The Renaissance: Whose Renaissance Was It?

Another series about women in art? Yes—and I’ve hesitated to make it. Why do women still get a separate chapter before we return to the “real” artists? An honest introduction to a series about art, opportunity, influence—and being allowed to say, “I don’t particularly like her work.”

1492- You probably remember the date from school, and you probably remember one man: Christopher Columbus.But before Columbus even got onto his ship, Spain had already changed. In January, Granada, the last Muslim-ruled kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, surrendered. In March, Jews who refused to convert were ordered to leave. And a scholar quietly published a grammar book that turned out to be far more political than it sounds.In this episode, we leave Columbus on the shore for a while and look at the world around him. We travel through al-Andalus, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived side by side (not always peacefully, but connected), and we look at the buildings and books that prove it, from the synagogues of Toledo to the Alba and Kennicott Bibles.Then we bring Columbus back, minus the romance. Why was he really heading for Asia? Why was everyone so obsessed with spices? And what does “discovered” mean when millions of people were already there?It’s a story about trade, faith, forced migration, language and power. And it happens right in the middle of the Renaissance, while Leonardo is painting in Milan.Because the Renaissance wasn’t born in a studio. It was born in a connected world. And 1492 shows us that connection isn’t always kind.

We've finally reached the last episode of our Leonardo da Vinci series. And yes, we're finally talking properly about the Mona Lisa!But first, Leonardo is off to France. This time, he isn't desperately looking for someone to hire him. Quite the opposite. King Francis I wants Leonardo at his court simply because he's Leonardo.Not bad for someone who started out as an apprentice in a Florentine workshop.In this episode, we're exploring the Mona Lisa, the famous Vitruvian Man, Leonardo's extraordinary notebooks, his anatomical drawings and his rather impressive collection of unfinished projects.And we're finally tackling that word everyone loves to use: genius.Because I have a bit of a problem with the idea that great artists are simply born with some magical talent.Leonardo spent his life looking, learning, practising, experimenting and occasionally getting things spectacularly wrong. His Vitruvian Man is a wonderful reminder that drawing isn't magic. It's also geometry, observation, proportion and knowledge.And that's good news for the rest of us. Because those are things we can actually learn.So was Leonardo extraordinary? Absolutely.But perhaps the most interesting thing about him isn't that he was a genius.It's how he became Leonardo.🎨 Room for Colours is a video podcast! Watch the artworks as we explore them, or simply listen along.Art history without the unnecessary academic blah blah blah.

🎥 Room for Colours is now a video podcast!Yes, you can finally see my face! After years of showing you only my hands while painting, I've decided to change things a little. Turns out, painting and recording a podcast at the same time is quite a lot of work, especially when you can't paint fast enough to keep up with your own storytelling!So from now on, you'll see me talking, with artworks popping up whenever they fit the story. And yes, I've kept myself in black and white. Don't ask me why. I just feel more comfortable that way!And what better way to start than with Leonardo da Vinci?In this episode, we're following Leonardo to Milan, where he tries to impress the powerful Ludovico Sforza. We're talking about Renaissance courts, a rather unusual job application, an enormous unfinished horse, The Last Supper, and what happens when art, money and politics collide.This is episode two of my Leonardo series, but the very first Room for Colours video podcast on Spotify. Of course, you can still just listen if you prefer!Welcome to Room for Colours. Same art history, same stories, just a little more of me. 🎨

What happens when your powerful boss loses his city? Well, if you're Leonardo da Vinci, you pack your bags and look for someone else to hire you.Welcome back to Room for Colours and Episode 3 of our Leonardo series!This time, we're following Leonardo across Renaissance Italy, where art, politics, money and war are constantly getting in each other's way.We meet Isabella d'Este again (of course!), who desperately wants Leonardo to paint her portrait. We follow him to Venice, discover why the rather notorious Cesare Borgia needed his skills, and find out how Leonardo ended up designing a bridge for an Ottoman sultan.And then there's Florence, where Leonardo and Michelangelo are supposed to paint two enormous battle scenes. Two famous artists, two walls and two rather difficult personalities. What could possibly go wrong?But this episode isn't really about travelling. It's about how artists depended on powerful patrons, how reputations spread, and why even someone as famous as Leonardo couldn't escape politics.Because being a Renaissance artist wasn't just about making beautiful things. Sometimes it was about knowing the right people, finding the next job and surviving the next political disaster.🎨 Room for Colours is now a video podcast! You can watch the artworks as we go or simply listen along.Art history, without the unnecessary academic blah blah blah.Enjoy listening!

https://www.skool.com/room-for-colours-9527/aboutBefore the Mona Lisa, the flying machines and the famous beard, Leonardo was simply a young man learning how to look.In this first episode of Leonardo month, we go back to the beginning: his childhood, the parts of it we actually know very little about, Vasari’s wonderfully dramatic stories, Verrocchio’s workshop, messy notebooks, unfinished paintings and Leonardo’s endless habit of asking questions.Because Leonardo was not born knowing everything.He learned. He watched. He practised. He got distracted. He left things unfinished.And somehow, that feels much more interesting than simply calling him a genius.

We often talk about the Renaissance as a time of new ideas, new freedom and human potential.But who actually got to be part of it?In this final episode of the series, we look at women, patrons, servants, nuns, outsiders and artists like El Greco, who had to fight for their place and for the value of their work.Because there wasn’t just one Renaissance.There were many different Renaissance lives.And once we start asking who had access, who had money, who was remembered and who disappeared from the story, those famous masterpieces begin to look very different.

Episode 3 out of 4.We love the idea of the Renaissance genius: Botticelli, Brunelleschi, Donatello, brilliant artists somehow producing masterpieces through talent and inspiration.Except that’s not really how it worked.In this episode, we step behind the masterpieces and into the workshops, guilds and banking houses of Renaissance Florence. We look at apprentices learning their craft, patrons paying the bills, the Medici using art and culture as power, and Botticelli’s Primavera as the product of an entire creative ecosystem.Because great art needs more than talent. It needs training, materials, money, opportunity, other people and a world that makes creativity possible.Florence wasn’t magic. It was an ecosystem

This is part 2 out of 4 about the Renaissance.What if one of the biggest ideas of the Renaissance wasn't perspective, anatomy or even great art—but the belief that people could change through learning?In this episode, we explore Renaissance Humanism: from Petrarch and education to Masaccio’s The Tribute Money, and the growing fascination with observation, individuality and human experience.And this is where the Renaissance becomes surprisingly relevant today. Because underneath all the famous names is an idea I deeply believe in: we aren't simply born with talent. We learn. We practise. We look. We become.The divine didn’t disappear from Renaissance art. The human was brought into it.

Forget the lone geniuses and the sudden “rebirth” of Europe. The Renaissance began in a world already connected by trade, migration, technology and the movement of ideas. In this first episode, we look beyond Leonardo and Michelangelo to discover the networks linking Europe with Asia, Africa, Byzantium and the Islamic world—and ask what actually had to change before Renaissance art could happen.The Renaissance wasn’t born in a studio. It was born in a connected world.