Books by St. Petersburg art critic Alexander Viktorovich Stepanov, dedicated to the art of the Renaissance, invariably enjoy the love of readers. By placing the work of the famous Renaissance masters in a broad historical and cultural context, the author finds new, unexpected angles for each of them, thanks to which the works, which over many centuries of existence have been assigned the status of textbooks, suddenly gain a chance to be seen and rethought anew. Written in a living, In a bright manner, the first of three books about the Renaissance examines the heroic period of the Italian Quattrocento and the work of its titans: Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Verrocchio, Botticelli, Perugino and many others. A. V. Stepanov’s book has universality in the best sense of the word : While the fast-paced, engaging narrative will appeal to the widest reader, the academic depth of the research places it alongside the work of the world's leading specialists in the field of Renaissance art.