Discover the history of Italian art with this summary of the most famous Italian painters and sculptors from a variety of periods, including the Renaissance.

They were particularly influential during the Renaissance periods which were initiated by some of the famous Italian artists that you will find below. This website attempts to cover all art movements in which Italian painters played an important role, but there is a particular focus on the Renaissance periods because of their importance to the development of art both within Italy as well as Europe as a whole.

The Italian Renaissance let to new ideas and techniques within art and many of the paintings and sculptures to have come from this era are still very much celebrated today by the many fans of Italian art who can be found right across the world. Indeed one of the major reasons for international tourists to visit Italy is to get see enjoy some of the original paintings which were created here many centuries ago. In some cases the paintings were produced within installations, ensuring that they would never leave the country and this situation has helped to preserve the country's artistic history and keep it all together. You can find famous French art and famous British art here.

Italian paintings are in some cases just one aspect of the careers of some impressively talented individuals such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo who also excelled in many other avenues such as invention, sculpture and literature. The painting that you see above was actually a Renaissance pencil sketch that Da Vinci entitled Female Head and that remains one of the most popular current Italian art works as a reproduction for those who wish to add copies of the originals to their own homes.

There is a combination within this website of famous Italian paintings from wellknown artists and also other lesser known scenes of the Italian countryside which are currently just as popular for those who perhaps want to remember a previous holiday in Tuscany or one of the many other picturesque Italian provinces which now make up the unified country. Many art fans are not concerned with specific artists and just want something to add to their wall which sums up the look that they're after, be it an Italian countryside scene or anything else.

Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is probably the most famous Italian painting of all time, at least alongside the Mona Lisa. It features the famous Christian scene of Jesus Christ just before his death and the painting has been parodied by many ever since it's inception during the rise of the Renaissance. Last Supper marks a key point in Italian art development where it was seen as the spearhead across Europe and the new ideas were to spread across to Spain, France, the Flemish regions including the Netherlands and Germany, plus the UK too.

Italian paintings are now amongst the most reproduced of all thanks to the success of artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Da Vinci paintings are also available here. International art fans generally choose framed art prints which best suit the traditional style of the original paintings, though posters and stretched canvases also also popular. There are links included within this website which take you through to the Art.com Italian paintings gallery where you can buy your own reproduction copies from a huge available collection of paintings covering all major artists and art movements.

Creation of Adam is an extraordinary fresco produced by Michelangelo which has achieved iconic status to the point where it can be considered one of the best known paintings of all time and was in fact greatily admired during the lifetime of it's artist, which is actally relatively rare when you look through other important works from the past 500 years. The Creation of Adam fresco is an impressive five metres wide and part of an overall work that remains within the Sistine Chapel in Italy.

Religion has always been a major part of Italian society and continues to be so today. At the time of the Renaissance much of the wealth within the country, which then was a group of provincial regions, was held by religious institutions who would hire key painters in their local area to adorn their buildings with impressive art. Such painters would have little choice, or desire, not to accept these commissions which would be amongst the highest paying as well as offering excellent opportunities within some impressive architecture. For this reason much of the art from this period are scenes from religious literature.

Birth of Venus by Botticelli is a charming painting that remains amongst the finest by Sandro Botticelli who is regarded as one of the best artists immediately after the masters of Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. His own style was slightly different, with mythological and symbolical items throughout most of his paintings. Birth of Venus is certainly one of the more detailed art works found in this website.

There have been many impressive Italian painters since the Renaissance era, such as portrait painter Amedeo Modigliani, but in the main the most significant painters came before the 17th century and each is listed further down the page, alongside major art museums and galleries which are well worth visiting. To a certain degree the attention on European art falls onto France, Netherlands and Germany after the Renaissance and Baroque periods and so we concentrate on Italian paintings up to that point in the main.

Mona Lisa was also termed the La Gioconda in it's original Italian title and has become the most hyped and talked about painting in history. The original can now be seen on display at the Louvre but most that see it are always surprised at how small it is. Artist Da Vinci Spent many years amending this work which became one of his great obsessions. You can also find Mona Lisa paintings here all ready to buy online at competitive prices, also from the Art.com Italian prints gallery which holds thousands of impressive paintings from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

Mona Lisa prints are popular choices, particularly for those who perhaps are not knowledgeable on art and only have a few choices from which to pick something for their own home. The Mona Lisa is certainly the most studied work of all time and a great amount of research has been carried out on the original art work as well as into the information surrounding the piece. There has always been a certain mystery around the Mona Lisa because of the unclear emotion that is on this portrait.

Tuscany paintings are another popular choice for people who admire landscape art and perhaps have a spent a memorable holiday within this Italian province which is particularly known for the beauty of it's countryside. Tuscany is famous for a certain type of tree which is common throughout it's landscape as well as the brightly coloured houses that are dotted around this relatively unspoilt landscape. There are also several key towns and cities here which boast an impressive amount of art work left over from the renaissance artists who contributed a lot within Tuscany.

Behold the man is a much respected painting by Antonio Ciseri and you can see it above alongside links to where it is ready to buy as a framed giclee art print, poster or stretched canvas. There are also many other Antonio Ciseri paintings available there as well in the Art.com Antonio Ciseri prints gallery. Behold the man is an important Christian subject which was covered not only by Ciseri but also Bosch and Caravaggio along with countless other lesser known artists.

School of Athens was created by Raphael who himself was ranked as the last great renaissance painter, before other ideas and techniques began to take over, such as with the Baroque art movement which came soon after. School of Athens is just one a number of impressive paintings from the career of Raphael who sadly died relatively young, though his reputation still remains considerable within the overall sphere of Italian art.

Flying Machine is shown above and was a invention by Da Vinci who created many other sketches within his life that were later to become real products used right across the world. It is likely that many of his inventions were considered impossible or works of fantasy when he first published them, but later technological advances have made many possible after all. Da Vinci also produced other smaller inventions besides the Flying Machine which became the aeroplane.

Female Head is included above and it's original Italian name was La Scapigliata, created in 1508 by Leonardo da Vinci who created many of the works found within this website. Da Vinci's Female Head is one of his impressive selection of pencil sketches which have recently received their very own exhibitions as a result of the huge amount of work that this artist produced throughout his career. Vitruvian Man is another well known sketch that is included within this website.

List of Famous Italian Paintings

Please see below for a summarised list of the best Italian paintings that are featured throughout this website.

• Birth of Venus
• Calling of St Matthew
• Creation of Adam
• Ecce Homo
• Female Head
• Flying Machine
• Giant Catapult
• Last Supper
• Mona Lisa
• Primavera
• School of Athens
• Vitruvian Man

List of Famous Italian Artists

Please see below for a summarised list of the best Italian paintings that are featured throughout this website.

• Francesco Albani
• Mariotto Albertinelli
• Fra Angelico
• Pietro Annigoni
• Antonello da Messina
• Fra Bartolomeo
• Gentile Bellini
• Giovanni Bellini
• Jacopo Bellini
• Gianlorenzo Bernini
• Andrea di Bertholotti
• Sandro Botticelli
• Agnolo Bronzino
• Nicolao Branceleon
• Canaletto
• Elio Carletti
• Annibale Carracci
• Ludovico Carracci
• Caravaggio
• Carpaccio
• Cimabue
• Leonardo Coccorante
• Correggio
• Giorgio de Chirico
• Domenichino
• Donatello
• Enrico Donati
• Dosso Dossi
• Duccio
• Gentile da Fabriano
• Rosso Fiorentino
• Andrea da Firenze
• Piero della Francesca
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Domenico Ghirlandaio
• Giampietrino
• Giorgione
• Giotto
• Giuseppe Grisoni
• Francesco Guardi
• Achille Leonardi
• Filippino Lippi
• Fra Filippo Lippi
• Ambrogio Lorenzetti
• Luigi Malice
• Andrea Mantegna
• Simone Martini
• Masaccio
• Michelangelo
• Amedeo Modigliani
• Lelio Orsi
• Eleuterio Pagliano
• Giovanni Paolo Panini
• Parmigianino
• Ferdinando Partini
• Perugino
• Pietro Pezzati
• Baldassare Peruzzi
• Pinturicchio
• Sebastiano del Piombo
• Pisanello
• Antonio Pollaiuolo
• Pontormo
• Raphael
• Tommaso Redi
• Guido Reni
• Salvator Rosa
• Andrea del Sarto
• Gherardo Stamina
• Bartolomeo Suardi
• Tiepolo
• Tintoretto
• Titian
• Cosimo Tura
• Giorgio Vasari
• Paolo Uccello
• Raffaello Di Vecchio
• Domenico Veneziano
• Paolo Veronese
• Andrea del Verrocchio
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Daniele da Volterra

List of Famous Italian Art Galleries & Museums

Please see below for a summarised list of the best Italian paintings that are featured throughout this website.

• Uffizi
• Pitti Palace
• Galleria dell'Accademia
• Bargello
• Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze
• Vatican Museums
• Capitoline Museums
• Doria Pamphilj Gallery
• Pinacoteca di Brera
• Bagatti Valsecchi Museum
• Museum of Capodimonte
• Accademia
• Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia
• Ca d'Oro
• Palazzo del Te

Famous Italian Provinces

For those looking for famous Italian landscape paintings, the provinces below are suitable locations for many of them.

• Abruzzo
• Apulia (Puglia)
• Basilicata
• Calabria
• Campania
• Emilia-Romagna
• Friuli-Venezia Giulia
• Lazio
• Liguria
• Lombardy (Lombardia)
• Marches
• Molise
• Piedmont (Piemonte)
• Sardinia (Sardegna)
• Sicily (Sicilia)
• Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
• Tuscany (Toscana)
• Umbrian
• Veneto

Famous Italian Cities

Italian cityscapes can be just as impressive as the many famous Italian countryside paintings, and the biggest Italian cities are listed below.

• Rome
• Milan
• Naples
• Turin
• Palermo
• Genoa
• Bologna
• Florence
• Bari
• Catania
• Venice
• Verona
• Messina
• Padua
• Trieste
• Brescia
• Taranto
• Prato
• Reggio Calabria
• Parma
• Modena
• Reggio Emilia
• Perugia
• Livorno
• Ravenna
• Cagliari
• Foggia
• Rimini
• Salerno
• Ferrara
• Sassari
• Syracuse
• Pescara
• Monza
• Latina
• Bergamo
• Forli
• Giugliano in Campania
• Trento
• Vicenza
• Terni
• Novara
• Bolzano
• Piacenza
• Ancona
• Arezzo
• Andria
• Udine
• Cesena
• Lecce
• La Spezia
• Pesaro
• Alessandria
• Barletta
• Catanzaro