Renaissance Key Figures

Renaissance Key Figures

Period: Sep 24, 1350 to Sep 24, 1600

Jan van Eyck

Sep 24, 1395

Northern European
Painter
first appeared in 1433 on Portrait of a Man in a Turban
He served as both court artist and diplomat and became a senior member of the Tournai painters' guild

Johannes Gutenberg

Sep 24, 1398

German, Europe
blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher
introduced printing to Europe. His invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded as the most important event of the modern period.
the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type

Leonardo da Vinci

Jul 15, 1452

Italy
painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer
The mona lisa
He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator,[6] and the double hull, and he outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics

Niccolo Machiavelli

May 3, 1469

Italy
historian, diplomat, philosopher, humanist and writer
Machiavelli's best-known book, "Il Principe," contains a number of maxims concerning politics, but rather than the more traditional subject of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince."
In the 20th century there was also renewed interest in Machiavelli's La Mandragola (1518), which received numerous stagings, including several in New York, at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1976 and the Riverside

Albrecht Durer

May 21, 1471

German
painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist
he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since
His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavour than the rest of his work.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Mar 6, 1475

Italy
sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer
the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time
Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime

Sir Thomas More

Feb 7, 1478

England
writer
On 1 July, More was indicted for high treason at Westminster Hall before a special commission of twenty. More denied the chief charges of the indictment, which was enormously long, and denounced Rich, the solicitor-general and chief witness against him as a perjuror.

Baldassare Castiglione

Dec 6, 1478

Italy
courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author
The Book of the Courtier (Il Libro del Cortegiano), was published in Venice by the Aldine Press
In 1494 at the age of sixteen Castiglione began his humanist studies in Milan, studies which would eventually inform his future writings.

Raphael

Mar 28, 1483

Italy
painter and architect
This first of the famous "Stanze" or "Raphael Rooms" to be painted, now always known as the Stanza della Segnatura after its use in Vasari's time, was to make a stunning impact on Roman art, and remains generally regarded as his greatest masterpiece, containing The School of Athens, The Parnassus and the Disputa. Raphael was then given further rooms to paint, displacing other artists including Perugino and Signorelli
influenced by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceilin

William Shakespeare

Sep 24, 1564

English
poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer
Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare published two narrative poems on erotic themes