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My favorite baroque artwork is Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s The Rape of Proserpina ( 1621–1622). In this baroque sculpture, Proserpina's delicateness and Pluto's strong body and the expressions of the two gods, one is self-satisfied and one is helpless. A sharp contrast forms a perfect interpretation of the overwhelming predatory behavior of the god Pluto. What I like the most is that under Bernini's carving knife, marble became the softest material in the world. He sculpts even the full sensuality of women, the palm is tightly attached to the thigh of the Proserpina as if embedded in the skin. It makes me wondering, is this carved in marble? It has to be made of tofu.

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The Ghent Altarpiece is a quite Gothic style painting and can be called the world's first oil painting. This artistic masterpiece appeared in the early of the Northern Renaissance and it is a significant milestone. Hubert van Eyck set out to design the overall framework at around the mid-1420s and his younger brother Jan van Eyck began to paint roughly at 1422. Since Hubert van Eyck died in 1426, his younger brother Jan van Eyck painted until he completed all the paintings at 1432. After all the altar paintings were completed, there were 20 pictures in total, which were the most prestigious church artwork at the time.

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Bronzino, An Allegory of Venus and Cupid(also known as Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time), 1545

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Why is Giotto so important in the Medieval period?

The reason why Giotto is important in Medieval, most of the paintings (especially religious paintings) in the Medieval period were strongly symbolic, which determined that most painters were restricted by fixed patterns so that everyone painted almost the same. The Virgin and Child and the crucifixion were almost the same. The descriptiveness represented by Giotto requires artists to describe a deed or portray a character in their own way so that the artist ’s imagination and creativity are released, and each artist ’s different personal style is gradually formed. Giotto's depiction of the human body was more based on anatomy, using natural light, the composition was more harmonious, the perspective was more in line with the perspective principle, and the depiction of characters and objects were more textured, so the picture is more spatial.

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Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495 - 1498

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Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting, 1435

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Paolo Uccello, Perspective Study of a Chalice, 1450

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Masaccio, Holy Trinity, 1426-1428

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Brunelleschi, Basilica di Santo Spirito, 1434-83

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Leonardo da Vinci, Écorché, 1487

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Donatello, David, 1440s

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Jacopo Pontormo, The Deposition from the Cross,  1525 – 1528

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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, The Creation of Adam, 1508 - 1512

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Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with two angels, 1455 - 1466

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Giotto di Bondone, Lamentation, 1304 - 1306

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Virgin and Child and angels, 1170

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Donatello, Saint Mark, 1411 - 1413