Renaissance Paintings
The greatest Renaissance paintings, gathered. From Giotto's Arena Chapel to Caravaggio's late candlelit revolutions.
A Renaissance painting is a thinking object. It is the result of an extraordinary fusion: a classical ideal of the human figure, a mathematical organisation of pictorial space, a technical mastery of new pigments and supports, and the theological, mythological, or civic ambitions of the culture that commissioned it. The greatest Renaissance paintings are not only beautiful; they are arguments about what painting is for, what an image owes to its viewer, and what it means to see the world.
The index below is organised by period and chronology. Each painting links to a full deep-dive: the commission, the composition, the iconography, the technique, the painting's afterlife in art history, and its current home. The Atlas does not rank Renaissance paintings, but it does identify the works that have most shaped the tradition.
The Annunciation
Fra Angelico, c. 1438–1445
Early Renaissance
The Holy Trinity
Masaccio, 1427
Early Renaissance
The Battle of San Romano
Paolo Uccello, c. 1438–1440
Early Renaissance
The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485
Early Renaissance
Primavera
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1480
Early Renaissance
Adoration of the Magi
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1475
Early Renaissance
The Baptism of Christ
Piero della Francesca, c. 1448–1450
Early Renaissance
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1519
High Renaissance
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, 1495–1498
High Renaissance
Virgin of the Rocks
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1483–1486
High Renaissance
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Michelangelo, 1508–1512
High RenaissanceThe Creation of Adam
Michelangelo, c. 1512
High Renaissance
The Last Judgment
Michelangelo, 1536–1541
High Renaissance
The School of Athens
Raphael, 1509–1511
High Renaissance
Sistine Madonna
Raphael, 1512
High Renaissance
Assumption of the Virgin
Titian, 1516–1518
High Renaissance
Venus of Urbino
Titian, 1538
High Renaissance
Madonna with the Long Neck
Parmigianino, 1534–1540
Late Renaissance
The Last Supper
Tintoretto, 1592–1594
Late Renaissance
The Burial of the Count of Orgaz
El Greco, 1586
Late Renaissance
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Caravaggio, 1599–1600
Late Renaissance
Judith Beheading Holofernes
Caravaggio, 1598–1599
Late Renaissance
The Arnolfini Portrait
Jan van Eyck, 1434
Northern Renaissance
The Ghent Altarpiece
Jan and Hubert van Eyck, 1432
Northern Renaissance
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1490–1510
Northern Renaissance
Melencolia I
Albrecht Dürer, 1514
Northern Renaissance
Self-Portrait at the Age of Twenty-Eight
Albrecht Dürer, 1500
Northern Renaissance
The Ambassadors
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533
Northern Renaissance
Hunters in the Snow
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565
Northern Renaissance