Ames-Lewis explores the ways in which painters and sculptors of the early Renaissance began to engage with intellectual questions, as they sought to elevate the craft of painting to a liberal art, like poetry. The cultural environment of the time was increasingly learned, and artists needed to develop their social and intellectual skills as well as artistic talents, which they did through contact with literary men and then by becoming writers – of poetry, biography, treatises, and letters – themselves. It was over this period that the idea of the artist as a creative genius with an individual identity surfaced, and the author examines how changes in perception of the artist affected his output. Buona lettura!