Describe the main features (in style and subject matter) of Early Renaissance art and architecture

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In contrast to medieval architecture, which directs the gaze upwards, early Renaissance structures are inherently earth-bound, and so capture the whole and the parts in harmony. This harmony can also be identified in the incorporation of scientific discoveries on perspective and other features of observation of natural world.
Early Renaissance architects used the Classical principles of clarity, symmetry, and order, arriving at a unity of design. For example, the Florentine Alberti argued that architectural design should proceed from the square and the circle, the two most perfect geometric shapes. This proposition was the guiding precept for all Alberti's buildings. Renaissance architects, such as Alberti and Brunelleschi, espoused the Hellenic theory that the human form mirrored the order inherent in the universe. Accordingly, the study of nature and the understanding and exercise of its underlying harmonies put one in touch with the macrocosm. Rational architecture, reflecting natural laws, would help to cultivate rational individuals.