| − | Europe's Renaissance period began in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries. Literary achievements--such as the poetry of Petrarch, Tasso, and Ariosto and the prose of Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and Castiglione--exerted a tremendous and lasting influence on the subsequent development of Western civilization, as did the painting, sculpture, and architecture contributed by giants such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Raphael]], [[Sandro Botticelli]], [[Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio|Caravaggio]], and [[Michelangelo|Michelangelo Buonarroti]]. | + | Europe's Renaissance period began in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries. Literary achievements, such as the poetry of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Francesco Petrarch|Petrarch]], [[Torquato Tasso|Tasso]], and [[Ludovico Ariosto|Ariosto]] and the prose of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavelli]] and [[Alessandro Manzoni|Manzoni]], exerted a tremendous and lasting influence on the subsequent development of Western civilization, as did the painting, sculpture, and architecture contributed by giants such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Raphael]], [[Sandro Botticelli]], [[Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio|Caravaggio]], and [[Michelangelo|Michelangelo Buonarroti]]. |
| | The musical influence of Italian composers Monteverdi, Palestrina, and Vivaldi proved epochal; in the 19th century, Italian romantic opera flourished under composers Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giacomo Puccini. Contemporary Italian artists, writers, filmmakers, architects, composers, and designers contribute significantly to Western culture. | | The musical influence of Italian composers Monteverdi, Palestrina, and Vivaldi proved epochal; in the 19th century, Italian romantic opera flourished under composers Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giacomo Puccini. Contemporary Italian artists, writers, filmmakers, architects, composers, and designers contribute significantly to Western culture. |