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| Giotto Entombment of Mary 1310 tempera on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Giotto Maestà (Ognissanti Madonna) ca. 1306-10 tempera on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Agnolo Gaddi Four Saints in niches (Mary Magdalene, St Benedict, St Bernard, St Catherine) ca. 1380-90 tempera on panel Indianapolis Museum of Art |
"But if it is the duty of the historian to seek for evidence in which moral judgment is tempered by human sympathy, he will find no authority comparable in value to the work so often quoted of Pierio Valeriano, On the Infelicity of the Scholar. It was written under the gloomy impressions left by the sack of Rome, which seems to the writer, not only the direct cause of untold misery to the men of learning, but, as it were, the fulfillment of an evil destiny which had long pursued them. Pierio is here led by a simple and, on the whole, just feeling. He does not introduce a special power, which plagued the men of genius on account of their genius, but he states facts, in which an unlucky chance often wears the aspect of fatality. Not wishing to write a tragedy or to refer events to the conflict of higher powers, he is content to lay before us the scenes of everyday life. We are introduced to men, who in times of trouble lose, first their incomes, and then their places; to others who, in trying to get two appointments, miss both; to unsociable misers, who carry about their money sewn into their clothes, and die mad when they are robbed of it; to others, who accept well-paid offices, and then sicken with a melancholy longing for their lost freedom. We read how some died young of plague or fever, and how the writings which had cost them so much toil were burnt with their bed and clothes; how others lived in terror of the murderous threats of their colleagues; how one was slain by a covetous servant, and another caught by a highwayman on a journey, and left to pine in a dungeon, because unable to pay his ransom. Many died of unspoken grief for the insults they received and the prizes of which they were defrauded. We are told of the death of a Venetian, because his son, a youthful prodigy, was dead; and the mother and brothers followed, as if the lost child drew them all after him. Many, especially Florentines, ended their lives by suicide; others through the secret justice of a tyrant. Who, after all, is happy? – and by what means?"
– from The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt (English translation by S.G.C. Middlemore, published by Phaidon Press, 1937)
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| Luca Signorelli Madonna of Mercy with St Sebastian and St Bernardino da Siena ca. 1490 tempera on panel Fondazione Musei Senesi, Siena |
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| Carlo Crivelli St Francis collecting the Blood of Christ ca. 1490-1500 tempera on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
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| Cima da Conegliano Rest on the Flight into Egypt with St John the Baptist, St Lucy and Angels ca. 1496-98 tempera and oil on panel Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon |
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| Andrea Mantegna Christ as suffering Redeemer ca. 1495-1500 tempera on panel Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
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| Paolo da San Leocadio Lamentation 1507 tempera and oil on panel Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona |
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| Ercole de’ Roberti Pietà ca. 1482-86 tempera and oil on panel Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
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| Ercole de' Roberti St Jerome in the Wilderness ca. 1470 tempera on panel Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Ercole de’ Roberti Portia and Brutus ca. 1486-90 tempera on panel Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
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| Sandro Botticelli Madonna of the Book 1480 tempera on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
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| Sandro Botticelli Madonna adoring Child with five Angels ca. 1485-90 tempera and oil on panel Baltimore Museum of Art |
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| Michelangelo Holy Family (Doni Tondo) 1506-08 tempera on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |