The contribution of Italy to European painting
and sculpture far surpasses that of any other
nation. This is due to the triumph of the Renaissance
period, but also to many other remarkable artistic
achievements, from the seventh century BC to
modern era. The country's fragmented political
history has determined strong regional characteristics
in Italian art: Rome, Pisa, Siena, Florence,
Milan, Venice, Bologna and Naples all have distinctive
traditions.
The Etruscans
Italian artistic history begins with the Etruscans
, whose culture influenced Italy until the first
centuries BC...
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The Romans
Like the Etruscans, the Romans were strongly
influnced by the Greeks for their art forms,
adapting Greek models to suit their own purpose...
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Early Christian
art
The early Christian period saw an almost total
rejection of sculpture, except for sarcophagi,
though the remarkable wooden doors of Santa
Sabina in Rome - showing the earliest known
representation of the Crucifixion - are a notable...
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The Middle Ages
Italy played at first a minor role in the Europe-wide
re-emergence from the Dark Ages. The Byzantine
tradition was particularly 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 evident in the painting and sculpture of
other countries, is much less remarkable 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
way towards the Renaissance was not continuous
or consistent . Indeed, the leading local school
of painters in the fourteenth century was not
that of Florence, but of neighbouring...read
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The Florentine
Renaissance
Very often the start of the Renaissance is dated
in1401, when the Florentine authorities announced
a public competition for the right to make a
second door for the baptistry...
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The fifteenth
century outside of Florence
Although the fifteenth century brought a rich
group of artists working in Italy, 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
connected to the the competition for the Florence
Baptistry doors, so the highest 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
T As artists could not hope to improve on the
results of Michelangelo and Raphael at their
peak, they had to find new approaches. As a
result, ...read
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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 played a minor role in its development.
Bologna was the first through the academy founded
there in 1585 by members...read
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The eighteenth
century
The decline of Italian art in many forms came
in the eighteenth century, a trend 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...read
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The nineteenth
century
The nineteenth century was even worse than the
previous one, Paris becoming the overwhelmingly
dominant European trendsetter. Francesco Hayez
(1791-1882) was perhaps the most successful
painter at work in...read
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The twentieth
century
The only Italian artist born within the last
two hundred years to obtain a real universal
recognition is Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920).
Although he spent most of his adult life in
Paris, Modigliani's work is recognizably Italian,
being...
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