Painting by Sandro Botticelli: Primavera, a large panel painting made in the late 1470s or early 1480s (datings vary). It has been described as "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world", and also "one of the most popular paintings in Western art". The painting depicts a group of figures from classical mythology in a garden, but no story has been found that brings this particular group together. Most critics agree that the painting is an allegory based on the lush growth of Spring, but accounts of any precise meaning vary, though many involve the Renaissance Neoplatonism which then fascinated intellectual circles in Florence. The subject was first described as Primavera by the art historian Giorgio Vasari who saw it at Villa Castello, just outside Florence, by 1550. Although the two are now known not to be a pair, the painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, The Birth of Venus, also in the Uffizi. They are among the most famous paintings in the world, and icons of the Italian Renaissance; of the two, the Birth is even better known than the Primavera. As depictions of subjects from classical mythology on a very large scale, they were virtually unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity.

Painting by Sandro Botticelli: The Resurrected Christ. This painting is considered a defining masterpiece of Botticelli's later works. While the artist is known for his beautiful Madonnas and large allegorical paintings such as 'The Birth of Venus,' after political upheavals in the 1490s, his work became more somber. Here, Christ's head is surrounded by a halo of angels 'en grisaille' — in grey monotone. They hold 'Arma Christi,' the symbols of Christ's death and suffering while Christ himself is both sorrowful and serene.

Painting by Piero di Cosimo: Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari. In a lifelike rendering, this large panel portrays a sacra conversazione (holy conversation) where saints surround the Madonna and Child in a unified pictorial space. Piero di Cosimo's approach is far removed from the compartmentalized divisions in Lorenzo di Nicolo's altarpiece elsewhere in this gallery. Here, Saint Peter presents the kneeling Saint Dominic (left) while Saint John the Baptist announces Christ's ministry, and Saint Nicholas kneels in devotion (right). The three smaller panels, called a predella, depict scenes from the lives of Saints Dominic, John, and Nicholas. The Pugliese coat of arms adorns the frame, identifying the Florentine family who commissioned the work for its private chapel.

Painting by Sandro Botticelli: Madonna of the Book, a small painting preserved in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. The painting is executed in tempera on panel. It dates from between 1480 and 1481. The Madonna of the Book is a soft and elegant work, in which Mary and the Child Jesus are seated by a window in the corner of a room. She holds a Book of Hours, the Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis, prayer books for laymen common in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The infant is gazing at his mother whilst she is absorbed in reading the book. The hands of both mother and son are positioned similarly, with the right hands open as in a gesture of blessing, and left hands closed. Symbolizing the Passion of Jesus, the Christ Child is holding the three nails of the cross, and the crown of thorns. These are probably later additions, added to make the message more explicit.

Painting by Hans Memling: The Annunciation, an oil painting depicting the archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, described in the Gospel of Luke. The painting was executed in the 1480s and was transferred to canvas from its original oak panel sometime after 1928; it is today held in the Robert Lehman collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The panel shows Mary in a domestic interior with two attendant angels. Gabriel is dressed in ecclesiastical robes, while a dove hovers above Mary, representing the Holy Spirit.

Painting by Sandro Botticelli: Pallas and the Centaur, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It has been proposed as a companion piece to his Primavera, though it is a different shape. The medium used is tempera paints on canvas and its size is 207 x 148 cm. The painting has been retouched in many places, and these retouchings have faded. The life-size figures are from classical mythology and probably form an allegory. There is a centaur on the left, and a female figure holding a very elaborate halberd on the right. She is clutching the hair of the centaur, who was evidently about to shoot from his bow. The female figure was called Camilla in the earliest record of the painting, an inventory of 1499, but in an inventory of 1516 she is called Minerva, the Roman equivalent of Pallas Athene; Pallas remains her usual modern identification, but Camilla has supporters. Arthur Frothingham suggested that she is Florencia, the personification of the city of Florence. The fine cloth of her dress is decorated with the Medici's three-ring insignia.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci: Portrait of a Musician, an unfinished painting dated to c. 1483–1487. Produced while Leonardo was in Milan, the work is painted in oils, and perhaps tempera, on a small panel of walnut wood. It is his only known male portrait painting, and the identity of its sitter has been closely debated among scholars. Perhaps influenced by Antonello da Messina's introduction of the Early Netherlandish style of portrait painting to Italy, the work marks a dramatic shift from the profile portraiture that predominated in 15th-century Milan. It shares many similarities with other paintings Leonardo executed there, such as the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks and the Lady with an Ermine, but the Portrait of a Musician is his only panel painting remaining in the city, where it has been in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana since at least 1672. One of Leonardo's best preserved paintings, there are no extant contemporary records of the commission. Based on stylistic resemblances to other works by Leonardo, virtually all current scholarship attributes at least the sitter's face to him.

Drawing by Albrecht Dürer: Self-Portrait at the age of 13 (the title is modern) is a silverpoint drawing by Albrecht Dürer, dated 1484, when the artist was either twelve or thirteen years of age. It is now in the Albertina museum, Vienna, where it arrived, via the collections of the Imhoff family in Nuremberg and the Habsburg collections, from Dürer's own literary and remains. It is the artist's oldest known surviving drawing, one of the oldest extant self-portraits in European art, and one of the earliest child's drawings, as well. It was completed two years before Albrecht left his father's apprenticeship to study under Michael Wolgemut, whom (some modern authors speculate) he quickly realized was a valuable mentor but whom the younger man may have recognized was unequal to himself in his abilities. Throughout his life Dürer expressed resolute self-confidence. He celebrated himself in his drawings and writings.

Painting by Pietro Perugino: Galitzin Triptych, also known as The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene, probably commissioned by Bartolommeo Bartoli, bishop of Cagli. It originated in a chapel of the Dominican monastic church of San Gimignano and when that was suppressed in 1796-97 it was confiscated by French troops. It was then sold to a certain 'Buzzi', who sold it as a work of Raphael to prince Alexander Mikhailovich Galitzin, the Imperial Russian ambassador to Rome. His nephew Mikhailovich Galitzin moved it to Moscow where, in 1865, it was exhibited at the Galitzin Museum of Western Art. It was sold again in 1886 with the rest of the Galitzin collection, this time to the Hermitage Museum. In April 1931 it was one of the artworks ceded by Stalin to Andrew Mellon, US Secretary of State. In 1937 the Mellon collection formed the core of the new National Gallery of Art.

Painting by Sandro Botticelli: Birth of Venus, probably executed in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and often depicted in art). The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Although the two are not a pair, the painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, the Primavera, also in the Uffizi. They are among the most famous paintings in the world, and icons of Italian Renaissance painting; of the two, the Birth is better known than the Primavera. As depictions of subjects from classical mythology on a very large scale they were virtually unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity, as was the size and prominence of a nude female figure in the Birth. It used to be thought that they were both commissioned by the same member of the Medici family, but this is now uncertain. The Birth seems always to be surrounded by a large crowd, many involved in I was there photography or the production of glamorous selfies, even if the self is taken by someone else.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci: The (Louvre) Virgin of the Rocks, sometimes the Madonna of the Rocks, is the name of two paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, with a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, the earlier of the two, is unrestored and hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The other, which was restored between 2008 and 2010, hangs in the National Gallery, London. The works are often known as the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks and London Virgin of the Rocks respectively. The paintings are both nearly 2 meters (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils. Both were originally painted on wooden panels, but the Louvre version has been transferred to canvas. Both paintings show the Virgin Mary and child Jesus with the infant John the Baptist and an angel Uriel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel. There are many minor ways in which the works differ, including the colors, the lighting, the flora, and the way in which sfumato has been used. Although the date of an associated commission is documented, the complete histories of the two paintings are unknown, leading to speculation about which of the two is earlier. The Virgin of the Rocks in the Louvre is considered by most art historians to be the earlier of the two and dates from around 1483–1486. Most authorities agree that the work is entirely by Leonardo. It is about 8 cm (3 in) taller than the London version. The first certain record of this picture dates from 1625, when it was in the French royal collection. It is generally accepted that this painting was produced to fulfill a commission of 1483 in Milan. This painting is regarded as a perfect example of Leonardo's "sfumato" technique.

Painting by Sandro Botticelli: Venus and Mars a panel painting showing the Roman gods Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valor. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful baby satyrs. The painting was probably intended to commemorate a wedding, set into panelling or a piece of furniture to adorn the bedroom of the bride and groom, possibly as part of a set of works. This is suggested by the wide format and the close view of the figures. It is widely seen as representation of an ideal view of sensuous love. It seems likely that Botticelli worked out the concept for the painting, with its learned allusions, with an advisor such as Poliziano, the Medici house poet and Renaissance Humanist scholar.

Painting by Carlo Crivelli: The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius, an altarpiece showing an artistic adaptation of the Annunciation It was painted for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in the Italian town of Ascoli Piceno, in the region of Marche, to celebrate the self-government granted to the town in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV. The painting displays severely correct perspective. Persian rugs hang over balconies. When Mary protests (How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Luke 1:34 KJV), the angel responds (The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke 1:35 KJV) and the Holy Ghost touches Mary with a close-encounters-style beam of light.

Painting by Hans Memling: The Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove, showing on the left side the Virgin and Child, and on the right side Maarten van Nieuwenhove. It is now kept in the Old St. John's Hospital in Bruges. It is unsigned, but has invariably been attributed to Hans Memling since the middle of the 19th century. The painting is an early example of an Early Netherlandish devotional diptych, which still preserves the original frame and hinges. A new invention was showing the scene in a continuous room, instead of against a monochrome background.

Painting by Michelangeo: The Torment of Saint Anthony (or The Temptation of Saint Anthony a painting believed to be done by Michelangelo, who painted this close copy of the famous engraving by Martin Schongauer when he was only 12 or 13 years old. Whether the painting is by Michelangelo is disputed. This painting is now in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. It shows the common medieval subject, included in the Golden Legend and other sources, of Saint Anthony (AD 251 – 356) being assailed in the desert by demons, whose temptations he resisted; the Temptation of St Anthony (or "Trial") is the more common name of the subject. But this composition apparently shows a later episode where St Anthony, normally flown about the desert supported by angels, was ambushed in mid-air by devils.

Painting by Sandro Botticcelli: The Cestello Annunciation, a tempera painting on panel. It was painted for the patron Benedetto di Ser Giovanni Guardi to adorn the church of the Florentine monastery of Cestello, which is now known as Santa Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi. The subject of the painting is the Annunciation, in which the Archangel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary to 'announce' to her (hence 'Annunciation') that she has been chosen by God to bear the Christ child should she accept this invitation. Her 'fiat' (Let it be done to me) is the Annunciation. If She had said no, there would be no Redemption for mankind. Underneath the painting on its original frame are words in Latin from St. Luke's Gospel 1:35: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." The subject of the Annunciation is common in Christian art and has been depicted by many artists, in multiple formats, and in different time periods. In addition to the Cestello Annunciation, Botticelli also painted a 1485 Annunciation now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a 1495-1500 version now housed in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.