Scott Nethersole Books

In this vivid account Scott Nethersole examines the remarkable period of cultural, artistic, and intellectual blossoming in Florence from 1400 to 1520—the period traditionally known as the Early and High Renaissance. He looks at the city and its art with fresh eyes, presenting the well-known within a wider context of cultural reference. Key works of art—from painting, sculpture, and architecture to illuminated manuscripts—by artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello, Botticelli, and Brunelleschi are showcased alongside the unexpected and less familiar.

Museum visitors today usually see pre-16th-century Italian painted altarpieces exhibited alone, as single paintings. This catalogue shows that these works were once part of decorative, integrated schemes, and the original experience for viewers of the paintings was significantly different from our own.