The Romantic painter from Germany Caspar David Friedrich, the U.S. painter Barnett Newman, the
French composer Olivier Messiaen, and the
gothic architecture of Santa Maria de Toledo, Spain have significantly influenced the composition of these works.
Renaissance means «rebirth» in
French and the period signified a return to the carefully proportioned
architecture of classical Greek and Rome after the asymmetrical and ornate
gothic style that preceded it.