Many medieval paintings dealt with religious subject matter with a flat, two-dimensional look. Renaissance paintings looked more realistic than medieval paintings. Medieval Christian paintings depicted stories from the Bible for the illiterate masses, and panel paintings, which were paintings on cut wood panels, grew in popularity during the later Middle Ages. Medieval painters mostly used tempura paints, while renaissance painters from Northern Europe introduced oil paints. Oil paints looked more luminous and richer. Renaissance paintings used ideas of humanism.
Medieval sculpture was influenced by classical sculpture of the Greeks and Romans. The faces of medieval sculpture on church walls have grimaces and grins to teach about Christianity. Renaissance artists were interested in the ideas of the "universal man," which centers around nature and man's central place in it. Renaissance sculpture reflects these ideas with art conveying the human body in perfect proportions and harmonious compositions.
The distinctive elements of medieval architecture are embrasure, which was a slit for shooting arrows; merlons, which were found on on the top of castle walls to use in battles; jettying, which was when a structure had an upper floor that projected beyond the dimensions of the lower part of the building; and the Gothic style, which used pointed arches and flying buttresses, as seen on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Renaissance architecture looked back to the classical Roman period as its influence. Architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi were elevated to artists and used precise mathematical proportions to create harmonious buildings.
Decorative art during the Middle Ages included illuminated books where typically religious books were lavishly illustrated with gold leaf and fantastical creatures. Stained glass was intricately designed with Bible stories during this period, while artistic Renaissance metalwork can be found in examples of armor and weapons. Though armor was used for practical warfare, it was also used in festivals and tournaments. Reflecting the humanism philosophy of the period, Renaissance armor depicts classical motifs and designs.