Art and architecture have always been central to Venice but in the Renaissance period, between c.1440 and 1600, they reached a kind of apotheosis when many of the city's new buildings, sculpture and paintings took on distinctive and original qualities. The spread of Renaissance values provided leading artists such as Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Palladio, Titian and Tintoretto with a licence for artistic invention. By adopting a chronological approach, with each chapter covering a successive twenty-five year period, and focusing attention on the artists, Tom Nichols presents a vivid, richly illustrated and easily navigable study of Venetian Renaissance art

• The 'most serene republic': Venice at the outset of the renaissance
• Innovation as tradition: 1440-75
• A perfected image of Venice: 1476-1500
• Individualism, internationalism, secularization: 1501-25
• Romanism rank, and rivalry: 1526-50
• The victory of art: 1551-75
• Adversity, creativity, retrospectivity: 1576-1600