Describe the main features of Early Renaissance art and architecture in style and subject matter.

Early
Renaissance art and architecture evolved out of a combination of late medieval advances and
rediscovery of many elements of Graeco-Roman art and architecture along with increasing
technological innovation.

The first major characteristic was increasing
focus on the secular and civic as opposed to religion and military. While many of the great
buildings and monumental works of the late middle ages were cathedrals and castles, many great
works of civic architecture and mansions built for living rather than defense, and civic
buildings (such as theaters and parliaments) flourished in the Renaissance. The Gothic style,
with its pointed arches and buttresses was replaced by domes, rounded arches, tunnel vaults, and
columns, and ornament, was more restrained and symmetrical, rather than expressing the
individual creativity and embellishment of the Gothic (such as the imaginative and...