The style of<span> painting, sculpture and decorative </span>arts<span> identified with the </span>Renaissance <span>emerged </span>in<span>Italy </span>in<span> the late 14th century; it reached its zenith </span>in<span> the late 15th and early 16th centuries, </span>in<span> the work </span>of<span> Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.</span>
In the church, women could hold positions of great responsibility as abbesses of convents. In some instances, such as monasteries that housed communities of men and women, the abbess had seniority over monks
