What happens when devout Christianity meets the revival of pagan antiquity, and when the virtues of modesty and spirituality clash with the desire for wealth and status? In the immediate wake of the Black Death, Europe, particularly Italy, witnessed the answer to this question. The Renaissance was a period rife with tensions and contradictions: Christian and pagan, rich and poor, piety and self-aggrandisement, artistic freedom and patronal control.
We explore these tensions and innovations through the complex and beautiful art of Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli, and more, examining their radical depiction of the human form, their reinvention of illusionistic space, and their marriage of Classical form with Christian faith.