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Botticelli’s Venus on a half shell, painted in 1486, is the ultimate Renaissance beauty. The pose is a classical Venus, while the face is said to be modelled on Simonetta Vespucci, the girlfriend of Piero de’ Medici, and cousin to explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

One of the earliest works (1475) of that versatile master Leonardo da Vinci. We can already see his attention to detail in the drapery and flower-bedecked lawn. Leonardo’s patented sfumato landscape creates the illusion of great distance by introducing a hazy atmosphere.

A rare panel painting (1504) by Michelangelo, the Holy Family owes much to Signorelli, but its twisting figures, exotic saturated colours and lounging nudes predict Mannerism.

Giotto’s Maestà of 1310 is revolutionary compared with nearby similar scenes by his older contemporaries Duccio and Cimabue. Here the Madonna has bulk beneath her clothing, and depth is created through the placing of the surrounding figures on solid ground.

One of Caravaggio’s earliest works (1594) shows he is already marrying an intense attention to detail (evident in the Flemish-style still life of fruit), with earthy naturalism in the boy-like god. Also obvious is his early fascination with playing harsh light off deep shadows.

Botticelli’s companion to his Birth of Venus , the Primavera (1478;) is populated by goddesses and over 500 species of plant. The painting’s exact meaning is not known but it may be a Neoplatonic allegory of spring based around a poem by Poliziano.

Piero della Francesca’s intense, psychological style of portraiture unflinchingly depicts his hook-nosed patron duke, literally warts and all.

A great influence on the depiction of the nude all the way through to Manet, Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538,) was widely copied in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Venetian master also played with light and shadow, setting a luminous Venus against a dark background.

Parmigianino’s Madonna of 1534 shows off Mannerism at its twisted, exaggerated, elegant best, with an impossibly sinuous Madonna and a weirdly oversized infant Jesus. Though left unfinished, it would become a touchstone of the Mannerist movement and Parmigianino’s masterpiece.

A master of perspective, Uccello experimented with it to the detriment of his scenes. The broken lances in this third of his masterpiece (1456; other thirds are in Paris and London) over-define a perspective plane. Also, the background tilts at a radically different angle to the foreground.