Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Italy has more World Heritage-listed sites than any other country in the world; many of its 47
listings are there in the guise of repositories of great art.
The Not-so-Dark Ages
The Italian Middle Ages have often been dismissed as a 'dark' age between the Roman
and Byzantine Empires and the Renaissance. However, to ignore this period would make
it difficult to understand all subsequent Italian history. This is because Italy as we know it
was born in the Middle Ages. The barbarian invasions of the 5th and 6th centuries began a
process that turned a unified empire into a land of small independent city-states, and it
was these states - or rather the merchants, princes, clergy, corporations and guilds who
lived within them - that started the craze in artistic patronage that was to underpin the
great innovations in art and architecture that would define the Renaissance.
Continuing the trend kick-started in the Byzantine period, ideas of clarity and simplicity
of religious message began to outweigh ideals of faithful representation during the medi-
eval period. This is why, at first glance, many pictures of the period look rather stiff.
Indeed, painting and sculpture of this period played second fiddle to its architecture,
commonly known as 'Romanesque'. Complementing this architectural style was the work
of the Cosmati, a Roman guild of mosaic and marble workers who specialised in assem-
bling fragments of coloured stones and glass mosaics and combining them with large
stone disks and strips of white marble to create stunning intricate pavements, columns and
church furnishings as seen in Rome's Chiesa di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Basilica di
Santa Maria Maggiore and Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.
Many Renaissance painters included self-portraits in their major works. Giotto didn't, possibly
due to the fact that friends such as Giovanni Boccaccio described him as the ugliest man in
Florence. With friends like those…
Gothic Refinement
The Gothic style was much slower to take off in Italy than it had been in the rest of
Europe. But it did, marking the transition from medieval restraint to the Renaissance, and
seeing artists once again drawing inspiration from life itself rather than solely religion.
Occurring at the same time as the development of court society and the rise of civic cul-
ture in the city-states, its art was both sophisticated and elegant, highlighting attention to
