Chapter 14 Late Medieval Italy

Late Medieval Italy
Surveys art and architecture in Italy in the 13^th and 14^th centuries, a period that witnessed great changes in modes of representation in sculpture and painting. Artists in the 13^th century such as Cimabue work in the Italo-Byzantine style, characterized by a flattening of representational space and less naturalistic, more schematic renderings of figures. In the 14^th century, Giotto is recognized for painting scenes and figures based on observations of the natural world. His naturalism is seen as a return to the classical manner, which had been nearly abandoned in the Middle Ages. Giotto is recognized as the first Renaissance artist, his work signaling the rebirth of Greco-Roman naturalism, the emphasis on empirical knowledge, and the development of humanism that are the hallmarks of the Italian art and culture in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.