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Art from Baroque Period through the Postmodern Era

Renaissance art history began as civic history; it was an expression of civic pride. The first such history was Filippo Villani's De origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus, written about 1381-82. Florentine artists revived an art that was almost dead, Villani asserts, just as Dante had restored poetry after its decline in the Middle Ages. The revival was begun by Cimabue and completed by Giotto, who equalled the ancient painters in fame and even surpassed them in skill and talent. After Giotto came his followers, Stefano, Taddeo Gaddi, and Maso, uomini illustri all, who, together with notable jurists, poets, musicians, theologians, physicians, orators, and others, made Florence the preeminent city of Italy.
Cino Rinuccini, following Villani, published an honor-roll of Florence's famous men, among them, artists. And Cristoforo Landino wrote in the same vein in a better known work that appeared in 1481; the......

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Approximate Word Count: 1462
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)