15 Famous People From The Renaissance Period

Michelangelo Daniele da Volterra by Daniele da Volterra from Wikimedia Commons

15 Famous People From The Renaissance Period

If you’ve heard anything about the renaissance period then you’d know that this was when the most creative people emerged. The Renaissance period was a cultural and intellectual awakening in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.

This period saw a resurgence of interest in ancient Greek and Roman literature, art, and culture and a desire to learn more about the natural world using science and reason. Some of the brightest thinkers in human history, including artists, philosophers, scientists, and writers, rose to prominence during the Renaissance. It was a time when innovation and inventiveness were at their peak.

Everything that happened since then has had a lasting impact on human knowledge and culture. Here are 15 famous people from the Renaissance period that are definitely worth knowing.

1. Donatello

Uffizi Donatello by Wimedia Commons

Many generations of artists have been inspired by Donatello’s magnificent creations. Donatello was raised in Florence, the centre of the Renaissance, where he also completed his studies to become a jeweller.

He kept touring Italy with Brunelleschi, taking advantage of the opportunity to research historic architecture and art. Traditional concepts are obviously present in Donatello’s work. His most famous work, the bronze David, was the first free-standing naked figure produced since antiquity, paving the way for Europe to rediscover antiquity.

2. Jan van Eyck

Dutch painter Jan van Eyck, one of the forerunners of the Renaissance, transformed Northern European painting and produced some of history’s most prized works of art. This Renaissance painter created a variety of religious, political, and personal works, primarily in the form of portraits and altarpieces. He was a diligent and diverse artist.

The Arnolfini Portrait, which he created towards the end of his work, is the most important portrait by van Eyck. The painting is notable for how the artist uses perspective to portray the entire room, in addition to the tiny mirror on the back wall, which is even more significant. Upon closer inspection, one can see a figure mirrored in it. Numerous people believe that the image represents the creator. Such particulars altered how people viewed art.

3. Leonardo da Vinci

Image: Monalisa. By Unknown. Wikimedia Commons

Realizing success in a wide range of fields, such as art, sculpture, engineering, and mathematics, Leonardo da Vinci truly played a key role during this period. After being born in Florence, Italy, in 1452, he primarily worked for various Italian clients, including the Medici family.

In addition to his astounding ability to accurately depict the natural world, Da Vinci’s work was distinguished by his extraordinary aptitude for capturing human emotion and expression. Two of his most well-known works, The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, have come to symbolise Western art as a whole. Leonardo da Vinci, in addition to his artistic achievements, was a gifted scientist and inventor who made significant contributions to areas such as anatomy, engineering, and astronomy.

4. Sandro Boticelli

One of the well-known Florentine painters, Sandro Botticelli, played a significant role in the development of the Early Renaissance. Like many of his peers, Botticelli was steadfast in his desire to recapture the harmony, symmetry, and balance that characterised classical aesthetic standards. Botticelli didn’t impress his viewers in a dramatic or striking way. Instead, he used vibrant colours and skilful brushstrokes to create a transcendent and serene atmosphere. Botticelli used layers of fine pigment to give his paintings a sense of depth and warmth that gave his human forms a sense of life.

5. Hieronymus Bosch

painting by Hieronymus Bosch from Wikimedia Commons

Bosch, who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the Northern Renaissance, is known for creating imaginative works full of religious symbolism, allegory, and fantastical elements that are depicted in busy situations across large compositions.

His use of unexpected colour in some of his unsettling hell images adds an extra layer of unease. The Garden of Earthly Delights, his most well-known piece, depicts a landscape teeming with bare-chested people and unusual flora and animals. Numerous art historians attribute the invention of surrealism to Bosch as a result of the fantastical picture.

6. Lorenzo de’ Medici

Medici by Girolamo Macchietti from Wikimedia Commons

The Medici family, who were de facto rulers of Florence and one of the wealthiest European families in history, was represented by Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–1492). During the Renaissance, patrons were the only source of support for artists. Even though Lorenzo de’ Medici rarely made his own commissions, he assisted in connecting artists with other patrons.

Among the artists who profited from Lorenzo’s assistance were Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sandro Botticelli. He was a statesman, a major patron of the arts, and through his close circle of intellectuals and scholars, he encouraged the development of Renaissance humanism.

7. Michelangelo

From 1475 to 1564, Michelangelo was a Renaissance-era artist, painter, architect, poet, and engineer. The Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, the David statue, and St. Peter’s Basilica, the most well-known example of a Renaissance building, are some of his greatest works. Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, Michelangelo was one of the three major figures of the Florence Renaissance, and his artistic influence is still felt today.

8. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, Picture courtesy of John Taylor

Shakespeare made many contributions to the Renaissance, but his use of language and his study of human emotion and psychology may have been the most important. Shakespeare was able to eloquently and deeply capture the complete spectrum of human experience through the exploration of complex themes in his plays, including love, jealousy, power, and retribution.

Shakespeare not only created some of the greatest works of literature ever written, but he also had a significant impact on the English language by bringing new words and expressions that are now used frequently. His work during the Renaissance left a lasting impression on literature, language, and society; as a result, his legacy is still honoured and studied today.

9. Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus By Sebastiano del Piombo Wikimedia

When you think about Colombus you think about discovery, right? or do you think about America, if he reminds you of either, you’re on the right track. Italian adventurer Christopher Columbus travelled to the Americas on four separate occasions between the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Columbus’s contributions to the Renaissance were mainly in the areas of geography and navigation, despite the fact that his voyages had a significant effect on world history. At his time, many people were keen on understanding the world and there was even a debate about whether the earth was flat or round, Columbus managed to sail west across the Atlantic and proved that the globe was round. 

His explorations also paved the way for new commercial routes to the Americas, which facilitated the transfer of commodities, concepts, and cultural practices between Europe and the Americas. The exploration and discovery of Columbus during the Renaissance served to foster the sense of wonder and adventure that came to characterise the time period and prepared the way for more exploration and discovery in the centuries that followed.

10. Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a man that wore many hats, if he wasn’t trying to figure out if the earth rotated around the sun he was a scientist, physician, economist or even a diplomat.  His most crucial belief was that the earth rotated around the sun, putting him squarely in conflict with the recognised doctrines of the church.

The most significant scientific advance of the Renaissance was his heliocentric theory of the solar system and the cosmos. He made a significant contribution to Galileo’s work that would not have been feasible without him. The Copernican Revolution often referred to as the birth of modern astronomy and the Scientific Revolution, was sparked by Copernicus’ release of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (‘On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres’) in 1543.

11.Matthias Grünewald 

Grunewald by University Library of Erlangen-Nürnberg from Wikimedia Commons

Matthias Grünewald, a German painter, was a representative of the Northern European Renaissance. Only 10 of his paintings are still in existence, but even so, they all display a very unique and distinctive style with vivid colours and dramatic expression. Light and shadow, distorted figures, and striking subject matter all combine to elicit a sense of transcendence in Grünewald’s masterworks.

Some art historians and academics commonly draw comparisons between Grünewald and Albrecht Dürer, one of his peers. Despite their obvious stylistic differences, Dürer has typically been credited with many of Grünewald’s paintings.

12. Francis Bacon

One of the most people of the Renaissance era was an English scholar, politician, and scientist called Francis Bacon. In order to comprehend the natural world, Bacon favoured the scientific method, which placed a strong emphasis on observation, experimentation, and empirical data.

His work in advancing the scientific method had a significant effect on the fields of natural science and philosophy and helped lay the foundations for the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. Politics and administration were other aspects of the Renaissance that Bacon contributed to. He supported a scientific approach to governance that placed a strong emphasis on reason and practicality because he thought that scientific knowledge and social advancement were closely intertwined.

13. Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca (also known as Petrarch), a pioneer of humanism during the early Italian Renaissance, is often referred to as the “father of humanism.” Petrarch was a devout Catholic who believed that God gave people the capacity for thought and creation so that they could be used to their fullest potential.

He argued that one basic tenet of Renaissance humanism was that classical works offered moral guidance for improving humanity. Many people think that the 14th-century Renaissance was sparked by Petrarch’s rediscovery of Cicero’s works in 1345. Italian scholar Pietro Bembo created the foundation for the modern Italian language in the 16th century using Petrarch’s works as a guide.

14. Galileo Galilei

Galileo (1564–1642) was arguably the most important Renaissance scientist who helped lay the groundwork for the scientific revolution that later flourished in northern Europe. Galilei, who is repeatedly referred to as the “father of empirical astronomy,” invented the telescope and promoted the heliocentric view of our solar system. He made important discoveries that revolutionised our knowledge of the world in both pure fundamental science and practical applied science.

15. Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne by Bibliothèque de Bordeaux from Wikimedia Commons

Michel de Montaigne was a powerful figure in the French Renaissance humanism movement (1533–1592). His 1850 Essais contributed to the literary structure of the essay (or “Essays”).

The book, which was first published in 1580, uses Montaigne’s distinctive essay format to achieve a balance between personal experience and scholarly knowledge. Among the writers he influenced were Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Montaigne’s insightful writings on a broad range of topics, including human motivation, children’s education, and human action, are notably current and diverse.

You can also read Top 15 Interesting Facts about The Renaissance