Renaissance

Renaissance the revival of art and literature under the influence of classical models in the 14th–16th centuries; the culture and style of art and architecture developed during this era.

The Renaissance is generally regarded as beginning in Florence, where there was a revival of interest in classical antiquity. Important early figures are the writers Petrarch, Dante, and Boccaccio and the painter Giotto. Classical techniques and styles were studied in Rome by the sculptor Donatello as well as by the architects Bramante and Brunelleschi, who worked on the theory of perspective, which was developed in the innovative frescoes and paintings of Masaccio.

The period from the end of the 15th century has become known as the High Renaissance, when Venice and Rome began to share Florence' importance and Botticelli, Cellini, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo were active. Renaissance thinking spread to the rest of Europe from the early 16th century, and was influential for the next hundred years.
Renaissance man a person with many talents or interests, especially in the humanities, supposedly exhibiting the virtues of an idealized man of the Renaissance.