Between 1480 and 1520, a concentration of talented artists, including Melozzo da Forli, Bramante, Pinturrichio, Raphael and Michelangelo, arrived in Rome and produced some of the most enduring works of art ever created. This period, now called the High Renaissance, is generally considered to be one of the high points of Western civilization. How did it come about and what were the forces that converged to galvanize such an explosion of creative activity? In this study, Ingrid Rowland examines the culture, society, and intellectual norms that generated the High Renaissance. Fuelled 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'.