Famous Renaissance People You Should Know

1. Famous Renaissance People You Should Know

2. What is the Renaissance? Some Renaissance Values: • Enjoyment of Life: • Life has many pleasures worth enjoying • Interest in Learning: • Observe and explore the world to learn its secrets • Development of Many Talents: • Life is too interesting to limit yourself to one pursuit • Individual Worth and Dignity: • All people can improve and are worthy of respect • Freedom of Expression: • Free speech unlocks truth and creativity • Public Service: • One has a duty to serve and beautify the republic It’s a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th centuries, beginning in Italy and later spreading to the rest of Europe. “Renaissance” is French for “rebirth”–rebirth of interest in the values and learning of classical Greece and Rome. “Values” are the beliefs or attitudes which guide a person’s behavior.

3. Artists: Leonardo da Vinci • Painter, Scientist, Inventor • Created The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Madonna of the Rocks • Wrote thousands of pages of scientific and invention notes

4. Artists: Sandro Botticelli • Creator of Primavera (Springtime), The Birth of Venus, and other “pagan” works • Later fell under influence of counter-Renaissance monk Savonarola, burned paintings in the “Bonfire of the Vanities” and turned to religious paintings

5. Artists: Raphael Sanzio • Creator of The School of Athens and hundreds of other paintings and portraits • Worked for the popes, and much of his art is in the Vatican Museums

6. Artists: Pieter Brueghel • Flemish painter • Specialized in landscapes and “peasant” scenes

7. Artists: Jan Vermeer • Dutch painter • Specialized in small, intimate, “middle-class” scenes

8. Artists: Rembrandt van Rijn • Dutch painter • Especially famous for portraits, including a whole series of self-portraits, but also dramatic scenes

9. Architects: Filippo Brunelleschi • (Re)Discoverer of the principle of perspective (creating the illusion of three dimensions) • Architect of the dome of the Cathedral of Florence (Duomo)

10. Architects: Michelangelo Buonarroti • Painter, sculptor, architect • Created David, Pieta, Dome of Saint Peter’s • Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

11. Architects: Gian Lorenzo Bernini • Designed the Piazza and Colonnade of the Vatican • Sculptor who created Apollo and Daphne and the Tomb of Saint Peter

12. Writers: Francesco Petrarch • The “First” Humanist • Humanism? It’s the movement to “recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome.” It asserts “the genius of man . . . The unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind.” • Wrote “Sonnets to Laura”

13. Writers: Niccolo Machiavelli • Author, Politician • Wrote The Prince, a handbook of political warfare, plus treatises on the virtues of republics

14. Writers: Miguel de Cervantes • Novelist • Wrote Don Quixote, a spoof on the Code of Chivalry, which is often considered the first modern novel

15. Writers: William Shakespeare • Playwright • Wrote Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and others • ALL 37 are still performed today! • Also wrote poems, including a lengthy series of sonnets

16. Religious Leaders: Martin Luther • Founder of Protestant Reformation • Broke with Catholic Church by arguing that Pope is not head of all Christians and that faith alone is what is needed for heaven

17. Religious Leaders: John Calvin • Founder of a second major branch of Protestantism • Emphasis on predestination • Only two sacraments: baptism and Eucharist

18. Religious Leaders: Pope Alexander VI • Perhaps the most worldly of the worldly Renaissance popes • From the Spanish Borgia family, used his position to foster his family’s prospects • Patron of Renaissance art: Michelangelo, Raphael, and many others

19. Political Leaders: Lorenzo de’ Medici • Leader of Florence • Called the “Magnificent”; presided over the heyday of the Florentine Renaissance

20. Political Leaders: Henry VIII • King of England • Presided over start of the English Renaissance • Started the English Protestant Church, called the Anglican Church • Famously had six wives in succession

21. Political Leaders: Elizabeth I • Queen of England • Brought relative religious peace to England • Defeated Spanish Armada • Started English colonization of New World • Presided over heyday of English Renaissance (patron of Shakespeare!)

22. Scientists: Nicolas Copernicus • Astronomer • Observed that the earth is in motion around the sun • This Copernican Theory stood in direct opposition to all previous thought

23. Scientists: Andreas Vesalius • Biologist • Wrote the first complete book on human anatomy

24. Scientists: Galileo Galilei • Astronomer, Physicist • Laid out first rules of modern physics • Using his telescope, observed new parts of the Solar System (page opposite has Galileo’s notes on the moons of Jupiter) • Validated the Copernican Theory

25. Scientists: Isaac Newton • Physicist • Laid out complete system of rules governing the physical universe, including the Laws of Motion and the Law of Gravity

26. World Explorers: • Wait until next year . . .