Discuss changes during the Renaissance in the visual arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, along with changes in attitudes about the arts, explaining several ways in which the public's perception of artists changed. How did these new perceptions and attitudes affect the social, economic, and creative lives of artists, including their newly defined relationships with their patrons?

What will be an ideal response?

The Renaissance brought immense changes to the world of art. These changes affected the way art looked, its perception, subject treatment, the societal position of the artists, identities and patron influences, and points of cultural references. In the Middle Ages painters were considered skilled craftsman, on a level with carpenters, goldsmiths, and other tradespeople. The Renaissance elevated the status of artists, from anonymous crafts workers to divinely talented individuals. The character of art patronage reflected this changing period. Before the Renaissance only the nobility and clergy functioned as patrons. By the 15th century a new class of patrons contributed, made up of very rich, socially ambitious merchant-rulers, fully able to afford extravagant expenditures on art, subsequently enhancing the economic situation of the artists.