Italy's contribution to
European painting and
sculpture far surpasses that
of any other nation. This is
in part due to the triumph
of the Renaissance period,
but Italy can also boast
many other remarkable
artistic achievements, from
the seventh century BC to
modern times. The country's
fragmented political history
has led to strong regional
characteristics in Italian
art: Rome, Pisa, Siena,
Florence, Milan, Venice,
Bologna and Naples all have
distinctive and recognizable
traditions.
Gordon McLachlan ,
with contributions by Catherine
McBeth
The Etruscans
Italian artistic history
begins with the Etruscans ,
whose culture spanned the
seventh to the first
centuries BC. Etruscan art
was distinct from that of
Greece, then the dominant
nation both politically and
artistically, though in many
other...
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The Romans
Like the Etruscans, the
Romans were heavily indebted
to the Greeks for their art
forms, happily adapting
Greek models to suit their
own purpose, though they had
little taste for the
aesthetic values that had
played such a key role in
Greek...
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Early Christian art
The early Christian period
saw an almost total
rejection of sculpture,
other than for sarcophagi,
though the remarkable wooden
doors of Santa Sabina in
Rome - featuring the
earliest known
representation of the
Crucifixion - are a
notable...
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The Middle Ages
Italy at first played a
rather subsidiary role in
the Europe-wide re-emergence
from the Dark Ages. The
Byzantine tradition proved
surprisingly durable,
particularly in Venice and
Sicily, which both retained
strong trading links with...
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The precursors of
Renaissance
The distinction between
Gothic and Renaissance , so
marked in the painting and
sculpture of other
countries, is very blurred
in Italy. In the
mid-thirteenth century, what
is normally considered one
of the key planks of the...
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The fourteenth and early
fifteenth centuries
In spite of the momentous
developments, the path
towards the Renaissance was
not to follow a continuous
or consistent course.
Indeed, the leading local
school of painters in the
fourteenth century was not
that of Florence, but of
neighbouring Siena ...
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The Florentine
Renaissance
A date often given for the
start of the Renaissance is
1401, when the Florentine
authorities announced a
public competition for the
right to make a second door
for the baptistry.
Candidates had to submit a
trial piece of The Sacrifice
of...
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The fifteenth century
outside of Florence
Although the fifteenth
century brought a rich crop
of artists working
throughout Italy, including
many places which previously
had little tradition of
their own to draw on, no
other city came near to
matching the depth and
consistency of the...
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The High Renaissance
Just as the beginning of the
Renaissance is linked to the
specific circumstances of
the competition for the
Florence Baptistry doors, so
the climactic part of the
era, known as the High
Renaissance, is sometimes
considered to have started
with the mural...
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The late Renaissance
The perfection of form
achieved in the late
Renaissance was the
culmination of centuries of
striving. As artists could
not hope to improve on the
achievements of Michelangelo
and Raphael at their peak,
they had to find new
approaches. As a result, ...
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The Baroque age
The leadership of Italian
art away from the sterility
of late Mannerism came
initially from cities that
had hitherto played a minor
role in its development.
Bologna was the first to
come to prominence, through
the academy founded there in
1585 by members...
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The eighteenth century
The decline of Italian art
in many of its most
celebrated strongholds
gathered pace in the
eighteenth century, a slump
from which only Venice and
Rome stood apart. In the
case of the former, its
pre-eminence was due to a
revival of its grand
decorative...
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The nineteenth century
If the eighteenth century
was a lean time for Italian
art, the nineteenth century
was even worse, Paris
becoming the overwhelmingly
dominant European
trendsetter. Francesco Hayez
(1791-1882) was perhaps the
most successful painter at
work in...
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The twentieth century
The only Italian artist born
within the last two hundred
years to have gained truly
universal recognition is
Amedeo Modigliani
(1884-1920). Although most
of his adult life was spent
in Paris, Modigliani's work
is recognizably Italian,
being...
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