Summary In keeping with the spirit of humanism, artists of the early Renaissance strove to portray lifelike human forms with correct proportions and realistic clothing and expressions. Artists developed new techniques to give paintings a more three-dimensional, life-like quality, and commonly studied human and animal anatomy in efforts to better understand their subjects. The first important painter of the Renaissance was Giotto di Bondone. Giotto painted during the turn of the fourteenth century, breaking away from the Gothic and Byzantine artistic traditions. He deeply studied nature in an effort to infuse his paintings with reality, an effort most notable in his especially realistic facial expressions. In 1334, Giotto was appointed chief architect in Florence, where he remained until...