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Note: The painting on the left was done in the late 1200s by the Italian artist Duccio di Buoninsegna. During the Middle Ages, most paintings had religious subject matter. the painting on the right, the Mona Lisa, was made by the Renaissance artist and scholar Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500s.
Images: Madonna Enthroned Between Two Angels by Duccio di Buoninsegna (left); Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (right).
The [clearest] evidence of the break with medieval culture comes from the visual arts. [It] was the essence of the Renaissance.... One begins to know the names of the artists... feel stronger emotions in the subjects... see well-defined landscapes, natural folds in drapery, and three-dimensional figures; and one begins to notice the emphasis on symbolic representation giving way to depictions of recognizable scenes... the new artistic styles would echo the broader movements and interests of the new age.... Neither the techniques nor the forms of artistic expression were to be the same again.
Text: Theodore Rabb, The Last days of the Renaissance & The March to Modernity, Basic Books, 2006
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