St. Peter's Renaissance Museum
The Famous Artists of the Renaissance
Leonardo Da Vinci
Some consider Leonardo to be the greatest painter of all time, others calling him the most talented man of all time. There's no doubt that Leonardo was brilliant. Some of his famous paintings include Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Virgin of the Rocks. It is said that Leonardo was a man born in the wrong time period, due to his ideas for inventions that weren't brought up again until hundreds of years later. Some of these inventions include the airplane, the first scuba suit, and alternative ways to building bridges. Everything that Leonardo saw he observed and wrote down notes about it. Leonardo was immensely interested in the human body and made a famous painting of a human body called the Vitruvian man. Leonardo died at the age of 67 in 1519, many of his ideas and writings not being discovered until after his death.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo was a High Renaissance man who was known for his paintings, sculptors, buildings, and poems. Spending most of his life in Italy, Michelangelo created the world famous paintings The Creation of Adam, The Last Judgment and the Madonna of the Steps. He also created world famous sculptors including The Statue of David, Moses, Pieta, and Bacchus. Also being an accomplished architect, he helped design the dome of the St. Peter's Basilica. The first work of art that made Michelangelo so famous was the painting of the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, which took four years to make. Michelangelo lived during the same time as both of the artists Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael and outlived both of them as well. Michelangelo died at the age of 88 in 1564, leaving behind a legacy that the whole world will acknowledge for centuries later.
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra
St. Peter's Basilica
Raphael
Raphael was considered one of the three "great masters" of bye high renassaince, the other two being Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Raphael was extremely productive and despite his short life of thirty seven years he left behind a tremendous amount of paintings behind. His most famous artworks being The School of Athens, Sistine Madonna, La Fornarina, and The Marriage of the Virgin. Raphael's talent ran in the family, his father also being a painter made the masterpiece Giovanni Santi. Raphael also did a little bit of architecture during his lifetime and for a short period of time was the most important architect in Rome. Even though he died in 1520, no one forgot Raphael and his works of art.
Sandro Botticelli
Although Sandro Botticelli didn't belong to the "trinity of great masters" of the High Renaissance, he was a great artist and painter of his time. His most famous paintings include Primavera, The Birth of Venus, and the Adoration of the Magi. There weren't a whole lot of details about the life of Sandro written down. Although we do know that Sandro had many influences in his life towards his painting including Girolamo Savonarola, Perugino, and Fillippini Lippi. He died in 1510, and was buried at the feet of the love of his life, Simonetta Vespucci, a married noblewomen.