stly with the design of castles, such as the home of the prevailing Italian Medici family, perhaps the richest family in Europe. Architectural focus had changed from the cathedral in the Medieval era to other, more classical and secular subjects, such as castles and homes of significant rulers. The style, subjects, and overall attitude of painting was something that underwent very significant changes during the progression from Medieval times to the Renaissance. Generally, paintings became more secular, and less focused on aspects of the church, as the Renaissance approached. Medieval paintings seem to be focused almost entirely on religion and are given heavenly attributes, while paintings of the Renaissance consist mainly of secular subjects and contain much more realism, especially noted in human subjects. In Giotto's Madonna With Child, a Medieval painting, any observer will obviously notice that the child and woman are very awkwardly proportioned, indicating the lack of realism. However, in the Mona Lisa, by DaVinci, and The Marriage of the Virgin, by Raphael, both paintings of the Renaissance, it is evident the amount of realism that the artists were attempting to portray. Both of these paintings are extremely realistic, seemingly three-dimensional, very well-proportioned, and involve large amounts of shading to accentuate the realism. When considering the subjects of Medieval painting, the majority of them were religious oriented or somehow involved the church, whereas religion or the church was seldom involved in Renaissance paintings. Rather, paintings of the Renaissance involved mostly secular subjects, as seen again in DaVinci's Mona Lisa and also Raphael's The School of Athens. In the case of the Mona Lisa, the subject is a typical woman with a very sublime smile, but with no apparent religious association whatsoever. The same applies to The School of Athens; it is a painting of a group of philosophers...
