Botticelli, Holbein, Lenardo, Durer, Michaelangelo -- who were these artists, why did they produce such memorable works, and how did the original beholders of Renaissance art view them? Using vivid examples, this book focuses on canonical and lesser-known artists and works from the Northern and Southern Renaissance

Whose Renaissance? whose art? -- The art of the altarpiece -- Storytelling in Renaissance art -- The challenge of nature and the antique -- Portraiture and the rise of "Renaissance man" -- Did women have a Renaissance? -- Objects and images for the domestic sphere -- The story of a square : art and urbanism in Florence -- Michelangelo : the birth of the artist and of art history