24-year-old Michelangelo provides for St Peter's in Rome an exquisite Pietà – the Virgin holding on her lap the dead Christ

The Swiss (or Swabian) War ends with the treaty of Basel, bringing effective recognition of Swiss independence from the Habsburg empire

The first etchings are printed in Augsburg, from iron plates

The first watches, made in Nuremberg, are spherical clocks about three inches in diameter, worn usually on a ribbon round the neck

The first modern lock gates are installed on a canal in Milan, probably designed by Leonardo da Vinci

Faenza becomes the main centre for the production of the Italian tin-glazed earthenware known as majolica

Leonardo argues that fossils in rocks far above the sea imply not the effects of the Flood but a change in the level of an ancient sea bed

The Salic law, preventing inheritance of the throne by or through a woman, is by now accepted as a fundamental law of France

Ceramic artists in Italy decorate large majolica dishes with scenes of narrative history, giving this style the name istoriato

Michelangelo begins work in Florence on a tall thin slab of marble, which he transforms into David

Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci sets sail from Lisbon to explore to the south of the New World

The marriage of James IV, king of Scotland, to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, leads a century later to the Union of the Crowns

Hieronymus Bosch paints the most detailed of his exotically surreal canvases, The Garden of Earthly Delights

Leonardo captures the enigmatic smile of Lisa Gherardini, known now as the Mona Lisa

Pope Julius II summons Michelangelo to Rome to create the pope's own elaborately sculpted tomb

Julius II, together with the architect Bramante, lays the foundation stone for the new St Peter's

Michelangelo begins work in Rome on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel

Raphael is summoned to Rome by Julius II and is given a major commission for frescoes

Raphael begins work on the frescoes in the pope's apartment in the Vatican, known as the Stanze ('Rooms')

On the death of his father, and as the result of the death of his elder brother Arthur, Henry VIII becomes king of England

Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism

Giorgione and Titian introduce the richness of colour which characterizes the high Renaissance style in Venice

The startling colour contrasts in Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling anticipate one of the main characteristics of Italian mannerism

The painter Giorgione dies after a short but extremely influential life in Venice

The earliest surviving curling stone, discovered in Scotland, dates from this year