In this study, Ingrid Rowland examines the culture, society, and intellectual norms that generated the High Renaissance. Fueled by a volatile mix of economic development, scholarly longing for the glories of ancient civilization, and religious ferment, the High Renaissance, Rowland posits, was also a period in which artists, patrons, and scholars sought "new methods for doing new things." This interdisciplinary study assesses the intellectual paradigm shift that occurred at the turn of the fifteenth century. It also finds and explains the connections between ideas, people, and the art works they created by looking at economics, art, contemporary understanding of classical antiquity, and social conventions.