Majolica, or tin-glazed earthenware, reaches Italy from Majorca and thus gets its name

Pisa is captured by Florence, to be followed a few years later by the purchase of the seaport of Livorno

The Council at Pisa elects a new pope, Alexander V, without persuading the other two to resign - bringing the total to an unprecedented three

The linen drapers of Florence commission a statue of St Mark from Donatello, who carves for Orsanmichele the first free-standing Renaissance sculpture

Filippo Brunelleschi begins studying the ruins of classical Rome, with a view to rediscovering classical architecture

A competition is launched for an architect to construct a dome above Florence's cathedral, and is won by Brunelleschi

Masaccio paints some of the frescoes in the chapel of a Florentine silk merchant, Felice Brancacci, in Santa Maria del Carmine

Work begins in Florence on Brunelleschi's Pazzi chapel, which encapsulates in miniature the new ideals of Renaissance architecture

Robert Campin, also known as the Master of Flémalle, brings to Flemish painting a natural and everyday quality which is entirely new

A new altarpiece is installed in the cathedral in Ghent, introducing the powerful realism of Jan van Eyck

Cosimo de' Medici, arrested by a rival faction, escapes with his life thanks to bribes and well-placed friends

Giovanni Arnolfini, a merchant from Lucca trading in Bruges, commissions from van Eyck a portrait of himself and his wife

Chancellor Nicolas Rolin, of Burgundy, commissions an altarpiece from Jan van Eyck

Rogier van der Weyden, the third in the extraordinary trio of Flemish artists of the 1430s, is appointed painter to the city of Brussels

Perspective fascinates Italian Renaissance painters after the publication of Alberti's treatise on the subject, De Pictura

The Byzantine emperor John Palaeologus and the Patriarch of Constantinope, Joasaph, arrive in Ferrara to attend a council of the Roman Catholic church

Florence acquires first-hand experience of Greek culture when Greek Orthodox priests join in a debate on theology, in particular the question of Filioque

The Seventeenth Ecumenical Council moves from Ferrara, because of the danger of plague, and sets up in Florence

The Dominican convent of San Marco, in Florence, is provided with a serenely beautiful series of frescoes by Fra Angelico and his assistants

Piero della Francesca paints masterpieces in his small home town of San Sepolcro

Francesco Sforza, a soldier of fortune, wins power in Milan

Paolo Uccello is interested in the laws of perspective, in works such as The Battle of San Romano

Master ES becomes the first artist to produce engravings

Oil paints, long familiar in the Netherlands, begin to be adopted in Italy in place of tempera

Andrea Mantegna combines an interest in classical detail and recently discovered perspective