What is the Renaissance?

Like the subtitle of this blog, "Renaissance" means "re-birth" and the Italian Renaissance (1400-1600) marked a renewed interest in the classical values of ancient Rome and Greece. It marked a return from flat stylized works of the Middle Ages (and still maintained by the Orthodox) to a naturalism. Important artists of this period included Botticelli, da Vinci. Michelangelo and Raphael.