meantime, the Scottish monarchs arranged
a series of marriage alliances with various
European powers, including Denmark and
the Netherlands. Scotland also held to an
old alliance with France, which supported
Scottish independence from England. In
1503, however, James IV married Marga-
ret, the daughter of King Henry VII of En-
gland, thus drawing Scotland closer to
England’s new Tudor dynasty. Despite this
marriage, the people of Scotland remained
deeply hostile to the English, and it was
this popular sentiment that prodded James
to invade England in 1513, an action that
led to his death at the Battle of Flodden.
In 1542, on the death of King James V,
his one-week-old daughter Mary became
the queen of Scotland. At the age of five,
Mary was sent to France for her safety
while England pursued a takeover of Scot-
land. Mary returned to Scotland in 1561
but was deposed from the throne in 1567
under accusations of adultery. She was
taken captive by her cousin, Queen Eliza-
beth I, and imprisoned in London for
twenty years before being put to death in
- In the meantime, her son James was
schooled in the ideas of Renaissance hu-
manism by George Buchanan. In this pe-
riod Scotland threw off its ties to France
and to the Catholic Church and adopted
the Presbyterian sect founded and led
by the Scottish religious reformer John
Knox. In 1603, on the death of Elizabeth I,
the last Tudor monarch of England,
James VI of Scotland established the Stu-
art dynasty of England as King James I. In
1707 the Scottish and English realms
would be united by the Act of Union,
which established the Kingdom of Great
Britain.
SEEALSO: James I of England; Knox, John;
Tudor dynasty
sculpture ..........................................
As in painting and architecture, the sculp-
ture of the Renaissance made important
breaks with the traditions of the Middle
Ages. While Gothic sculpture presented
idealized forms, in order to inspire faith
and Christian devotion, Renaissance sculp-
tors strived for the classical ideals of har-
mony, proportion, and realism. Their
works broke out of the religious tradition
of the Middle Ages, to commemorate poli-
ticians, princes, and mercenary captains as
well as saints, biblical scenes, and the life
of Christ. Renaissance sculptors mastered
the demands of monumental public art,
decorating churches and public squares
with larger-than-life statuary and architec-
tural embellishments. Sculptors of the pe-
riod also excelled in the medium of bronze,
which demanded strength and mastery of
the craft of forming and casting metal.
The Florentine sculptor Donatello
revolutionized and humanized the art
form. This artist decorated the Cathedral
of Florence and the Church of Orsan-
michele with a work in a new style, one
that more accurately depicted the human
figure and lent it the ideal proportions of
classical sculpture. Donatello introduced
the low relief technique, in which figures
set in a narrow or confined space are given
the illusion of motion and depth through
the use of perspective. For the first time,
the sculptor took into account the point
of view of the observer in designing and
placing his works. Donatello’s most famous
works include reliefs on the altar of the
Sanctuary of Saint Anthony at Padua, the
Miracle of the Believing DonkeyandMiracle
of the Irascible Son, monumental pan-
oramic scenes, and two pulpits in bronze
for the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence.
His statue ofJudith and Holpherneshas
been a landmark of the Piazza della Si-sculpture