- Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. The illegitimate son of a notary, Messer Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina, Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, "da Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, …
- Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli ("little barrels"; March 1, 1444/45 - May 17, 1510) was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento). Less than a hundred years later, this movement, under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, was characterized by Giorgio Vasari as a "golden age", a thought, suitably enough, he expressed at the head of his "Vita" of Botticelli.
- Masaccio
Masaccio (born Tommaso Cassai or in some accounts "Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone"; December 21, 1401 - autumn 1428), was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. His frescoes are the earliest monuments of Humanism, and introduce a plasticity previously unseen in figure painting. The name "Masaccio" is a humorous version of Tommaso, meaning "big", "clumsy" or "messy" Tom.
- Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico was an Early Italian Renaissance painter, referred to in Vasari's "Lives of the Artists" as having "a rare and perfect talent"." Known in Italy as il Beato Angelico, he was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John from Fiesole). In Giorgio Vasari’s "Lives of the Artists", written prior to 1555, …
- Tintoretto
Tintoretto (real name Jacopo Comin; September 29, 1518 - May 31, 1594) was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance. In his youth he was also called Jacopo Robusti, as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a rather robust way against the imperial troops. His real name 'Comin' has only recently been discovered by Miguel Falomir, the curator of the Prado, …
- Filippo Lippi
Fra' Filippo Lippi (1406 - October 8 1469), also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Italian 15th century school.
- Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it towards a more sensuous and colouristic style. Through the use of clear, slow-drying oil paints, Giovanni created deep, rich tints and detailed shadings.
- El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. He usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, Doménicos Theotokópoulos, underscoring his Greek descent. El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice; at 26 he traveled to Venice itself to study, then a common practice of young Greek men who wished to pursue a wider education.
- Lucas Cranach The Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder ("Lucas Cranach der Ältere", 1472 - October 16, 1553) was a German painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was born in southern Germany and studied in Vienna, but then moved to Wittenberg, where he spent most of his career as a court painter to the Saxon electors. His work includes many fine religious examples and several portraits of Martin Luther, although he also painted secular subjects.
- Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431 - September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance artist. A serious student of Roman archaeology and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective as he thought best, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting.
- Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter and mathematician. Along with Rembrandt and Goya, Dürer is considered one of the greatest creators of old master prints. He was born and died in Nuremberg, Germany and is best known for his prints, often executed in series, including the "Apocalypse" (1498) and his two series on the passion of Christ, the "Great Passion" (1498–1510) and the "Little Passion" (1510–1511).
- Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (c. 1385 - July 9, 1441) was a 15th century Early Netherlandish painter who lived in the then Duchy of Burgundy and is considered one of the great painters of the late Middle Ages. It is a common misconception, which dates back to the sixteenth-century writings of the Tuscan historiographer Giorgio Vasari, that Jan van Eyck created oil painting. It is however true that he achieved, or perfected, …
- Filippino Lippi
Filippino Lippi was a well-known painter working during the High Renaissance in Florence, Italy.
- Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449 - January 11, 1494) was a renowned Florentine Renaissance painter, a contemporary of Botticelli and Filippino Lippi. His many apprentices included Michelangelo.
- Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 - August 9, 1516) was a prolific Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. The works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time.
- Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1485 - August 27, 1576), better known as Titian, was the leader of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, in the Cadore territory, near Belluno (Veneto), in Italy, and died in Venice. During his lifetime he was often called "Da Cadore", taken from the place of his birth.
- Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto (c.1480 - 1556) was a Northern Italian painter draughtsman and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school. He painted mainly altarpieces, religious subjects and portraits. While he was active during the High Renaissance, he already constitutes, through his nervous and eccentric posings and distortions, a transitional stage to the first Florentine and Roman Mannerists of the 16th century.
- Hans Memling
Hans Memling (Memlinc) (c. 1430 - 11 August, 1494) was an Early Netherlandish painter, born in Germany, who was the last major fifteenth century artist in the Netherlands, the successor to Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, whose tradition he continued with little innovation.
- Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello was an Italian painter who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. Giorgio Vasari in his book "Lives of the Artist" wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective and would stay up all night in his study trying to grasp the exact vanishing point. He used perspective in order to create a feeling of depth in his paintings and not, as his contemporaries, to narrate different or succeeding stories.
- Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as "The Wedding at Cana" and "The Feast in the House of Levi". He adopted the name Paolo Cagliari or Paolo Caliari, and became known as "Veronese" from his birthplace in Verona. Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto comprise the triumvirate of pre-eminent Venetian painters of the late Renaissance (1500s).
- Luca Signorelli
Luca Signorelli (c. 1445 - October 16, 1523) was a Italian Renaissance painter. He was noted in particular for his ability as a draughtsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescoes of the "Last Judgment" (1499-1503) in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece.
- Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano (c. 1499? - November 1, 1546) was an Italian painter and architect. A prominent pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th century style known as Mannerism. Giulio's drawings have long been treasured by collectors; contemporary prints of them engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi, were a significant contribution to the spread of 16th century Italian style throughout Europe.
- Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo (also known as Piero di Lorenzo) (January 2, 1462 - April 12, 1522) was an Italian painter.
- Pieter Brueghel The Elder
Pieter Brueghel the Elder or Bruegel was a Netherlandish Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (Genre Painting). He is nicknamed 'Peasant Brueghel' to distinguish him from other members of the Brueghel dynasty, but is also the one generally meant when the context does not make clear which "Brueghel" is being referred to.
- Benozzo Gozzoli
Benozzo Gozzoli (c. 1421 - 1497) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. He is best known for a series of murals in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi depicting festive, vibrant processions with wonderful attention to detail and a pronounced International Gothic influence on Gozzoli's art.
- Matthias Grünewald
Matthias Grünewald, is a highly regarded figure from the German Renaissance. He painted primarily religious works, especially somber and awe-filled crucifixion scenes. The visionary character of his work, with its expressive colour and line, is in stark contrast to Albrecht Dürer's works. His paintings are known for their dramatic forms, vivid colors, and depiction of light.
- Vittore Carpaccio
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460 - 1525/1526) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school, who studied under Gentile Bellini. He is best known for a cycle of nine paintings, "The Legend of Saint Ursula". His style was rather conservative, showing little influence from the Humanist trends that transformed Italian Renaissance painting during his lifetime. He was influenced by the style of Antonello da Messina and Early Netherlandish art.
- Hans Holbein The Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497- before November 29 1543) was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known for his numerous portraits and his woodcut series of the "Dance of Death".
- Dosso Dossi
Dosso Dossi, real name Giovanni di Niccolò de Luteri, was an Italian Renaissance painter who belonged to the Ferrara School of Painting.
- Jacopo Bellini
Jacopo Bellini (c. 1396 - c. 1470) was an Italian painter. Jacopo was one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting in Venice and northern Italy. His sons Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and his son-in-law Andrea Mantegna, were also famous painters.
- Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 - february 23 1507) was an Italian painter. Born in Venice, the son of the painter Jacopo Bellini, he was christened Gentile after Jacopo's master, Gentile da Fabriano. From 1474 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice. Much of Gentile Bellini's surviving work consists of very large paintings for public buildings, including those for the Scuola Grande di San Marco (1470s), painted in conjunction with his brother, …
- Hans Baldung
Hans Baldung known as Hans Baldung Grien/Grün. German Renaissance artist as painter and printmaker in woodcut. He was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer.
- Domenico Veneziano
Domenico Veneziano (c.1410-1461) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active mostly in Perugia and Tuscany. Little is known of his birth, though he is thought to have been born in Venice, hence his last name. He then moved to Florence in 1422-23 as a boy, to become a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano. He is said to have worked with Pisanello in Rome around 1423-1430. One can see the influence of Benozzo Gozzoli in his work.
- Gerard David
Gerard David (c. 1460, Oudewater - August 13th 1523, Bruges) was an early Dutch Renaissance artist known for his brilliant use of color
- Bernardino Luini
Bernardino Luini (c. 1480/82-1532) was a North Italian painter from Leonardo's circle. Both Luini and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were said to have worked with Leonardo directly; he was described to have taken "as much from Leonardo as his native roots enabled him to comprehend". Consequently many of his works were attributed to Leonardo. Luini is said to have been a pupil of Ambrogio Bergognone. Luini was born in Dumenza. Details of his life are scant.
- Petrus Christus
Petrus Christus was a Flemish painter active in Bruges from 1444.
- Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi (c. 1459 - January 12, 1537) was an Italian painter and sculptor. He first influenced Leonardo da Vinci and then was greatly influenced by him. Born in Florence, he started to work in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop. After the death of his master, he inherited the direction of the workshop.
- Adriaen Isenbrandt
Adriaen Isenbrandt, also known as "Adrien Ysenbrandt", was a Flemish Northern Renaissance painter, specialized in religious subjects and devotional paintings. His name is also spelled as Isenbrant, Ysenbrant, Ysenbrandt or Hysebrant. He is believed to be the anonymous "Master of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin".
- Hugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes (c. 1440-1482) was a Flemish painter. Born in Ghent, he entered the artists' guild there in 1467. He was later elected dean of the guild. Suffering from a mental illness, he retired to the Red Cloister near Brussels around 1478 in the hopes that living in the monastery would help him overcome his depression. He was considered a lay member of the cloister. Van der Goes attempted suicide in 1480, and died two years later.
- Fra Bartolomeo
Fra Bartolomeo or Fra Bartolommeo (di Pagholo) (March 28, 1472 - October 6, 1517), also known as "Baccio della Porta", was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects.