Art historian Laurie Schneider Adams brings to students a vibrant and engaging presentation of Renaissance art history that is supported by up-to-date scholarship and methodology. The text opens with the late Byzantine work of Cimabue and concludes with the transition to Mannerism. The authors focus is on the most important and innovative artists and their principal works, with a clear emphasis on selectivity and understanding. Italian Renaissance Art also focuses on style and iconography, and on art and artists, incorporating different methodological approaches to create a wider understanding and appreciation of the art. Distinguishing features of this text include: * Over 400 illustrations, with 215 in full color, are integrated with the text, and large enough to properly view. * In depth coverage on the most important and innovative artists and their principle works throughout Italy. * Side boxes that provide additional material on techniques, biographical data, descriptions of artistic media, as well as necessary background information are used in every chapter. * Controversy boxes introduce some of the ongoing scholarly quarrels among Renaissance art historians. * Maps, plans, and diagrams are also included throughout. A historical chronology, a full glossary of art-historical terms, and a select bibliography are also included at the end of the text.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Precursors of the Renaissance * Chapter One: The Thirteenth Century * The Context * The Stylistic Background * Vasaris Lives and the Framing of the Renaissance * Cimabue * Saints Dominic and Francis: Mendicant Friars * Nicola and Giovanni Pisano * Duccio di Buoninsegna: The Rucellai Madonna * Siena and Florence in 1300 * Giotto: The Santa Maria Novella Crucifix * Chapter Two: Trecento Precursors * Giotto di Bondone * Sienese Painting in the Fourteenth Century * Ambrogio Lorenzetti: Allegories of Good and Bad Government * 1348: The Black Death * Andrea da Firenze: Way of Salvation * Andrea di Cione (Orcagna) Part Two: The Quattrocento * Chapter Three: Architecture and Sculpture in Florence * The Competition of 1401 * Ghibertis Commentarii * Public Sculpture: The Exterior of Florence Cathedral * Donatellos John the Evangelist * The Architecture of Brunelleschi * Late Work: Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Ideal of the Circular Plan * Or San Michele: The Exterior Niches * Chapter Four: Painting in Florence: 1400-1430 * Lorenzo Monacos Coronation of the Virgin * Gentile da Fabrianos Adoration of the Magi: 1423 * Masaccio * The Brancacci Chapel Frescoes * Chapter Five: Painting in Florence: 1430-1460 * Leon Battista Alberti: On Painting * Fra Angelico * Filippo Lippi * Chapter Six: Painting in Florence, II: 1430-1460 * Paolo Uccello * Domenico Veneziano * Andrea del Castagno * Chapter Seven: Sculpture and Architecture in Florence: 1430s-1460s * Brunis Humanist Tomb * Albertis Self-Portrait Plaque: An Iconographic Puzzle * Donatello in the Mid-Fifteenth Century * Ghibertis East Doors * Palace Architecture * The Faade of Santa Maria Novella * Chapter Eight: Developments in Siena, Rimini, and Pienza: 14001460 * Siena * Rimini * Pienza * Chapter Nine: Developments in Umbria, the Marches, and Naples: 1400s1460s * Alfonso I of Naples * Piero della Francesca * The Montefeltro Court in Urbino * Federicos Dynastic Iconography * Chapter Ten: Sculpture and Architecture in Florence after 1450 * Sculpture * Architecture * Chapter Eleven: Painting in Florence after 1450 * Benozzo Gozzoli: The Medici Chapel Frescoes * Pollaiuolo * Botticelli * Filippino Lippi: Vision of Saint Bernard * Ghirlandaio * Chapter Twelve: Fifteenth-Century Developments in Verona, Ferrara, and Mantua * Pisanello in Verona * Pisanello and the Este of Ferrara * Developments in Mantua * Andrea Mantegna * Mantegna and the Gonzaga of Mantua * Chapter Thirteen: Developments in Late Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century Venice * Jacopo Bellini * Gentile Bellini * Carpaccios Miracle at the Rialto * Antonello da Messina * Giovanni Bellini Part Three: The Cinquecento * Chapter Fourteen: Leonardo and Bramante: Late Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century Developments in Florence and Milan * Leonardo da Vinci: Florence * Leonardo and Bramante in Milan * Leonardos Later Work * Chapter Fifteen: Michelangelo and Raphael: The Late Fifteenth Century to 1505 * Michelangelo: Florence and Rome * Raphael: Urbino, Perugia, and Florence * Chapter Sixteen: Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael: Developments in Rome to 1520 * Bramante in Rome * The Patronage of Julius II * Raphael After 1511 * Domestic Architecture * Chapter Seventeen: Venice in the Sixteenth Century * Giorgione da Castelfranco * Titian * Later Sixteenth-Century Developments and Mannerist Trends * Chapter Eighteen: Michelangelo after 1520 and the Transition to Mannerism * Michelangelo: The Medici Chapel * Victory * Last Judgment * Michelangelos Later Architecture * Towards Mannerism Timeline Glossary of Art-Historical and Stylistic Terms Select Bibliography Notes Picture Credits Index