<P> In sculpture, Donatello's (1386--1466) study of classical sculpture led to his development of classicizing positions (such as the contrapposto pose) and subject matter (like the unsupported nude--his second sculpture of David was the first free - standing bronze nude created in Europe since the Roman Empire .) The progress made by Donatello was influential on all who followed; perhaps the greatest of whom is Michelangelo, whose David of 1500 is also a male nude study; more naturalistic than Donatello's and with greater emotional intensity . Both sculptures are standing in contrapposto, their weight shifted to one leg . </P> <P> The period known as the High Renaissance represents the culmination of the goals of the earlier period, namely the accurate representation of figures in space rendered with credible motion and in an appropriately decorous style . The most famous painters from this phase are Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo . Their images are among the most widely known works of art in the world . Leonardo's Last Supper, Raphael's The School of Athens and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling are the masterpieces of the period . </P> <P> High Renaissance painting evolved into Mannerism, especially in Florence . Mannerist artists, who consciously rebelled against the principles of High Renaissance, tend to represent elongated figures in illogical spaces . Modern scholarship has recognized the capacity of Mannerist art to convey strong (often religious) emotion where the High Renaissance failed to do so . Some of the main artists of this period are Pontormo, Bronzino, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino and Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano . </P> <P> In Florence, the Renaissance style was introduced with a revolutionary but incomplete monument in Rimini by Leone Battista Alberti . Some of the earliest buildings showing Renaissance characteristics are Filippo Brunelleschi's church of San Lorenzo and the Pazzi Chapel . The interior of Santo Spirito expresses a new sense of light, clarity and spaciousness, which is typical of the early Italian Renaissance . Its architecture reflects the philosophy of Humanism, the enlightenment and clarity of mind as opposed to the darkness and spirituality of the Middle Ages . The revival of classical antiquity can best be illustrated by the Palazzo Rucellai . Here the pilasters follow the superposition of classical orders, with Doric capitals on the ground floor, Ionic capitals on the piano nobile and Corinthian capitals on the uppermost floor . </P>

What was one of the primary differences between the italian and northern renaissance