Key Figures of the Renaissance

Jan van Eyck

Sep 24, 1395

Lived in Bruges
Flemish painter
Appeared in 1433 on Portrait of a Man in a Turban
Married around 1432

Johannes Gutenberg

Sep 24, 1398

Mainz, Electorate of Mainz
a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, introduced printing to Europe
made polished metal mirrors
title Hofmann by von Nassau

Leonardo da Vince

Apr 15, 1452

Tuscan hill town of Vinci
painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer
age of twenty, qualified as a master in the Guild of St Luke
age of fourteen, was apprenticed to the artist Andrea di Cione

Niccolo Machiavelli

May 3, 1469

Born in Florence, Italy
Italian historian, diplomat, philosopher, humanist & writer
buried at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence
His best-known book, "Il Principe"

Albrecht Durer

May 21, 1471

Born in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire
German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician,& theoris
1495, Dürer opened his own workshop
1498, engraving of St. Michael Fighting the Dragon

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Mar 6, 1475

Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany.
Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, & engineer
1493-1494 larger than life statue of Hercules
Age of 21, over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god Bacchus

Sir Thomas More

Feb 7, 1478

Milk Street in London

Baldassare Castiglione

Dec 6, 1478

Born in Casatico, near Mantua
was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier & a prominent Renaissance author
began his humanist studies in Milan, at age 16
The Book of the Courtier, became most famous in 1528

Raphael

Mar 28, 1483

Central Italian city of Urbino
Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance
Orphaned at eleven
Moved to Rome in the end of 1508

William Shakespeare

Apr 26, 1564

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon
English poet and playwright
Produced most of his famous work between 1589-1613
Several plays on stage in London in 1592