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1420
Florence Cathedral's dome, by Brunelleschi
The dome is an absolute masterpiece of art, enchanting the world since the moment of its creation: the symbol of Florence, of Renaissance culture, and of all Western humanism. The dome was built by Filippo Brunelleschi, and is still the largest masonry vault in the world. Such a structure had been planned since the 1300s, but the admirable innovation of Brunelleschi was to create it without reinforcements in wood, since none could have sustained a cupola of this size. -
Period: 1450 to
Renaissance
The Renaissance, which means "rebirth" in French, typically refers to a period in European history from A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1600. Many historians, however, assert that it started earlier or ended later, depending on the country. It bridged the periods of the Middle Ages and modern history, and, depending on the country, overlaps with the Early Modern, Elizabethan and Restoration periods. The Renaissance is most closely associated with Italy, where it began in the 14th century. -
1498
Pietá, by Michelangelo Buonarroti
The Pietà is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, located in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. These are the artist's first works on the same subject. The statue was commissioned by the French cardinal Jean de Bilhères, representative in Rome. The sculpture, made of Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal's funerary monument, but it was moved to its current location, the first chapel of the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece that Michelangelo signed. -
1509
The school of Athens, by Raphael Sanzio
The most famous philosophers of antiquity move in imposing Renaissance architecture inspired by Bramante's project for the renovation of the early Christian Basilica of Saint Peter. Some of them are easily recognizable. In the center, Plato points upward with a finger and holds his book Timeus in his hand, flanked by Aristotle with the Ethics; Pythagoras appears in the foreground trying to explain the drawing on the wall. And Diogenes is lying on the stairs with a plate. -
Period: 1520 to 1521
The revolt of the Comuneros in Castilla
The revolt began with crowds of urban workers attacking government officials, growing into low-level fighting between small militias. The rebellious commoners gained control of most of central Castile fairly quickly and the royal army was in ruins by September 1520. But, the commoners alienated much of the landed nobility and the nobility's personal armies helped reinforce royalist forces. And the army of the commoners was destroyed in the battle of Villalar in April 1521. -
Period: 1568 to
The Eighty Years War
The Eighty Years' War offers insight into the military factors that influenced the creation of the Dutch Republic. In 1648, the Spanish Empire agreed to a peace treaty that ended decades of fighting and resulted in the division of Holland and the birth of the Republic. The conflict between the Dutch insurgents and their Spanish sovereign captured the imagination. In the end, the provincial states and the Calvinists won the game in the north and the Spanish rulers in the south. -
Period: 1568 to 1571
The rebellion of the Alpujarras
The Alpujarras rebellion was a conflict that occurred in Spain 1568/71 during the reign of Philip II.The abundant Moorish population of the Kingdom of Granada took up arms in protest against the Pragmatic Sanction of 1567, which limited their cultural freedoms. When the royal power managed to defeat the rebels, it was decided to deport the surviving Moors to various points in the rest of the Crown of Castile, whose Moorish population increased from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand people. -
The defeat of the Spanish Armada by England
In 1588, King Philip II of Spain sent an armada to collect his army from the Netherlands, where they were fighting to invade England. This was done in the name of religion, because England had become Protestant and did not accept the Pope as head of the Church; Spain was Catholic and the Pope had encouraged Philip to make England Catholic again. He had a reason to go to war with England because Spain ruled the Netherlands, but the people were rebelling against Spanish and English control. -
Period: to
Baroque art
Baroque art, the visual arts and building design and construction produced during the era in the history of Western art that roughly coincides with the 17th century. The earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain culminating achievements of Baroque did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex. -
Apollo and Daphne, by Bernini
Apollo and Daphne is a life-size marble sculpture by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, it was made between 1622/25. It is considered one of the artistic wonders of the Baroque era. The statue is in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, along with several other examples of the artist's most important early works. The sculpture represents the climax of the story of Apollo and Daphne, as written in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the nymph Daphne escapes Apollo's advances by transforming into a laurel tree. -
Saints Peter's square project by Bernini
St. Peter's Square was designed by the architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, at the request of Pope Alexander VII. It was completed in 1667, after eleven years. The square is formed by an “oval space with three centers” (196 x 149 meters), with semicircular columns joined to the basilica by “arms”, delimiting a large trapezoidal-shaped area, the long side of which is formed by the façade. The two hemicycles with columns open like a big hug to Rome and the world.Formed by 284 columns of 16 meters high. -
The Spinners, by Velazquez
Las Hilanderas by Diego Velazquez is a complex painting that depicts women working at the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Isabel in Madrid. The iconography of the painting suggests the Fable of Arachne, where Athena challenged Arachne to weave better than her, and being offended by her hubris, transformed her into a spider. Velazquez used chiaroscuro to create high contrast and an overall atmospheric perspective which adds depth to the painting. -
Period: to
Neoclassical art
Neoclassical art, a widespread movement in painting and other visual arts that began in the 1760s, reached its peak in the 1780s and 1790s, and lasted until the 1840s and 1850s. In painting, it generally took the form of an emphasis on austere linear design in the representation of classical themes, using archaeologically correct settings and costumes. Neoclassicism in the arts is an aesthetic attitude based on the art of ancient Greece and Rome, which invokes harmony, clarity and moderation. -
Oath of the Horatii, by Jacques-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii is a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David painted in 1784/85 on display in the Louvre in Paris. The painting immediately became a huge success with critics and the public and remains one of the best-known paintings in the Neoclassical style.
It depicts a scene from a Roman legend about a seventh-century BC dispute between two warring cities, Rome and Alba Longa, and stresses the importance of patriotism and masculine self-sacrifice for one's country. -
Carlos IV of Spain and his family, by Francisco de Goya
Charles IV of Spain and his Family is an oil-on-canvas group portrait painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. He began work on the painting in 1800, shortly after he became First Chamber Painter to the royal family.
The portrait features life-sized depictions of Charles IV of Spain and his family, dressed in fine costume and jewellery. Foremost in the painting are Charles IV and his wife Maria Luisa of Parma, who are surrounded by their children and relatives.