Italian art reflects Renaissance ideas by emphasizing religious doctrine, which in fact preponderated Renaissance ideology. The artists were able to depict vivid images of religious figures and events, which served to elevate their influence in the community as well. Some examples in which Renaissance ideas are expressed in the Italian art of the period are shown through three famous artists; Giotto, Piero della Francesca, and Michelangelo. These artists developed and constructed various portraits and sculptures that started the beginning of the spread of religion in Italian art.
Giotto was a Florentine painter who led the way in his use of realism in his works. Although his portraits mirrored reality, one of his more famous works, The Lamentation Over Christ, expresses religious doctrine as well. In the Renaissance, religion was a factor of dispute for many people. Some people remained faithful to their Christian church and were very much involved in persistency of their beliefs. Others, additionally, were becoming more secular, and attention moved from the church to more materialistic matters. The art of Giotto, especially in his portrait The Lamentation Over Christ, shows a saint in the far right with his arms at his sides and his hands clasped, which is a gesture of religious prayer. Here he renders a somewhat tragic event and seen closely in the rocky backgrounds of the mountains are the heads of Mary and Christ. These two strongly religious, yet subliminal figures in the portrait show how Giotto captured the religious doctrine of the Renaissance and included its effectiveness of power upon the people into his artwork.
Piero della Francesca was yet another artist who expressed Renaissance ideas in his work. In painting Discovery Of the True Cross, Piero emphasized the religious doctrine though the discovery of the three crosses in a ploughed field outside the walls of Jerusalem.
