newgeneration of artists that included such masters as Pollaiuolo and Sandro Botticelli cameto the fore in Florence. Other Italian cities--Milan, Urbino, Ferrara, Venice, Padua,Naples--became powerful rivals in the spreading wave of change. Leon Battista Albertis Kirkwood 3work in Rimini and Mantua represented the most progressive architecture of the newhumanism; Andrea Mantegnas paintings in Padua displayed a personal formulation oflinear perspective, antiquarianism, and realistic technique; and Giovanni Bellinis poeticclassicism exemplified the growing strength of the Venetian school.By the late 15th century the novelty of the first explosive advances of Renaissancestyle had given way to a general acceptance of such basic notions as proportion,contraposto (twisted pose), and linear perspective; consequently many artists soughtmeans of personal expression within this relatively well-established repertoire of style andtechnique. The Early Renaissance was not, as was once maintained, merely an imperfectbut necessary preparation for the perfection of High Renaissance art but a period of greatintrinsic merit. In retrospect, however, Early Renaissance painting seems to fall short ofthoroughly convincing figural representation, and its expression of human emotion isstylized rather than real. Furthermore, the strength of individual features of a work of artis disproportionate to the whole composition.The art of the High Renaissance, however, sought a general, unified effect ofpictorial representation or architectural composition, increasing the dramatic force andphysical presence of a work of art and gathering its energies and forming a controlledequilibrium. Because the essential characteristic of High Renaissance art was its unity--abalance achieved as a matter of intuition, beyond the reach of rational know...
