But the most celebrated item in the ducal palace is the studiolo. It was the duke’s personal study where the duke would retreat to stimulate his mind. They took over Mantua from the previous family by force. They became dukes in 1530. The court patronized artists like Andrea Mantegna and Giulio Romano.

Main article: Romantic ballet Marie Taglioni as Flore in Charles Didelot's ballet Flore et Zéphire (ca. 1831). She was a pioneer of pointework. Under the suppression of the Catholic Church and the ravages of war, humanism became "akin to heresy". [46] The situation differed in the cities. These were dominated by a commercial elite; as exclusive as the aristocracy of any Medieval kingdom. This group became the main patrons of and audience for Renaissance culture. Below them, there was a large class of artisans and guild members who lived comfortable lives and had significant power in the republican governments. This was in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe where artisans were firmly in the lower class. Literate and educated, this group did participate in the Renaissance culture. [40] The largest section of the urban population was the urban poor of semi-skilled workers and the unemployed. Like the peasants, the Renaissance had little effect on them. Historians debate how easy it was to move between these groups during the Italian Renaissance. Examples of individuals who rose from humble beginnings can be instanced, but Burke notes two major studies in this area that have found that the data do not clearly demonstrate an increase in social mobility. Most historians feel that early in the Renaissance social mobility was quite high, but that it faded over the course of the 15th century. [41] Inequality in society was very high. An upper-class figure would control hundreds of times more income than a servant or labourer. Some historians see this unequal distribution of wealth as important to the Renaissance, as art patronage relies on the very wealthy. [42] The main challengers of the Albizzi family were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de' Medici, later under his son Cosimo de' Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici bank—then Europe's largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence and elsewhere. In 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. [30] The next year, however, saw a pro-Medici Signoria elected and Cosimo returned. The Medici became the town's leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Florence organized the trade routes for commodities between England and the Netherlands, France, and Italy. By the middle of the century, the city had become the banking capital of Europe and thereby obtained vast riches. [31] In 1439, Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos attended a council in Florence in an attempt to unify the Eastern and Western Churches. This brought books and, especially after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, an influx of scholars to the city. [32] Ancient Greece began to be studied with renewed interest, especially the Neoplatonic school of thought, [32] which was the subject of an academy established by the Medici.The Medici were not only renowned but also held immense power across Italy for centuries. The family even produced four popes. Bayer, Andrea. “Northern Italian Renaissance Painting.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nirp/hd_nirp.htm (October 2006) B.M. Adelson, The Lives of Dwarfs.Their Journey from Public Curiosity Toward Social Liberation. (Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, 2005)

Venice continued to be a centre of dance in Europe, particularly during the Venice Carnival, when dancers and visitors from across the continent would travel to the city for a lively cultural exchange. The city's Teatro San Benedetto became a famous landmark largely due to the ballets performed there. Italian ballet techniques remained the dominant influence in much of southern and eastern Europe until Russian techniques supplanted them in the early 20th century. Osborne, Roger (2008-01-10). Civilization: A New History of the Western World. Random House (published 2008). p.183. ISBN 9780099526063 . Retrieved 2013-11-25. Ballet performances spread to Eastern Europe during the 18th century, into areas such as Hungary, where they were held in private theatres at aristocratic castles. Professional companies were established that performed throughout Hungary and also toured abroad. The Budapest National Theatre increasingly serving a role as a home for the dancers. [35]Anglin, W. S.; Lambek, J. (1995), Anglin, W. S.; Lambek, J. (eds.), "Mathematics in the Renaissance", The Heritage of Thales, Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics, New York, NY: Springer, pp.125–131, doi: 10.1007/978-1-4612-0803-7_25, ISBN 978-1-4612-0803-7 , retrieved 2021-04-09 Italian Renaissance art exercised a dominant influence on subsequent European painting and sculpture for centuries afterwards, with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Michelangelo (1475–1564), Raphael (1483–1520), Donatello ( c. 1386–1466), Giotto ( c. 1267–1337), Masaccio (1401–1428), Fra Angelico ( c. 1395–1455), Piero della Francesca ( c. 1415–1492), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448–1494), Perugino ( c. 1446–1523), Botticelli ( c. 1445–1510), and Titian ( c. 1488–1576). Italian Renaissance architecture had a similar Europe-wide impact, as practised by Brunelleschi (1377–1446), Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), and Bramante (1444–1514). Their works include the Florence Cathedral (built from 1296 to 1436), St. Peter's Basilica (built 1506–1626) in Rome, and the Tempio Malatestiano (reconstructed from c. 1450) in Rimini, as well as several private residences. The musical era of the Italian Renaissance featured composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ( c. 1525–1594), the Roman School and later the Venetian School, and the birth of opera through figures like Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) in Florence. In philosophy, thinkers such as Galileo, Machiavelli, Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) and Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) emphasized naturalism and humanism, thus rejecting dogma and scholasticism. The 18th century was a period of advancement in the technical standards of ballet and the period when ballet became a serious dramatic art form on par with the opera. Central to this advance was the seminal work of Jean-Georges Noverre, Lettres sur la danse et les ballets (1760), which focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. Noverre believed that: ballet should be technical but also move the audience emotionally, plots need to be unified, the scenery and music need to support the plot and be unified within the story, and that pantomime needs to be simple and understandable. [34]