Key Figures of the Renaissance

1. Key Figures of the Renaissance

2. Leonardo da Vinci • Considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person to have ever lived • Sculptor, architect, scientist, inventor, engineer, artist • The “Renaissance Man” • Known for • Mona Lisa • The Last Supper • Vitruvian Man

4. Michelangelo • Sculptor, painter, architect, engineer • Known for • Statue of David • Sistine Chapel Ceiling • The Last Judgment • Pieta

6. Raphael • Painter and architect • Known for • The School of Athens • Frescos in the Vatican • Madonnas (paintings of the mother mary)

8. Johannes Gutenberg • Invented movable type on the printing press • Made printing much faster and cheaper! • The Bible = first major book to be printed with movable type • People could now read it for themselves and started to question the Church!

9. William Shakespeare • Wrote many plays and sonnets during the Golden Age of Queen Elizabeth in England • Plays were performed at the Globe • Only male actors • Known for works such as Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth etc.

10. Geoffrey Chaucer • Author, poet, philosopher • Often called the Father of English Literature • One of the first writers to write in the vernacular • Known for his work The Canterbury Tales

11. Sir Thomas More • English philosopher, humanist and statesmen • Wrote books: Utopia, and History of King Richard III. • Worked closely with Henry VIII who later had him arrested and executed • Is a Saint in the Catholic Church

12. Isabella D’Este • Considered the First Lady of the Renaissance • Patron of the arts and a leader in fashion • Patron of arts for artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci