Artists, Writers and Scientists of the Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Italian painter, sculptor, inventor, engineer, scientist and mathematician.

• The classic “Renaissance Man”.

• Best known works include “Mona Lisa” and “Vitruvian Man”.

Leonardo’s works

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

• Italian painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer.

• Most famous works include “David” and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo’s “David”

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

• Italian painter who lived in Florence.

• His best known works include “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera”.

“The Birth of Venus”, 1486

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)

• Italian architect and engineer.

• Best known for designing the dome of the Florence cathedral.

The Florence Cathedral

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652)

• Italian painter born in Rome.

• She was the first female painter to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence.

• Famous works include “Judith Beheading Holofernes”.

Some of her works

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

• Italian scholar, poet, and early Renaissance humanist.

• Modelled his work after Latin poets like Cicero, Virgil and Seneca.

• His sonnets were admired throughout Europe.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)

• Italian poet, author, and Renaissance humanist.

• He was a friend and student of Petrarch.

• His best known works include the “Decameron” and “On Famous Women”.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

• Italian political philosopher, humanist diplomat and writer who lived in Florence.

• Wrote “The Prince”, a guide to rulers on how to maintain their power.

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

• Spanish novelist, poet and playwright.

• His masterpiece, Don Quixote, is considered to be the first modern novel, and a classic of Western literature.

Jan van Eyck (1395-1441)

• Flemish painter, considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th Century.

• Best known for portraits and religious scenes.

Some of his works

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)

• Early Dutch Renaissance painter.

• Used fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts.

• Best known work is “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.

“The Garden of Earthly Delights”

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

• German painter, printmaker and mathematician.

• Known for his religious works, portraits and landscapes.

• Used mathematical principles such as proportion and perspective.

Dürer’s “Rhinoceros”

Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569)

• Flemish Renaissance painter and printmaker.

• His work was influenced by Bosch.

• Best known for his landscapes and peasant scenes.

The Tower of Babel (1563)

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)

• Dutch painter, printmaker and etcher.

• Considered one of the greatest European artists of all time.

• Best known for his portraits and biblical scenes.

“Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp”

Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468)

• German goldsmith, printer and publisher who invented modern book printing

• His invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution, one of the most important events in the modern world.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

• Polish astronomer, mathematician and physician.

• The first person to come up with the theory that the earth was not the centre of the universe.

• Believed that the sun was the centre of the universe.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

• German mathematician, astronomer and scientist.

• Best known for Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, which laid the foundation for Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

• Italian physicist, mathematician, physician and astronomer.

• His invention of the telescope has led to him being called the “father of modern astronomy”.

• Also discovered that falling objects accelerate at a uniform rate.Used his study of tides to prove that the earth moved.

Galileo and the Inquisition• Galileo supported Copernicus’ ideas that the earth was

not the centre of the universe.

• He believed that the earth moved, which he tried to prove using his study of tides.

• He published his “Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems” in 1632, defending Copernicus’ ideas against the idea that the earth was the centre of the universe.

• After it was published, he was tried by the Roman inquisition, which found him guilty of heresy.

• He was forced to deny his beliefs and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition