The earliest works in the National Gallery collection were predominantly created for Christian public worship or private prayer and the focus is therefore on their didactic purpose. The beginnings of the Italian Renaissance, literally “rebirth” of interest in classical learning, also brought the discovery of the new technique of perspective and an interest in naturalism. The art of the early Northern Renaissance is characterised by the technical mastery of oil paint, resulting in highly detailed paintings which mirror a fragment of the real world.

Renaissance art achieved its fullest flowering in Italy, where the remains of classical sculpture and architecture could be studied and newly-rich city states, such as Florence, provided generous and innovative patrons. Subject matter was expanded to include classical mythology, artists studied the human body and the techniques of naturalism, perspective and oil paint were mastered. Leonardo da Vinci was largely responsible for establishing the idea of the artist as a creative intellectual and not simply a skilled craftsman.

Northern Renaissance artists and their workshops produced portraits and altarpieces for an international clientele. These works are attentive to the details of nature and human anatomy and accurate in their observation of light effects. Bellini and the artists of the great trading Republic of Venice, worked for the church and nobility, placing emphasis on the depiction of light and colour to enhance spirituality, mood and atmosphere. Links with Netherlandish artists led to their use of oil paint to create works of crisp clarity and detailed naturalism.

Renaissance Florence and Rome witnessed an outpouring of all the visual arts, with artists responding to enthusiastic patrons, including the popes. Raphael and Michelangelo, heroes of the High Renaissance, simultaneously created pioneering art of monumental grandeur and technical sophistication. The study of nature, the human body and ancient sculpture was fundamental to achieving a union of classical ideals and Christian divinity. Subject matter broadened to embrace portraiture and allegories and paintings were given as diplomatic gifts.

Venice in the 16th century experienced a golden age of painting, transformed by a generation of artists who ran large workshops and redefined the possibilities of oil paint. Characteristics of Venetian painting include dynamic compositions, the depiction of natural light, emphasis on sensuous textures and deeply saturated colours. Titian, the most sought after painter in Europe, had an international clientele of dukes and monarchs and excelled at producing large-scale mythological paintings and exquisitely sensitive, characterful portraits.

Holbein’s dazzling portraits of Renaissance men and women are iconic images painted in the illusionistic, precisely detailed style of the long tradition in Northern European art. In England, art was used by Henry VIII and his court for negotiation and propaganda. The Protestant Reformation led to a decline in religious commissions and wealthy patrons increasingly collected paintings for private viewing. Artists in The Netherlands continued to produce beautiful devotional works as well as introducing caricature and satire into painting.

The Baroque era produced highly expressive art, filled with human drama, theatrical gestures and rich ornament. Artists sought to portray convincing realism in portraits, religious paintings and mythological scenes. In Antwerp, Rubens was employed as a diplomat as well as court painter, entrusted with political missions and receiving commissions from kings and the nobility throughout Europe. The creation of a public image was of great importance to King Charles I and his court Van Dyck perfected a style of splendid aristocratic portraiture.

Spanish devotional and portrait painting flourished during the 17th century, with an emphasis on earthly realism in the representation of holy figures and royalty. Velazquez was employed as court painter to King Philip IV, immortalising the dignity and character of the Spanish Royal Family and court personalities.

The Baroque style which emerged in Rome at the turn of the 17th century represented a new direction in the arts, as the Catholic Church put pressure on artists to seek the most convincing realism possible in its campaign to counter the Protestant Reformation. Dynamic compositions, virtuoso brushwork, dazzling skill, dramatic lighting and vivid use of colour were employed to express emotional intensity in paintings for private and public worship. Caravaggio’s religious works were painted in true Counter-Reformation spirit, but the unprecedented realism and drama of his paintings caused rejection by many and his rebellious spirit lay outside the conventions of society. The ideal landscape tradition began, with artists developing a classical style of naturalism.

Artists of the Dutch Golden Age created stunning masterpieces, typically specialising in specific subject matter, whether history, biblical, portraits, still-life or genre. Vermeer perfected a unique style, producing interior scenes of elegant domesticity and composed serenity. Rembrandt’s work embraced virtually every type of subject and focused on penetrating realism and deep emotion. His self-portraits were painted with direct honesty and intense personal scrutiny; his private life was inseparable from the character of his art.

The art market of the prosperous Dutch Republic was unprecedented, with small-scale highly detailed pictures, full of symbolism and anecdote, being purchased by the new bourgeoisie for domestic decoration. National pride was reflected in these largely secular works, which focused on scenes from the present day, including landscapes, maritime and flower painting. Pictures were also made for financial gain, as investing and trading in art became a major activity and took place at all levels of society, with great opportunities for dealers.

Artists from many countries travelled to Rome, the centre of the 17th century European art world, to study the masterpieces of the Renaissance. Rome became the centre for innovation in landscape painting; French artists Nicholas Poussin and Claude Lorraine worked there developing a form of classical ideal landscape for Italian and French connoisseurs. Their work was held in high regard in England and was to prove enormously influential on later painters, especially Claude’s unique treatment of light and the sun to create luminous scenes.

The Rococo style evolved in France, with sophisticated and technically accomplished painters developing an art concerned with decoration, pastoral poetry, frivolity and light-hearted subject matter. This style, popular during the reign of Louis XV, is characterised by a light palette, swirling, curved forms, asymmetry and ornamentation. The French Revolution brought renewed emphasis on the public and didactic purpose of art. In response, artists adopted Neo-Classicism, depicting academic and historical subjects in ordered compositions.

Venetian nobility of the 18th century commissioned artists to decorate their palaces with elaborate scenes employing fanciful allegorical language. Tiepolo was celebrated as a master of illusionistic composition and decorative vitality. Canaletto produced supreme chronicles of Venice which immortalise its architectural beauty for a largely English clientele of gentlemen travelling on the Grand Tour. The foremost portrait painter in Spain, Goya captured the personality, emotion and life-like appearance of his noble sitters with painterly brilliance.

Hogarth extended traditional British portraiture with distinction, but his main achievement was developing series of paintings and engravings which point out moral lessons, with perceptive portrayal of character and biting satire on 18th British life. Gainsborough, best-loved of all British portrait painters, was prolific in his output of sensitive portraits recording fashionable taste in Georgian society, and lyrical landscapes. Stubbs, the consummate master of animal painting, depicted the natural world with accuracy, authority and spontaneity.

Turner’s reputation is as one of the most important British painters, whose work accorded landscape and seascape respectability. His relentless study of light and nature led to entirely new advances in the expression of atmospheric space and luminosity through colour. Constable pioneered a new type of painting, by representing in paint the atmospheric effects of changing light in the open air and recording the immediacy of weather effects. His inspiration and delight in nature stemmed from his profound love of the Suffolk countryside.

The Impressionists were a group of artists with shared interests: painting out of doors, depicting everyday life rather than historical themes and the immediate rendering of a scene through rapid, expressive brushstrokes. Manet’s paintings of modern life in Paris and startlingly new compositions were influential for the Impressionists. Monet painted mostly landscapes directly from nature “en plain air”, creating visual records of fleeting changes of light and weather, with no literary or symbolic meaning, in bright, unmixed colours.

Degas was at the forefront of artistic innovation in 19th century Paris and, with his perceptive vision and fascination with new pictorial possibilities, he documented contemporary life, such as cafes, ballet dancers and women at their toilette. Renoir combined cutting-edge theory and techniques to capture atmospheric effects in paint. Seurat developed a highly original style of painting based on scientific treatises on colour and powers of observation. Impressionist techniques opened up new possibilities for early 20th century painters.

Post-Impressionist artists laid the foundations for modern art by challenging the fundamental procedures of painting established in the Renaissance. Van Gogh expressed his feelings through paint, liberating colour and recreating the world according to his understanding. Gauguin painted his inner vision in flat patterns, rather than repeating external reality. Cezanne searched for the geometry in nature and evolved a new form of perspective and concept of space based on the mind’s perception and the fusion of various viewpoints.