Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-204) and index.

Introduction -- Communes and city-states -- Localism -- The extended family -- The Church -- Living conditions and housing -- The Quattrocento world-view -- Potency of images -- The artist in society -- The social world of the artist -- Type of shop -- Apprenticeship -- Objects decorated as well as paintings and frescoes -- No separation of craft from art -- Range of objects carved -- Comparatively large number of painters -- Art not a luxury -- Painter families -- Succession of son from father -- Guilds and confraternities -- Written records of artists -- Changing self-concept of the artist -- Artistic training -- Learning by imitation -- Role of originality -- High standard of craftsmanship -- Apprentices not always drawn from the already gifted -- Belief that art could be taught -- Renaissance art: its function, location, and patronage -- Original religious, ritualistic, supernatural function of art -- Often closely tied to death -- Iconic and miraculous nature slowly changing -- Rise of the private collector in the early 16th century -- Private chapel decorations -- Decorations in other parts of the church -- Refectories -- Town halls -- Painted furniture and cassoni in homes -- Artistic patronage and commissioning, often to expiate sin of usury -- Committee system of patronage -- The artistic legal contract -- The materials of Renaissance art -- Importance of materials -- Tempera painting on panels -- Preparing the panel -- Underdrawing -- Drawings on paper -- Gilding -- Colors -- Effect of tempera on style -- Effect of varnish and overcleaning on tempera -- Museum lighting versus candlelight -- Impact of oil paint and canvas -- Priming other than white, half-tones and subtle transitions of color possible -- Fluency and modeling -- Collaborative nature of fresco suited to Renaissance workshop practice -- Sinopia -- Drawings on paper post-1450 -- Intonaco and plaster patches -- Fresco secco -- Drawings in ink, charcoal, chalk and silverpoint -- Rapid evolution of drawing -- Illumination -- Arrival of the woodcut -- Niello and engraving -- Raw materials and tools of sculpture -- Painted sculpture -- Clay or wax models -- Relief, rilievo schiacciato -- Bronze -- Lost-wax process -- Terracotta -- Firing and glazes -- Woodcarving -- The types of Renaissance art -- Altarpieces -- Diptychs -- Triptychs -- Polyptychs -- Predellas -- Pinnacle -- Paintings -- Iconographical conventions -- Polyptychs replaced by single-field altarpieces -- Painted crosses -- Standards -- Bierheads -- Ephemera -- Altar frontals -- Cassoni -- Painted trays -- Spalliere or painted panels -- Portraits, profiles and full face -- Ecclesiastical and lay frescos -- Patterns -- Martial events -- Ancient heroes -- Street tabernacles -- Equestrian figures -- Tombs -- Busts -- Collectors' bronzes -- Reliefs on pulpits -- Cantorie, doors, fonts, fountains -- Medals.

This book gives the necessary background for the study and appreciation of Italian painting and sculpture from about 1250 to 1550. It tells how the artists learned their craft, the organization of their workshops, and the guilds they belonged to; how their customers or patrons treated them and where their work was displayed--churches, civic buildings, or private homes. The book discusses how art was made--tempera, oil, panel, canvas, fresco; it surveys the characteristic types of Renaissance art--altarpieces, portraits, tombs, busts, doors fountains, medals, etc.