Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period from the early 15th to mid 16th centuries. The painters of Renaissance Italy were often attached to particular courts. None the less they wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating both artistic and philosophical ideas. Florence was the birthplace of Renaissance.

The High Renaissance period was that of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”, used as a design for countless stained glass windows, has come, in the 21st century, to provide the iconic image of two small cherubs which have been reproduced on everything from paper table napkins to umbrellas.