Renaissance Art

European art created between the 14th and 16th centuries that drew inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman cultures. The term refers to the renewed effort of artists to achieve exact representations of nature and idealized forms of the human body, which radically departed from the appearance of art and architecture of the preceding Middle Ages. While the Early Renaissance period in Italy drew from Byzantine aesthetics, the High Renaissance returned to forms from classical antiquity. This shift was due in part to the development of oil paint in Netherlandish regions and the growing trade of information throughout Europe. In addition to new painting techniques, artists turned toward other areas of study, such as the sciences (which, as a result, also experienced a renewed enthusiasm) and scientific ideas regarding perspective.