High Renaissance Paintings

High Renaissance painting flourished in early sixteenth-century Italy, uniting the study of the human figure with convincing space and balanced composition. Leonardo's Last Supper and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling depict Christian sacred history, while Raphael's School of Athens places classical philosophers in a papal setting. In Venice, Titian emphasized color, light, and the handling of paint. Church, court, and private patronage shaped both the subjects and settings of these works.