Louvre Masterclass VII : Painting in Central Italy: Florence, Perugia and Rome

This seventh Louvre Masterclass explores the development of Renaissance painting in Central Italy through works by Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Solario and their contemporaries.

The session will highlight the essential roles of Florence, Perugia and Rome in shaping a new pictorial language based on drawing, perspective, harmonious proportions, clarity of composition and a new conception of the human figure.

Through close study of individual works, participants will trace developments from the late fifteenth century to the early decades of the sixteenth, from the Florentine tradition of disegno to the monumental balance and classical ideals of the High Renaissance.

Ghirlandaio’s paintings will introduce Florentine traditions of narrative, portraiture and observation from life, alongside the gradual integration of perspectival space and references to classical Antiquity.

With Perugino, the masterclass will examine a pictorial language characterised by serenity, symmetry, spatial depth and clarity in the relationships between figures — qualities that profoundly influenced the next generation.

Raphael will occupy a central place in the session. His work brings together the Florentine inheritance, Umbrian delicacy and Roman monumentality. We will consider the balance, grace, harmony and idealisation that came to define the High Renaissance.

Works by Andrea del Sarto and other early sixteenth-century artists will reveal developments within this tradition, between continued allegiance to classical models and emerging formal tensions that anticipate Mannerism.

Particular attention will be paid to disegno, perspective, pyramidal composition, the idealisation of the body, emotional expression and relationships between figure and space, as well as the importance of princely, religious and papal patronage.

The masterclass will also place the paintings within a wider network of artistic exchange, exploring the movement of artists and models, rivalries between artistic centres and the transfer of ideas between Florence, Umbria and Rome.

Combining visual analysis and discussion, the session will offer practical ways to present the Italian Renaissance to different audiences, explain distinctions between regional centres and construct a coherent narrative leading from local traditions to the classical ideals of the High Renaissance.