Chapter 17: High Renaissance and Northern Renaissance

Classical Antiquity and Foundations of Classical Form

• Polykleitos established the foundational aesthetic standards of Classical Greek statuary with the Doryphoros (also known as the Spear-Bearer), originally cast in bronze circa $440\,\text{BCE}$ and preserved through Roman marble copies.
• The sculpture exemplifies the Classical canon of proportions and contrapposto, a weight-shift stance that animates the human form and establishes a dynamic equilibrium between tension and relaxation.
• The anatomical naturalism, mathematical harmony, and idealized human beauty developed in this era became the defining aesthetic benchmarks recovered during the Italian Renaissance.

Early Christian and Byzantine Architectural and Artistic Traditions

• Early Christianity spanned from the $1\text{st}$ century through the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
• Emperor Constantine assumed rule over the Western Roman Empire in $306\,\text{CE}$, subsequently legalizing Christian worship across the empire in $313\,\text{CE}$ through the promulgation of the Edict of Milan.
• In $330\,\text{CE}$, Constantine relocated the imperial capital from Rome eastward to the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople, which initiated the Byzantine cultural and artistic era.
• Architectural typologies established during this transitional epoch include:
  • Old St. Peter's Basilica, which utilized a longitudinal Latin Cross Plan characterized by a wide central nave, flanking side aisles, a semicircular terminating apse, and an elevated clerestory providing natural illumination.
  • The Central Plan, an architectural configuration organized radially around a primary focal center rather than along an extended longitudinal axis.
• Byzantine architectural and mosaic innovations include:
  • The