In the middle of the fourteenth century a cultural transformation took place,
a transformation that was initiated in Italy and was called Rinascimento there, and
was subsequently known as Renaissance in France. It separated the Middle Ages
from the Modern Age and was accompanied by Humanism and the Reformation. This
development was a return to the classical arts of Greek and Roman Antiquity. It led to
intensive studies of the long forgotten poets, to an enthusiasm for sculpture and for the
numerous remains of architecture, even if they only existed as ruins.
Equally important for this development was the development of technology and
sciences, which began in today’s Scandinavia, as well as the Netherlands and later
in Germany.



In Italy, it was initially architecture which fell back on classical ideals and, a little
later, it was sculpture which sought a closer bond with nature. When the architect and
sculptor, Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 to 1466), went to Rome to excavate, study and
measure the remains of antique buildings, he was accompanied by the goldsmith and
sculptor Donatello (around 1386 to 1466). The sculptures found during that time
and during later excavations fired the enthusiasm of the sculptors, which, at the end
of the fifteenth century was powerful enough to lead Michelangelo to bury one of
his pieces of work in the ground, so that shortly afterwards it could be dug up as being
“genuinely antique”.