Salvation, the penalties of sin and redemption were emphasized in many frescoes, remarkable for their grim depictions of suffering. Devotional paintings were starkly simple, and intense in mood as the artist sought to make spiritual revelations a visual reality.
Later, International Gothic was marked by a formalized sweetness, grace in the figures, and gracefulness in the draperies.
The High Renaissance of painting was the culmination of the varied means of expression, the realistic depiction of both physical and psychological features, and the manipulation of light and darkness. (x)