After This Art Receded Because All Imitated Existing Paintings, And Thus It

After this art receded because all imitated existing paintings, and thus it went on from one century to the next until Tomaso the Florentine, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by perfect works how those who take for their guide anything other than nature mistress of the masters exhaust themselves in vain.

Nature, the mistress of the masters that da Vinci describes in his laconic history of art has inspired the concept of three-dimensional space that we often take for granted in more modern pieces. The Old Master Masaccio, whose perfect works da Vinci commends, represented figures, trees and hills in all of their volumetric fullness and carefully graded veils of depth. Through his work we see the conquest of space and volume where figures acquire a weight and bodily mass that is firmly grounded in the living universe and give the impression of breadth, dignity and power; Masaccio was truly an artist of the Renaissance, a word in itself that is notably French for rebirth.
The culturally and historically significant period of the Renaissance is ingrained with the awakening of body and mind, the Cartesian dualisms of Descartes, and man's awakening to a sense of his own power that had lain dormant and tattered by the mediaeval church. The importance of art from this era was recognised by the prestigious auctioneers at Sotheby's in a special theme sale, 'Art of the Renaissance,' back in January 2001. The sale of 91 lots featured paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture from that reflect the diversity of the era, by Old Masters including Botticelli, Dürer, Giambologna and Veronese, fetching bids into multiples of hundred-thousand dollars:
The Renaissance, more than just the 'rebirth' of ancient art and ideas, was the dawn of the modern era. Art that finds inspiration from man and his achievements is a thoroughly modern concept that rings as true today as it did in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But, although the Renaissance is considered the benchmark of the modern era, it was a period of almost dizzying change and cultural activity.

This period of dizzying change and cultural activity catalysed pictorial innovation where technical advances meant that oil-based, as opposed to egg-based, tempura came into use at the end of the Fifteenth century in Italy and enabled artists to blend and shade more nuances in their palette and on canvas. This technique was favoured by Sandro Botticelli, whose famous 'Madonna and Child' canvas demonstrates careful modelling of his figures through delicate shades of light and shadow. The painting was featured at Sotheby's 'Art of the Renaissance' auction with an estimate between $700,000 and $900,000.