumental Timbuktu1327 CE
- Timbuktu emerges as a centre of Islamic learningc. 1325
- Zhu Xi completes the Neo-Confucian synthesis and the Four Booksc. 1175-1190
- Thomas Aquinas and the height of scholasticism1265–1274 (Summa Theologica)
Further reading
The wider story
The Story of Art
The best-selling art history ever written, from cave paintings to the modern age.
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