. Over 100 illustrations. The Renaissance was a period of cultural growth that began in Italy around 1400 and spread throughout northern Europe over the course of two hundred years. Rejecting the values and stylized conventions of medieval Gothic and Byzantine forms, highly energetic and creative artists, using classical models along with decorative lines and colors, created artworks that reflected the importance of human will. They also rediscovered the necessity of observing the natural world to best express drama and emotion in human terms. Artists as diverse as Donatello and Titian, Bruegel and Durer, Correggio, Mantegna, and Van Eyck are represented in this volume along with the giants of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael.