Early Renaissance in Italy

The word `renaissance' means `rebirth'; what was reborn in Italy during the fifteenth century was an interest in the classical art and ideas of Ancient Greece and Rome. Scholars, writers and painters found in these civilizations before Christ a golden age of wisdom and art, and sought to bring it alive once more. The rediscovery of this classical world radically altered their vision of their own, and gave to the art of painting a new variety of style and of purpose. By the year 1500, the Renaissance had immensely broadened the scope of art - both in its range of subject and in its range of human experience. Technically the artist could now do almost anything. The spiritual content of painting changed too, as devotional art became humanized; artists no longer revered dead heroes and formalized saviors. The work of the following is featured: Uccello, Masaccio, Masolino, Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Filippo Lippi, Verrochio, Baldovinetti, Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, Luca Signorelli, Andrea Mantegna, Antonello da Messina and Crivelli.

Andrea Mantegna
The Agony in the Garden

Director Henry Lewes

Writer/Narrator
Edwin Mullins