This painting is by French baroque painter Claude Lorrain. It is entitled Pastoral Landscape and was painted in 1638. I think the realistic-ness, diverse subjects and colors, and composition of the painting is awe-inspiring!
This painting is by French baroque painter Claude Lorrain. It is entitled Pastoral Landscape and was painted in 1638. I think the realistic-ness, diverse subjects and colors, and composition of the painting is awe-inspiring!
This painting is interesting because what is ostensibly its subject matter - what its named for - is practically hidden. The brightness of the background attracts the eye, then you move to the foreground, which leads off to the left. There's a lot going on all around with various layers of distance, and somewhere in the mid-ground off to the right Icarus is drowning.
The piece above is entitled the The Mocking of Christ (1503) and was made by a Germanic artist named Matthias Grunewald. This piece is a prime example of the deviation between the Northern and Italian/Southern European Renaissance in which the Northern Renaissance tend to concentrate more on religious aspects in their pieces while ignoring the classicism and staying true to the central medieval methods of painting/drawing. In this piece, we see Christ blindfolded and being dragged along while spectators look on as surrounding people harass him. The tone of the piece is quite dark as highlighted by the darker colors in the background as compared to the foreground. The lighting is this painting is quite vivid and differs as your eye moves across the painting. Additionally, the creation of perspective is made through color and size of the objects. In the foreground, we see the people have brighter hues whereas in the back the figures are smaller and blend easily with the dark background.
Here we've got Pierro della Francesca's The Dream of Constantine. According to wikipedia, we're looking at an angel who is visiting Emperor Constantine on the eve battle to show him the symbol of the cross. (Constantine goes on to win.)
This is "The Martyrdom of St Stephen" by Pomponio Amalteo. Amalteo creates perception of distance by making images in the foreground darker and clearer than images in the background. Also, the people who are perceived to be forward in the image are larger than those in the back. Amalteo successfully conveys space and distance in this image.
The picture above is entitled Delivery of the Keys (1481-2) by Pietro Perugino and is found in the Sistine Chapel. Here you can see a sharp distinction in terms of brightness and size between the foreground and background thereby creating a perspective and layering. The people in the foreground also seemed to be painted on top of one another with the people all the way up front being the most noticeable and the most outlined by the artist so as to show that they are nearest to the viewer. Additionally, the landscape in the background and its size helps to create a depth to the painting and gives it a 3D feel. The squares on the bottom of the painting extend towards the viewer growing larger in size to create the image of reality.

The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

Castagno did an excellent job at creating space with the Last Supper portion of this painting. Notice how the awning and pillars are offset with the background so that the pop out from it, but also notice how the inside extends back again towards one point to appear as if it is going deep into the wall.