Middle Ages Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Art and architecture=== The wealthiest Italian and French princes regularly hired foreign artists which led to the convergence of courtly styles. This "[[International Gothic]]" reached much of Europe around 1400, producing masterpieces in sculpture and miniature.{{refn|group=note|The sculptures of the portal of the new Burgundian ducal mausoleum at [[Champmol]], and the miniatures in the {{lang|fr|[[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]}} ('Very Rich Hours of the [[John, Duke of Berry|Duke of Berry]]') are among the featuring items of Internatinal Gothic arts.{{sfn|Adams|2011|pp=237–240}}}}{{sfn|Adams|2011|pp=237–238}}{{sfn|Benton|2002|p=253–256}} All over Europe, secular art continued to increase in quantity and quality, and in the {{nowrap|15th century}}, the mercantile classes of Italy and Flanders became important patrons, commissioning small portraits as well as a growing range of luxury items such as jewellery, [[cassone]] chests, and [[maiolica]] pottery.{{sfn|Lightbown|1978|p=78}} In France and Flanders, tapestry weaving of sets like ''[[The Lady and the Unicorn]]'' became a major luxury industry.{{sfn|Benton|2002|pp=257–262}} In Italy, Florence emerged as the center of intellectual and artistic life for most of the [[Quattrocento]]. The [[Medici]]—the city's most influential family—gathered a significant collection of classical sculptures and opened it for local artists. The Tuscan architect [[Brunelleschi]] (d. 1446) studied the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] in Rome before completing the plan of the dome of the [[Florence Cathedral]]. The use of [[Perspective (graphical)|one-point perspective]] for creating the illusion of depth is another innovation, as it is demonstrated by reliefs on the bronze door of the [[Florence Baptistery]] by [[Lorenzo Ghiberti]] (d. 1455). [[Early Renaissance]] artists restored [[Nude (art)|the nude]] and eroticism (even homoerotocism) in artworks such as the bronze statue ''[[David (Donatello)|David]]'' by [[Donatello]] (d. 1466), and ''[[The Birth of Venus]]'' by the painter [[Boticelli]] (d. 1510).{{sfn|Adams|2011|pp=241–253, 264}} Flemish painters quickly improved their technique. When completing his ''[[Ghent Altarpiece]]'', [[Jan van Eyck]] (d. 1441) used [[oil paint]] to create a translucent surface, and tiny bushes to achieve a more lifelike representation of the natural world.{{sfn|Adams|2011|pp=265–267}} Printing houses established all over Europe began the mass production of cheap playing cards and primitive religious images in the mid-15th century. [[Block book]]s—[[woodcut]]s containing both illustrations and text—rapidly became popular, with best-sellers such as the {{lang|la|[[Biblia pauperum]]}} ('Paupers' Bible'), and {{lang|la|[[Ars moriendi]]}} ('Art of Dying').{{sfn|Griffiths|1996|pp=17–18, 137}} Horror stories were also widely read, including the German booklets about the cruel acts of the Wallachian prince [[Vlad the Impaler]] (r. 1456–62).{{sfn|Sedlar|1994|p=451}} The first large illustrated printed book, the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' was published in 1493.{{sfn|Griffiths|1996|p=18}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page