During the 칊rst three decades of the sixteenth century in Italy, referred to historically as the High Renaissance, the practice of observing and imitating the natural world expanded to include the emulation and idealization of the artist's experience of nature. Painters increasingly looked to the devices of poetry for inspiration in creating an expressive pictorial language.

These strictly pictorial skills were complemented by the growing sophistication of artists in animating 칊gures through the use of gesture and expression. Artists appreciated their ultrasmooth surfaces and their ability to be fashioned into circular formats. Copper, slate, and marble were also adopted as supports. By the sixteenth century, some artists exploited the weave of coarse canvases to accentuate the re치媅ection of light and the appearance of brushwork, as did painters in Venice (/topic/Venice.aspx). Canvas, however, was growing in favor as it was easier to size and prepare for painting. Painting on wood panel continued to be popular, especially in northern Europe (/topic/Europe.aspx). The oil medium allowed the painter to apply pigment in a nuanced and 치媅uid manner, with the added advantage that the transparency of the oil allowed for layering of color to describe light and shadow. In terms of technique, these illusionistic achievements were aided by the growing use of oil over tempera. Painters experimented with perspective-the technique of depicting forms and their spatial relationships on a 치媅at surface to create the illusion that the viewer is looking through a window-and brought it to ever greater levels of perfection.

Mathematical principles were applied to establish a canon of proportions, aided immeasurably by the study of antique, classical sculpture. Through observation and imitation, artists strove to construct a lucid depiction of their world. Renaissance (/topic/Renaissance.aspx) artists broke decisively from their medieval predecessors by looking to nature as their guide in the art of painting.

Fragonard by Satish Padiyar