We owe the Italian Renaissance picture more than the ideal human figure.  Experiments in figuration, whether they involve contour or sfumato, cannot exist without ground, here understood in three senses of the word: first, the preparation of a given support (such as a gesso ground on panel); second, the plane on which figures stand; and third, the field in and against which figuration occurs.  

Grounds register significant transitions in painting practice over time, such as the adoption of canvas and stone supports, or the passage from gold ground to landscape and architectural views, and beyond that, to the darkened or opaque grounds of Baroque tenebrism. And yet, this groundwork, however much it competes for our attention, rarely informs our thinking about the Renaissance picture.