Van Eych to Bruegel The Metropolitan Museum of Art has created an Exlpore & Learn web tour of their collection of Northern Renaissance paintings. This is a great introduction to some of the major artists of this time period.
Web Gallery of Art Virtual Tours There are 14 virtual tours of masterpieces of European art from 1200 - 1800 AD. They are organized by country and cover two to three of our major time periods. For instance, tour #4 shows you paintings in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo from 1450. There are many paintings and sculptures for our theme of the Spiritual World. Try one of the tours. If you choose an artwork, make sure to check the dates so that you place the art in the right time period.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In the Museum's "Europe to 1900" web gallery, Renaissance artworks are objects #11 - 41. They are quite interesting with good information. Be careful to have the correct time period as this web gallery covers many centuries of art.
The Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio You will be amazed at the artists who "painted" a nobleman's study with many splendid colors of wood. What is real? What is illusion?
Magnificenza! This web exhibit from the Detroit Institute of Arts tells the remarkable saga of one family and one artist that changed the cultural and political landscape of Europe forever. The genius of Michelangelo and the influence of Renaissance Italy's most powerful ruling families, lives on in these extraordinary works of art.
A Virtual Tou of the Sistine Chapel This is Michelangelo's greatest work of art. Through the wonders of technology, you can click on any part of the Sistine Chapel and zoom in for a closer look. It is truly amazing!
The Norton Simon Collection The web gallery "14th - 16th Century" has a large selection of Renaissance art work. The digital images help you see the exquisite colors.
The Walters Collection This web gallery covers the Renaissance and Baroque (17th Century) time periods. Check the dates carefully for each artwork. There are masterpieces by many of the finest artists plus furniture, ceramics and armor.
The Louvre, France The "Paintings" web gallery covers many centuries of art and is sub-divided by country and century. Click on "Selected Works." You can enlarge each artwork to see many details. Be careful of the dates.
The Louvre, France The "Prints and Drawings" web gallery has very interesting images of drawings by the masters. Click on "Selected Works." The web gallery covers many centuries of art and is sub-divided by country and century. You can enlarge each artwork to see many details. Be careful of the dates.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum, Venice The "Picture Gallery" covers many centuries of art. It has some of the clearest and brightest digital images on the web. The web gallery covers many centuries of art, divided by country. Be careful of your dates.
The Renaissance: An Introduction This web site gives you an interesting tour of the changes that moved European society from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The main topics are Exploration and Trade, Printing and Thinking, Focus on Florence (Italy) and Symmetry, Shape and Size - about art and architecture. There are many links to other web sites with interesting related topics. It's a fascinating and quick look at Renaissance history.
The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci This web gallery contains 39 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. Click on the thumbnails to see drawings of his inventions, anatomy studies and character studies.
Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel This tour will show you the wonders of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The images are very clear and there are many details showing you up close the genius of Michelangelo.
Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance is the web site that compliments the PBS series of the same name. It's a fascinating look at a family that shaped the revolution in art and science that we now call the Renaissance. There's a gallery of 28 of the best artworks of the period, plus biographies of eight of the greatest artists. You can also navigate easily to essays on religion, politics, science and artchitecture.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a wonderful feature, the Timeline of Art History. There are hundreds of beautifully illustrated articles on special topics organized chronologically, or from the oldest to the newest, as art developed around the world. Here are topics and artworks of interest for the Renaissance.
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder He was the greatest member of a large and important family of artists during the Northern Renaissance. He was an astoundingly inventive painter and draftsman.
- Renaissance Drawings As paper became more available, artists used drawings to explore their ideas and we can see the artist creatively thinking on paper.
- Albrecht Durer He was a supremely gifted and versatile German artist of the Renaissance, best known as a printmaker but also a brilliant painter.
- Leonardo da Vinci A painter, sculptor and draftsman, da Vinci was also a scientist always observing, experimenting and inventing.
- Elizabethan England Queen Elizabeth I's patronage of the arts and a peaceful, prosperous England, encouraged the production of masterpieces of the visual and performing arts.
- The Collector's Cabinet View many wonders of the successful collector's cabinet which had products of nature, products of man and testaments to man's ability to dominate nature.
- Manuscript Illumination in Italy Choir-books and bibles were lovingly illustrated with delicate paintings of astounding detail.
- Manuscript Illumination in Northern Europe The courtly style prevalent in various European centers around 1400 combined elegant, sinuous figures, decorative color, and selective realism in pictorial details such as animals, insects, or plants.
- The Printed Image: Engravings During the Renaissance, engraving moved from a minor craft to a major art form which used deeply engraved lines to create a vivid linear design on a white background.
- Patronage at the Later Valois Court As the French court expanded trade, Italian art gradually influenced their taste, especially Michelangelo and da Vinci.