Among the most important and widely painted images in Medieval art were depictions of the Madonna and Child. These paintings, depicting the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus, were meant to show the two holiest figures in Medieval Catholicism to the illiterate believers of the church in the middle ages.

Using newly found mathematical principles in their artwork, Renaissance artists were able to create perspective in Western painting for the first time. Vanishing-point perspective, which creates lines of sight that reflect the depth seen in reality, allowed for portraiture, religious subjects, and other works to be seen in new ways. Coupled with new scientific knowledge and an increasing use of dark colors and shadows, Renaissance art created new perceptions of artwork.

Perspective, the ability to place objects and figures in a 2D image that reflects 3D realities, was one of the driving forces of the artistic era known as the Renaissance. The era included painters like Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo, who developed modes of portraiture that revolutionized artistic depictions. With this innovation, most Western art can be divided between pre- and post-Renaissance styles.

Contrapposto has to do with the weight shift in a figure, crosshatching is used to create angles, and shading does not imply a contrast. Sfumato is about the transition from light to dark, not contrasting the two. Chiaroscuro is the only answer that works here because its definition is the treatment of light and shadow to show a contrast.

The Garden of Earthly Delights, painted between 1490 and 1510, is a highly idiosyncratic and complicated triptych of the Garden of Eden, earthly pleasures, and their subsequent punishment in a hell-like atmosphere. The religious overtones and multi-faceted story are features of most paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, who was an early Netherlandish painter during the Renaissance. Bosch's painting, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, was highly influential for its depiction of human forms, its allegorical tales, and its peculiar form of storytelling.

Hans Holbein the Younger made a name for himself by painting nearly every figure associated with the court of the English king Henry VIII. In doing so, he helped pioneer a new use of perspective in his portraits. Holbein's work helped push Renaissance art to new places simply through portraits.

Jan van Eyck was a transformative figure in European painting, as his approach to painting depended on realism and a naturalistic viewpoint. His Ghent Altarpiece, also called The Lamb of God, was a departure from Medieval standards that typically valued idealization and symbolism in religious imagery. Van Eyck, who lived from 1390 to 1441, had an outsized influence on the artistic transformations that occurred during the Renaissance.

Michelangelo (1475-1564) is often considered the prototypical "Renaissance man," along with Leonardo da Vinci, thanks to his key involvement in painting, sculpture, and design. Michelangelo was one of the earliest painters to use realistic imagery, forced perspective, and an enhanced use of color. His work was key in the development of Renaissance themes like a return to classical motifs, a sense of grandeur, and the use of scientific knowledge in the arts.

The Vitruvian Man was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, a contemporary rival of Michelangelo. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which included the famous Creation of Adam image. The Last Judgment is also in the Sistine Chapel, though it was painted almost 30 years after the ceiling. The Crucifixion of St. Peter was also one of Michelangelo's later works. Both Michelangelo and da Vinci were commissioned to design paintings for the city of Florence, thus Michelangelo drew the plan for the Battle of Cascina, though the final painting was never completed.

Diego Velazquez was an idiosyncratic painter who became the offical court painter for the Spanish king Philip IV. Velazquez's unique composition style, love of odd subjects, and expressive portrait style found its culmination in Las Meninas, a 1656 painting that shows the daughters of the King with their attendants and the painter in a large room with people coming and going. The painting was so remarkable that Pablo Picasso made a cubist version of it in the twentieth century.