Overview
Who were the most well-known painters during the High Renaissance period?
High Renaissance
Forlì Cinquecento Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting Sicily Dutch School (painting)
Forlì-People Cinquecento-Art Dutch_and_Flemish_Renaissance_painting-Stylistic_evolution Sicily-Art_and_architecture Dutch_School_(painting)-Abstract
The most well-known painter of the "comune" was Melozzo da Forlì, who worked in Rome and other Italian cities during the brief years of the High Renaissance. Other Forlivese painters were: Ansuino da Forlì, Marco Palmezzano, Francesco Menzocchi, Livio Agresti. Together, they formed the Forlì painting school. Carlo Cignani was not born in Forlì (but near Forlì), but painted important works there. Other notable Forlivese people are: Alessandro Cortini, one-half of modwheelmood and keyboard player in Nine Inch Nails Ercole Baldini Ilario Bandini, constructor of performance sports and race cars Flavio Biondo Cesare Hercolani Giovanni Battista Cirri Alexander De Franciscis, Bishop of Forlì (1594–1597) Geronimo Mercuriali Giovanni Battista Morgagni Aurelio Saffi Giulietta Simionato, operatic mezzo-soprano, 1910–2010 Gino Mattarelli, politician Claudio Chieffo, Catholic singer-songwriter Caterina Sforza In the period from between 1265 and 1 May 1315, Peregrino Laziosi lived in Forlì. 
At the turn of the 16th century, especially in Northern Italy, artists began to use new techniques in the manipulation of light and darkness, such as the tone contrast evident in many of Titian's portraits and the development of sfumato and chiaroscuro by Leonardo da Vinci and Giorgione. The period also saw the first secular (non-religious) themes. Debate has ensued as to the secularism of the Renaissance emphasized by early 20th-century writers like Jacob Burkhardt due to the presence of these - actually few - mythological paintings. Botticelli was one of the main painters whose secular work comes down to us today, though he was deeply religious (a follower of Savonarola) and painted plenty of traditional religious paintings as well. The period known as the High Renaissance represents the culmination of the goals of the earlier period, namely the accurate representation of figures in space rendered with credible motion and in an appropriately decorous style. The most famous painters from this time period are Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Their images are among the most widely known works of art in the world. Leonardo's The Last Supper, Raphael's The School of Athens and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling are the textbook examples of this period. High Renaissance painting evolved into Mannerism (c. 1520-80), especially in Florence. Mannerist artists, who consciously rebelled against the principles of High Renaissance, tend to represent elongated figures in illogical spaces. Contemporaries criticized this period as seeming artificial. Modern scholarship has recognized the capacity of Mannerist art to convey strong (often religious) emotion where the High Renaissance failed to do so. Some of the main artists of this period are Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino and Giulio Romano. 
Italian Renaissance influences begin to show on Early Netherlandish painting around 1500, but in many ways the older style was remarkably persistent. Antwerp Mannerism is a term for painters showing some Italian influence, but mainly continuing the style and subjects of the older masters. Hieronymus Bosch is a highly individual artist, whose work is strange and full of seemingly irrational imagery, making it difficult to interpret. Most of all it seems surprisingly modern, introducing a world of dreams that seems more related to Gothic art than the Italian Renaissance, although some Venetian prints of the same period show a comparable degree of fantasy. The Romanists were the next phase of influence, adopting Italian styles in a far more thorough way. After 1550 the Flemish and Dutch painters begin to show more interest in nature and beauty "in itself", leading to a style that incorporates Renaissance elements, but remains far from the elegant lightness of Italian Renaissance art,and directly leads to the themes of the great Flemish and Dutch Baroque painters: landscapes, still lifes and genre painting - scenes from everyday life. This evolution is seen in the works of Joachim Patinir and Pieter Aertsen, but the true genius among these painters was Pieter Brueghel the Elder, well known for his depictions of nature and everyday life, showing a preference for the natural condition of man, choosing to depict the peasant instead of the prince. "The Fall of Icarus" (now in fact considered a copy of a Bruegel work), although highly atypical in many ways, combines several elements of Northern Renaissance painting. It hints at the renewed interest for antiquity (the Icarus legend), but the hero Icarus is hidden away in the background. The main actors in the painting are nature itself and, most prominently, the peasant, who does not even look up from his plough when Icarus falls. Brueghel shows man as an anti-hero, comical and sometimes grotesque. 
Terracotta ceramics from the island are well known, the art of ceramics on Sicily goes back to the original ancient peoples named the Sicanians, it was then perfected during the period of Greek colonisation and is still prominent and distinct to this day. Nowadays, Caltagirone is one of the most important centres in Sicily for the artistic production of ceramics and terra-cotta sculptures. Famous painters include Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina, Renato Guttuso and Greek born Giorgio de Chirico who is commonly dubbed the "father of Surrealist art" and founder of the metaphysical art movement. The most noted architects are Filippo Juvarra (one of the most important figures of the Italian Baroque) and Ernesto Basile. 
The Dutch School were painters in the Netherlands from the early Renaissance to the Baroque. It includes Early Netherlandish (1400–1500) and Dutch Renaissance (1500–1584) artists active in the northern Low Countries and, later, Dutch Golden Age painting in the United Provinces. Many painters, sculptors and architects of the seventeenth century are called "Dutch masters", while earlier artists are generally referred to as part of the "Netherlandish" tradition. Hieronymus Bosch and Geertgen tot Sint Jans are well-known examples of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Dutch painters. Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Steen exemplify art during the seventeenth century. There was a healthy artistic climate in Dutch cities during the seventeenth century. For example, between 1605 and 1635 over 100,000 paintings were produced in Haarlem. At that time art ownership in the city was 25%, a record high. Not all of these have survived, but more art has survived up to today from that period in Haarlem than from any other Dutch city, thanks mostly to the "Schilder-boeck" published by Karel van Mander there in 1604. If an individual work is labelled or catalogued just as "Dutch School", this means that an individual artist for the work cannot be ascertained, which is quite often the case. 