This is just the intro. The two pages you are mostly interested in are here:

• The Background page provides a backdrop of history, providing the art periods that preceded the Renaissance, and thus the influences that gave rise to it. There is some explanation of terms such as realism, naturalism etc.
• A timeline providing details of artists (and even a few other fellows) who contributed in large and small ways to art just prior to, and throughout The Renaissance

The focus throughout these two pages is the development of art. If you wish to read the salacious things that artists did, (or better still what the soap-operatic Medicis did) you can link easily to the Wikipedia articles.

Caveats:

• This is a work in progress, started in August 2010. The closer the date of your reading to that date, the more there is yet to be done:
  • General cleanup of descriptions for artists. Artists born later still have the full Wiki article under their names.
  • My ratings system (that determines the level of highlight on the Timeline) needs work
  • Final rationalization of periods in which artists appear. In spite of the fact that some sources list an artist as being "Gothic", anyone painting by 1500 has little in common with someone painting in 1300.
  • The usual typos and unfinished thoughts...
• Oversimplification This material is, to paraphrase Churchill, a precis of a summary wrapped in a synopsis: it is the dummy's digest of a complex interweave of things. A summary provides the benefit and even wisdom of overview but necessarily pays penalties of over-simplification. Translated: I have thrown out a few babies with the bathwater (and in some cases, did so cheerfully).
• Scholars may dispute some of my summaries. They may be right.

Acknowledgements: I make no financial gain from this site so I have some leeway on borrowing. I have borrowed extensively from Wikipedia (all material there is copyright-free, so no foul there), savagely pruning and shaping Wikipedia's articles for each artist to meet the particular needs here. But I hope I repay the favour by linking back to the original article or image in each case. On a few occasions I have linked to images on other sites so I may soon be appearing on Wanted posters throughout your domain.