Leonardo da Vinci moves to France, on the invitation of Francis I

Mannerism develops in Italy in the work of the painters Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino

Annibale Carracci completes an influential ceiling fresco in the Farnese palace in Rome

The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens completes an altarpiece in Rome which is an early masterpiece of the baroque

The Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck begins a five-year stay, and a successful career as a portrait painter, in Genoa

Nicolas Poussin arrives in Rome, where he develops the tradition of French classicism

Claude Lorrain, basing himself like Poussin in Rome, paints classical landscapes suffused in light

Canaletto begins to specialize in views of the Venetian canals, finding his main customers among the British

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo begins a series of frescoes to decorate the prince bishop's residence in Würzburg

Francesco Guardi, previously a painter of figures, begins to specialize in view of Venice, his native city

French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres moves to Rome and lives there for 18 years

J.M.W. Turner makes the first of several visits to Venice, and discovers a rich seam of inspiration

Giacomo Balla attempts to paint movement in his futurist Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash