Renaissance Figures project
by Natalie Saba
DaVinci
-Was born on 1452 in Vinci, Italy. Born of wedlock, the love child of a respected notary and a young peasant woman, he was raised by his father, Ser Piero and his stepmothers.
-Accomplishments: Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.
-Impact: Anatomy Studies, Scissors had a major impact on the mankind and the parachute had been imagined and sketched by him in the 15th century.
Donatello
-Known as Donato de Miccolo and was born in Florence, Italy, sometime in 1386. He was son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, a member of the Florentine Wool Combers Guild.
-Accomplishments: David was considered to be one of the best sculptures. Some masterpieces are St. Peter, St. Mark, etc.
Impact: He influenced Italian sculptors, notably Michelangelo.
Maximillian II
-Was the son of Ferdinand I, who succeeded as Holy Roman emperor after the abdication of Charles V.
Impact: Liberal religious policies permitted an interval of peace between Roman Catholics in Germany after the Reformation.
Charles V
-Was born in Ghent, Belgium, the son of Philip of Burgundy and Joanna of Spain. He was the Holy Roman emperor, King of Spain, and archduke of Austria.
-Accomplishments: He blunted the Ottoman offensive against Christian Europe and maintained his authority under difficult circumstances in the Netherlands.
-Impact: He opposed the Protestant Reformation and called the Council of Frent to formulate the official response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant formation.
Jean Clouet
-Was born in the Netherlands region around Valenciennes where the name Clouet was not common in 1486.
-Accomplsihments: Man Holding Petrarch's Works, Painting of Guillaume Bude.
-Impact: Some of Clouet's portrait show similarities to those by Holbein, who in turn borrowed the technique of portrait drawing in colored chalks, or pastels from Clouet.
-Was born on February 19, 1473. The fourth and youngest child born to Nicolous Copernious Sr. and Babara Watzenrode, an affluent copper merchant family in Torun, Poland.
-Accomplishments: identified the concept of a heliocentric solar system, in which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the solar system.
-Impact: Copernicus' understanding paved the way for Brahe, Kepler and Isaac Newton.
Machiavelli
-Was born in Florence on May 3, 1469. He was born into a wealthy and very influential family.
-Accomplishments: He built his generalizations from his first-hand experience within the realm of Renaissance politics and from historial facts. He also emphasized the uselessness of imaginative theorizing and instead noted, in a realistic manner, how political power could be effectively maintained.
-Impact: His emphasis on realism rather than idealism in politics and government had considerate impact on the way both political scientists and everyday citizens viewed rulers and forms of government.
Desprez
-Was born either in Hainaut (now Belgium) or in France. Historical discoveries revealed that he was born 10 years later in 1450 and some historical documents say that 1455 was his birth year.
-Accomplishments: Ave Maria, Missa "Pange Lingua"
-Impact: He pioneered many of the compositional techniques composers would go on to use centuries later.
Brunelleschi
-Born in 1377 in Florence, Italy. His early life is mostly a mystery. It is known that he was the second of three sons and that his father was a distinguished notary in Florence.
-Accomplishments: Rediscovered the principles of linear perspective and displayed his findings with two painted panels of Florence buildings and streets.
-Impact: By using Brunelleschi's perspective principles, artists of his generation were able to use two-dimensional space, crafting a realism not seen previously.
The Medici Family
-also known as the House of Medici, first attained wealth and political power in Florence in the 13th century through its success in commerce and banking.
-Accomplishments: One member became gonfaler standard bearer. While they ruled the city of Florence, they made incredible acts, such as spending money on their city and making it the most powerful state in Italy.
-Impact: The Medici family were very interested in the rebirth of learning in Europe and under their patronage the Renaissance flourished.
Magellan
-Was born in Portugal, either in the city of Porto or in Sabrosa, circa 1480. His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility, so after their deaths, when he was just 10 years old, he became a page for the queen.
-Accomplishments: He was the first to successfully attempt circumnavigation and managed to return to Spain.
-Impact: He confirmed that that the world was a globe. He opened up to Asia to Euporean markets, trade and colonization. He also brought up new trade routes.
Elizabeth I
-Was born on September 7, 1533 in Greenwich, England. She perhaps England's most famous monarch, was the daughter of King Henry VII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, she was only two years old when she lost her mother.
-Accomplishments: The reign of Queen Elizabeth I saw significant expansion overseas and witnessed in literacy and great achievements in the arts.
Isabella d' Este
-Was born in 1474 to the ruling family of Ferra. At the age of sixteen, she married Francesso Gonzaga.
-Accomplishments: At age sixteen, she was able to speak Greek and Latin as well as play the lute, sing, and debate with people than her. She was a patron of the Arts and set artistic fashions and standards.
-Impact: She set an example for women to break away from the traditional role of what women were supposed to be like.
Galileo
-Was born on February 15,1564 in Pisa in the Duchy of Florence,Italy. He was the first of six children born too Vincenzo Galilei, a well-known musican and music theorist, Giulia Ammannati.
-Accomplishments: The thermometer, the microscope, the hydrostatic balance, etc.
-Impact: His improvement upon the telescope and being the first to use it in the science of astronomy.
Shakespeare
-Was born on April 26, 1564,in Stratford-upon-Avon,England. He was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress.
-Accomplishments: He shaped the performing of community by writing plays that were entertaining and educating. He also wrote Romeo & Juliet.
-Impact: He introduced nearly 3,000 words into the English language.
Raphael
-Was born Raffaello Sanzio on April 6,1483, in Urbino, Italy. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter for the Duke of Urbino, Federigo de Montefeltro.
-Accomplishments: The oil paintings such as Sistine Madonna and potraits such as Protrait of Pope Julius II.
-Impact: He changed the way people look at art and made people think of personality when they looked at his paintings.
Van Eyek
-The date of birth is not known. The first existing record of Van Eyek is from the court of John of Bavaria at the Hague, where payments were made to Jan Van Eyck between 1422 and 1424, as court painter.
-Accomplishments: Isabella of Portugal and The "Ghent alterpiece"
-Impact: He painted himself into the potraits he was commissioned with. This is an equivalent to signing his name on the painting, or otherwise showing his ownership of his piece, which is a Renaissance concept because Middle ages artists never signed/claimed their pieces.
Luther
-Was born on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Saxony, in modern southeast Germany. His parents, Hans and Margarette Luther, were of a peasant linage, but Hans had some success as a miner and ore smelter.
-Accomplishments: translated the Bible into the German language and published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.
-Impact: ended of Catholic dominance in the West.
Cellini
-Was born on November 1, 1500. At the age of 15, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith.
-Accomplishments: the carved of black and white marble, the Perseus of bronze, a marble statue of Apollo. His most famous sculpture is the Nymph of Fountainbleu.
-Impact: Strongly influenced the painting and sculpting at Fountainbleu School, and he set high technical standards for the sculptors that followed him.