Donatello’s Gattamelata
Donatello revived an ancient monument type with this bronze equestrian statue in Padua
Michelangelo’s Pieta
Michelangelo carved a number of works in Florence during his time with the Medici, but in the 1490s he left Florence and briefly went to Venice, Bologna, and then to Rome, where he lived from 1496-1501. In 1497, a cardinal named Jean de Billheres commissioned Michelangelo to create a work …
Raphael’s Madonna in the Meadow
The painting of the Madonna in the Meadow (also called the Madonna Belvedere) was executed by a twenty-something Raphael while in Florence. The scene shows the Virgin with Christ and St. John the Baptist in a highly serene and tender moment against a landscape backdrop which places the scene in …
Perugino’s Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter
Perhaps the most famous painting in the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo’s time was one by fresco by Pietro Perugino called “Christ Handing the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter”. Perugino carried on what Masaccio and others had been doing before, but he was able to place his painted forms …