Art of Italy

Since ancient times, Greeks, Etruscans and Celts have inhabited the south, centre and north of the Italian peninsula respectively. The very numerous Rock Drawings in Valcamonica go back to 8,000 BC, and there are rich remains of Etruscan art from thousands of tombs, as well as rich remains from the Greek colonies at Paestum, Agrigento and elsewhere. Ancient Rome finally emerged as the dominant Italian and European power. The Roman remains in Italy are of extraordinary richness, from the grand Imperial monuments of Rome itself to the survival of exceptionally preserved ordinary buildings in Pompeii and neighbouring sites. Following the fall of the Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages Italy, especially the north, remained an important centre, not only of the Carolingian art and Ottonian art of the Holy Roman Emperors, but for the Byzantine art of Ravenna and other sites.

Italian painting began to develop beyond the influence of Byzantium in the Duecento or 13th century, with Cimabue, Duccio and Giotto, maintaining its lead throughout the Italian Renaissance, and reaching a particular peak in the High Renaissance of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, despite great political turbulence. Italy retained its artistic dominance into the 17th century with Mannerism and the Baroque, and cultural tourism became a major prop to an otherwise faltering economy. In the 18th century Neoclassicism originated in Rome, but this was the last such Italian-born style that spread to all Western art. However, Italy maintained a presence in the international art scene from the mid-19th century onwards, with movements such as the Macchiaioli, Futurism, Metaphysical, Novecento Italiano, Spatialism, Arte Povera, and Transavantgarde.

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