THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: GALLERIA 627: North Italian Gothic Painting.

Speranza

The centers of North Italian painting were Milan, Venice, Bologna, and Ferrara. Venice aside, the art of each of these schools was an art of the courts, with a premium placed on rich surface treatment, naturalistic details, and elegance. The defining mediums were goldsmith's work and illuminated manuscripts, from which paintings often borrowed their aesthetic. A self-conscious style modeled on the prevailing intricacy of literary description was highly valued. Only gradually over the course of the fifteenth century did the Renaissance sensibility forged in Florence, with its emphasis on the imitation of classical art, gain the upper hand.