Key features

Humanism
Linear perspective 
Exploration
Naturalism
Sculpture and architecture 

Key points

Proportion- window into space developed by the linear perspective to give realistic presentation of art.

Foreshorting - shorting of lines to create an illusion of depth

Sfumato- blurring or softening edges or sharp outlines to create depth

Chiaroscuro- modelling effect to create a strong contrast between light and dark to give an illusion of depth. 

When she finally emerged from her downward spiral, Emin gazed upon what her drunkenness and depression had wrought. The bed spoke volumes. The rumpled and stained sheets were a testimony not to a good night’s sleep, but to despair. Next to the bed, piles of junk from her daily life. Empty bottles of vodka. A pair of dirty slippers. Cartons of cigarettes and other trash. A pair of panties soiled with menstrual blood. A container of birth control pills. Condoms.

A normal person would have wrapped all the trash up in the dirty sheets and thrown the whole lot in the rubbish bin (as they call it in Waterloo). But Tracey Emin was not then, and is not now, a normal person. As she recovered from her depressive bender, Emin had an interesting and unexpected thought: “This is art. I’ve created a work of art.”

There is speculation about the device known as a camera obscurer and whether it is believed to be actually used at that time. The idea was that Vermeer would have been on the second floor facing the river Schieing and used the camera obscurer to project into his room through a small lens sized hole. 

The idea of Vermeer using a simple booth-type camera obscurer in which he would project optical images onto the back wall of his room, is supported by the fact that his canvases are the same size as the images. It is speculated that he has traced them. 

Vermeer's case is interesting because his friend was a lens maker and his artwork is exceptionally precise. This builds a strong case that he did use it as a visual aid. However, at the time of his death, he is not recorded as having owned a camera obscurer.

His precise and accurate proportions could have been explained by using string to generate straight lines from a vanishing point and which would then allow him to

 be able to mark where those points would be.

Italy! Already at the beginning of the 16th century Italy held a magnetic appeal for northern European artists. The art of antiquity was their inspiration, so what better place to study it?

A century later, in the early 17th century, Dutch painters were drawn to Rome for a different reason. They were captivated by its picturesque street life and the sun-drenched landscape.

Their classically trained colleagues looked down on them because they did not paint gods and saints, merely ordinary people engaged in everyday activities. In 1623 these Dutch artists founded a kind of artists fraternity called the Bentvueghels (birds of a feather). This society, intended as a social network for the migratory birds' travelling to and from the north, often rebelled against Rome's artistic establishment.

The paintings that the Bentveughels made on their return to the Netherlands presented Italy as a land where life was blissfully simple, bathed in warm and sunny light. Their work influenced other artists for a long time to come.  - Rijksmuseum 

oil on canvas, h 44cm × w 38.5cm More details

Vermeer chose an unusual vantage point for this painting. From a dim space in the foreground, a glimpse is afforded of another room with a domestic scene. An elegantly dressed woman looks up expectantly at a maidservant, who has just handed her a letter. The seascape on the wall behind them may well allude to the epistle’s subject: during the 17th century, the sea was often compared to love, and the lover to ship.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

oil on cardooard. 1887

Vincent moved to Paris in 1886, after hearing from his brother Theo about the new, coleurful style of French painting Wasting no time, he tried it out in several self-portraits. He did this mostly to avoid having to pay for a model. Using rhythmic brushstrokes in striking colours, he portrayed himself here as a fashionably dressed Parisian.

all on canvas, c. 1661-1663

When I saw this painting I was shocked!! I admire the detail in the painting how intricate everything is but also the controversial beheading is crazy!
This picture was painted for the headquarters of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. it represents a story from Roman times in which a consul condemns his son to be beheaded for ignoring a command. The Admiralty intended this image to proclaim that insubordination would be severely punished, It also reminded officers that they must always remain impartial.