Themes in Italian Renaissance painting

These include perspective, both in terms of how it was achieved and the effects to which it was applied, and realism, particularly in the depiction of humanity, either as symbolic, portrait or narrative element.

The Flagellation of Christ by Piero della Francesca (above) demonstrates in a single small work many of the themes of Italian Renaissance painting, both in terms of compositional elements and subject matter.

The two older men, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, are believed to be portraits of acquaintances of Piero della Francesca who had recently lost their sons, one of them to the plague.

Primarily through the depiction of architecture, Renaissance artists were able to practice the art of three-dimensional illusion using linear perspective, which gave their works a greater sense of depth.

While remaining largely dependent upon topographic observation, the knowledge of anatomy was advanced by Leonardo da Vinci's meticulous dissection of 30 corpses.

The observation of nature meant that set forms and symbolic gestures which in medieval art, and particularly the Byzantine style prevalent in much of Italy, were used to convey meaning, were replaced by the representation of human emotion as displayed by a range of individuals.

Among the preoccupations of artists commissioned to do large works with multiple figures were how to make the subject, usually narrative, easily read by the viewer, natural in appearance and well composed within the picture space.

Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, now in the National Gallery, London but previously in a chapel in Milan, is one of many images that was used in the petitioning of the Blessed Virgin Mary against plague.

Of these, the largest unified scheme in Italy which remains more-or-less intact is that created by a number of different artists at the end of the medieval period at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

Although the subjects of some of them were later remembered for their achievements or their noble lineage, the identities of many have been lost and that of even the most famous portrait of all time, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, is open to speculation and controversy.