Another Italian artist, Giotto, used the idea of realism in which a face was given a characteristics and color. Thus, his paintings like the Dance of St. Francis indicated a concern for naturalism, a popular idea among society throughout Italian Renaissance. Sandro Botticelli, a leading painter in Florence and favorite of the Medici family, also used decorative and colorful paintings. In his work, Botticelli presented several religious and pagan motifs and allowed the clear establishment of the elegant images, but keeping the level of chiaroscuro to its minimum. His most famous and recognized work, however, the Birth of Venus uses the combination of mythology and religion, also a popular humanistic idea adopted from the Greeks. .
With the continuous growth of paintings and artists, prestige for art increased dramatically to the point in which religious aspects were shown through landscapes, portraits, and temperas. This then allowed the creation of new styles and mathematical input that manifested everyday life with religious aspects. One such artist was Giovanni Bellini who introduced bright, rich, strong colors into his palette and landscapes that expressed the happiness, calmness, and prosperity that Italy carried throughout the Renaissance. These characteristics and styles of paintings subsequently became a popular Venetian cornerstone. Other important figures in the Italian Renaissance that demonstrated the movement's ideas through their ingenious paintings and architectural methods were Pier Della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti. Francesca, who was and expert in mathematics, developed the art form of perspective. Alberti, on the other hand, as an architect developed the pediment which became popular throughout the entire Renaissance. His monasteries and churches depicted many of the religious ideas, as evident in one of his famous works, the Santa Maria Novella. All in all, the use of the common religious themes such as the annunciation, adoration, Crucifixion, and the popular Madonna and Child paintings were widely used by many of the Italian, but especially the northern Renaissance.
