Painting of Venus by Botticelli

Renaissance

Salt cellar with Neptune and Tellus by Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto CelliniHow the 'bad boy' sculptor gives us a fresh perspective on the Renaissance

'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings: a guide to 8 famous works

Da Vinci's sketch 'The Vitruvian Man'. Da Vinci's talents ranged from anatomy to military engineering, and many of his innovations were not explored further for several centuries. (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Your guide to Leonardo da Vinci: his life, inventions and milestones in his career

Michelangelo was a Renaissance sculptor, painter and visionary. This 17th-centruy portrait was completely shortly after his death

Your guide to Renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo

Cellini: the “supreme scoundrel of the Renaissance”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Formidable dynasties of the Italian Renaissance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Renaissance: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

ever before,” says Margaret MacMillan. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

"We’ve come to think that peace is normal, but that's not the reality": Margaret MacMillan on humanity's compulsion to go to war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Painting of Pope Callixtus II, the first Borgia pope, though it would be his nephew Rodrigo (later Pope Alexander VI) who would earn great infamy

Your guide to...the Borgias

Rethinking the Renaissance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wartime evacuees wash their hands

“The very sight of her hands did almost turn my stomach”: a brief history of hand-washing

The leaning tower of Pisa

Q&AWhy does the Tower of Pisa lean to one side?

Lucrezia Borgia with her father Pope Alexander VI

Lucrezia Borgia: is her bad reputation deserved?

The Sultanahmet district in Istanbul, Turkey, which is classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. (Photo by DOZIER Marc via Getty Images)

A new civilisation rises

The Medici. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Verona skyline with river Adige, bridges, Santa Anastasia Church and Torre dei Lamberti or Lamberti Tower at dawn view from Castel San Pietro, Italy. (Getty Images)

My favourite place: Verona, Italy

Giuseppe Garibaldi in Naples, Italy, 1861. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

God, gangs and Garibaldi

Verdun and the Renaissance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in the centre of Florence (Getty)

A big day in history: Florence's bonfire of the vanities

Detail from the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries, showing hawking. Made in Tournai in the 15th century. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The LibraryThe medieval huntress