Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Quattrocento refers to the 15th century spanning from 1400 to 1499. This era marked a transition where money replaced land as wealth and urban centers like Florence and Venice rose through merchant classes.
This deliberate move toward human-centered imagery began around 1425 when early Renaissance styles emerged alongside International Gothic traditions. Artists shed decorative mosaics, Christian Gothic media, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, and traditional sculpture forms.
Filippo Brunelleschi developed linear perspective systems that revolutionized how painters constructed space on flat surfaces. Donatello created sculptural works using contrapposto stances while Andrea del Verrocchio experimented with bronze casting techniques previously lost for centuries.
The Quattrocento unfolded principally in cities including Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples. Florence served as the primary hub under Medici family patronage while Venice focused on color and light rather than linear perspective.
The decline of feudalism allowed new cultural movements to take root among the rising middle class. This social change paved the way for economic shifts that defined the period and enabled urban centers to defend themselves through merchant classes.