1. Artists, Writers and Scientists of the Renaissance

2. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian painter, sculptor, inventor, engineer, scientist and mathematician. The classic “Renaissance Man”. Best known works include “Mona Lisa” and “Vitruvian Man”.

3. Leonardo’s works

4. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) Italian painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. Most famous works include “David” and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

5. Michelangelo’s “David”

6. Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) Italian painter who lived in Florence. His best known works include “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera”.

7. “The Birth of Venus”, 1486

8. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) Italian architect and engineer. Best known for designing the dome of the Florence cathedral.

9. The Florence Cathedral

10. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652) Italian painter born in Rome. She was the first female painter to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence. Famous works include “Judith Beheading Holofernes”.

11. Some of her works

12. Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) Italian scholar, poet, and early Renaissance humanist. Modelled his work after Latin poets like Cicero, Virgil and Seneca. His sonnets were admired throughout Europe.

13. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) Italian poet, author, and Renaissance humanist. He was a friend and student of Petrarch. His best known works include the “Decameron” and “On Famous Women”.

14. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian political philosopher, humanist diplomat and writer who lived in Florence. Wrote “The Prince”, a guide to rulers on how to maintain their power.

15. Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. His masterpiece, Don Quixote, is considered to be the first modern novel, and a classic of Western literature.

16. Jan van Eyck (1395-1441) Flemish painter, considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15 th Century. Best known for portraits and religious scenes.

17. Some of his works

18. Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) Early Dutch Renaissance painter. Used fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts. Best known work is “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.

19. “The Garden of Earthly Delights”

20. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) German painter, printmaker and mathematician. Known for his religious works, portraits and landscapes. Used mathematical principles such as proportion and perspective.

21. Dürer’s “Rhinoceros”

22. Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569) Flemish Renaissance painter and printmaker. His work was influenced by Bosch. Best known for his landscapes and peasant scenes.

23. The Tower of Babel (1563)

24. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) Dutch painter, printmaker and etcher. Considered one of the greatest European artists of all time. Best known for his portraits and biblical scenes.

25. “Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp”

26. Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468) German goldsmith, printer and publisher who invented modern book printing His invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution, one of the most important events in the modern world.

27. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer, mathematician and physician. The first person to come up with the theory that the earth was not the centre of the universe. Believed that the sun was the centre of the universe.

28. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) German mathematician, astronomer and scientist. Best known for Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, which laid the foundation for Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation.

29. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian physicist, mathematician, physician and astronomer. His invention of the telescope has led to him being called the “father of modern astronomy”. Also discovered that falling objects accelerate at a uniform rate.Used his study of tides to prove that the earth moved.

30. Galileo and the Inquisition Galileo supported Copernicus’ ideas that the earth was not the centre of the universe. He believed that the earth moved, which he tried to prove using his study of tides. He published his “Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems” in 1632, defending Copernicus’ ideas against the idea that the earth was the centre of the universe. After it was published, he was tried by the Roman inquisition, which found him guilty of heresy. He was forced to deny his beliefs and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

31. Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition