Painting. Medieval art focused more on the "next" world than on "this" world, and therefore the depiction of the human form and pictorial space was more symbolic than realistic or natural. In the many frescoes of the Last Judgment and paintings of the Madonna and Child, figures are crowded into every available space, and seem not to be attached solidly to the ground. The subjects are almost exclusively religious, the technique often allegorical, and the interest is in transcendent values, the spiritual world, rather than humanistic values of earthly existence (except for the highly symbolic virtues and vices). Space and time in medieval art are essentially "divine" and "spiritual" not the space and time occupied by earthly humans. Also, medieval pictorial art, like the literature of the period, is primarily narrative rather than dramatic; what is visualized is often a story from the Bible with figures from different times in the story occupying the same visual space. Paintings that feature the new style of the Renaissance, on the other hand, are 1) more dramatic, concentrating on one moment in "human" time; 2) the figures occupy recognizable space (created by single point perspective) in which dramatic action can occur; 3) the figures themselves have volume and weight, and express psychological states; 4) there is a clarity of line and a symmetry of arrangement of figures in space (often geometrically arranged on a pyramid model); and 5) the subjects can be religious with "classical" treatment or purely secular. The Allegory of Good Government (1337) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Pallazo Pubblico of Siena is something of a transitional piece. It is medieval allegory, but the subject is secular (good government), the figures are drawn from the streets of Siena and portray scenes from daily life, and the buildings display a concern with getting the perspective right. In his depiction of the effect of Good Government on country life, Lorenzetti paints a lively rural world with peasants working in orchards, on farms, and in vineyards.

Giotto (c. 1300) broke with the medieval past to the extent that he worked on a monumental scale, painted figures that displayed a wide range of emotions, focused on dramatic moments in the lives of St. Francis or Christ, and rendered his figures with a solidity and roundness absent from his predecessors. In his treatment of space, however, Giotto remained pre-Renaissance. He never established a mathematical perspective in his depiction of pictorial space, emphasizing rather the "other-worldly" nature of his figures. Instead, he arranges his figures in linear patterns that draw the eye to the most important area in the painting, as he does in the "lamentation" fresco in the Arena Chapel (1305- 1306. Note how the diagonal line from the top right follows the hill down to Christ’s head. The figures to the left balance the composition and direct the eye back to the right, again to the head of Christ.

Sculpture was never an especially noteworthy form of medieval artistic expression, primarilybecause of the Biblical prohibition against "graven images." Figures of patriarchs, apostles, virtues and vices, and the like, decorate the exteriors of churches, and Crucifixes were common. There were also wood carvings and sculpted scenes from the Bible appearing on altars, choir screens, and pulpits. But there were no "free-standing" sculptures of the human form. Certainly no nudes in the classical tradition. The Adoration of the Magi (1260) to the left is by Nicola Pisano and appears on the pulpit in the Baptistery in Pisa. The figure to the right is by Pisano’s son, Giovanni, and it appears on the pulpit in the Cathedral at Pisa.

                    Architecture. The northern style of Gothic architecture never crossed the Alps into Italy. Italian architecture in the late middle ages retained elements of the "Romanesque" style (harkening back to the classical Roman style of barrel vaults, rounded arches, and fortress appearance) and the Byzantine style that appeared after the Empire was divided into East and West. Italian churches, unlike their northern counterparts, used no buttresses, there walsl were solid (for support) and not pierced with large windows. The most "gothic" of Italian public buildings is the Doge’s Palace in Venice, and the most "byzantine" church is the basilica of St. Mark’s right next door. Most of the Romanesque churches in towns like Florence and Siena were replaced by the more ambitious and classically inspired buildings we have today under the influence of the energy and confidence that accompanied the Renaissance. This is true also of the civic buildings like the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena (left, 1288-1326) and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (right, begun 1298), both sturdy town halls that reflect the civic pride and confidence that characterized these cities at the dawn of the Renaissance.