- 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, … - William Byrd
William Byrd (c. 1540 - 4 July 1623) was an English composer of the Renaissance. He lived until well into the seventeenth century without writing music in the new Baroque fashion, but his keyboard works are said to have marked the beginning of the Baroque organ and harpsichord style. - John Digweed
John Digweed (born January 1, 1967 in Hastings, England) is a British DJ and record producer. He began DJing at around age 13. His first breakthrough was getting a gig at the club Renaissance in Mansfield after fellow DJ Alexander Coe (aka Sasha) heard his demo. John Digweed, along with Sasha, as Sasha and Digweed, is known for promoting a progressive trance/house sound that became popular in Europe and North America in the late 1990s and early 2000s. - Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi (May 15, 1567 (baptized) - November 29, 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer. His work marks the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music, and during his long life he produced works that can be classified in both categories. Monteverdi has been regarded as a revolutionary who brought about change in musical style. He wrote one of the earliest operas, "Orfeo", … - Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 - 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly "Volpone" and "The Alchemist" which are considered his best, and his lyric poems. A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. - 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. - Renaissance Humanism
Renaissance humanism (often designated simply as "humanism") was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century. Initially a humanist was simply a student or teacher of Latin and Latin literature. By the mid-fifteenth century humanism described a curriculum - the "studia humanitatis" - comprised of grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry and history as studied via classical authors. - Thomas Morley
Thomas Morley (1557 or 1558 - October 1602) was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the foremost member of the English Madrigal School. He was the most famous composer of secular music in Elizabethan England, and the composer of the only surviving contemporary settings of verse by Shakespeare. Morley was born in Norwich, in East Anglia, the son of a brewer. Most likely he was a singer in the local cathedral from his boyhood, … - Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne-Delecroix (February 28 1533-September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography - and his massive volume "Essais" (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, … - 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. - Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (November 3, 1500 - February 13, 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance. - Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino (Latin name: Marsilius Ficinus; Figline Valdarno, October 19 1433 - Careggi, October 1 1499) was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin. His Florentine Academy, an attempt to revive Plato's school, … - Filippo Brunelleschi
" Filippo Brunelleschi"' was an Italian architect and one of the first architects to be associated with the Italian Renaissance in Florence. All of his principal works are in Florence. He achieved extraordinary recognition during his lifetime. As explained by Antonio Manetti, who knew Brunelleschi and who wrote his biography, Brunelleschi "was granted such honors as to be buried in Santa Maria del Fiore, and with a marble bust, which they say was carved from life, … - Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti (born Lorenzo di Bartolo) (1378 - December 1, 1455) was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking. Ghiberti was born in Florence. He first became famous when he won the in 1401 competition for the second set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral in Florence. Brunelleschi was the runner up. The original plan was for the doors to depict scenes from the Old Testament, … - Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer, who is credited with inventing movable type printing in Europe (ca. 1450) and mechanical printing globally. His major work, the Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line bible, has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical quality. Among Gutenberg's specific contributions were the design of metal movable type, … - Jordi Savall
Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born 1941, in Igualada, Spain) is a Spanish viol player, conductor, and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol (viola da gamba) back to life on the stage. His repertory ranges from Medieval to Renaissance and Baroque music. - Jacob Burckhardt
Jacob Burckhardt (May 25, 1818, Basel, Switzerland - August 8, 1897, Basel) was a Swiss historian of art and culture, fields which he helped found. Siegfried Giedion described Burckhardt's achievement in the following terms: "The great discoverer of the age of the Renaissance, he first showed how a period should be treated in its entirety, with regard not only for its painting, sculpture and architecture, … - Annie Haslam
Annie Haslam (born in 1944) is an English progressive rock vocalist and songwriter. She was born in in Bolton, Lancashire. Originally a fashion student, she began studying under opera singer Sybil Knight in 1970 and developed her extraordinary five-octave vocal range. In 1971, she became the lead singer of Renaissance after answering an ad in a magazine and auditioning for the band in Surrey. In 1977, she began her solo career with her album "Annie in Wonderland", … - 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. - Bernard Of Clairvaux
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-August 21 1153) was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order. "The voice of conscience, the dominating figure in the Catholic Church from 1125 to 1153", his authority helped to end the schism of 1130. Bernard was the main voice of conservatism during the intellectual revival of Western Europe called the Renaissance of the 12th century and the main opponent of rising scholastic theology. - Christian Volckman
Christian Volckman, a graduate of Ecole Supérieure d'Arts Graphiques in Paris, is a French painter, graphic designer, photographer, author and producer. He is mostly known for his motion capture animation effort Renaissance, which was internationally released in 2006 and was widely lauded by movie critics. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2006. His other film work includes two clips and the short, Le cobaye, … - Giambologna
Giambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, also known as Giovanni Da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna (1529 - August 13 1608), was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style. - Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born November 7, 1943) is a literary critic, theorist and scholar. Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term. Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, … - Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia April 18, 1480 - June 24, 1519) was the daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia. Lucrezia's family later came to epitomize the ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption alleged to be characteristic of the Renaissance Papacy. In this story Lucrezia was cast as a "femme fatale", … - Clément Janequin
Clément Janequin was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most famous composers of popular chansons of the entire Renaissance, and along with Claudin de Sermisy, was hugely influential in the development of the Parisian chanson, especially the programmatic type. The wide spread of his fame was made possible by the concurrent development of music printing. - Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 - August 12, 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms. - Guillaume Dufay
Guillaume Dufay (Du Fay, Du Fayt) (?August 5, 1397 - November 27, 1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer and music theorist of the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the mid-15th century. - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 - 2 February, 1594) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. He was the most famous sixteenth-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. Palestrina had a vast influence on the development of Roman Catholic church music, and his work can be seen as a summation of Renaissance polyphony. - Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci. - 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. - 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. - 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. - Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo (c. 1485, Venice - June 21,1547, Rome), byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter of the early 16th century famous for his combination of the colors of the Venetian school and the monumental forms of the Roman school. - Marguerite de Navarre
Marguerite de Navarre (April 11, 1492 - December 21, 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angouleme and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of King Henry II of Navarre. As patron of humanists and reformers, and as an author in her own right, she was an outstanding figure of the French Renaissance. Samuel Putnam called her "The First Modern Woman" - Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus or Mercurius ter Maximus in Latin, is the syncretism of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth. In Hellenistic Egypt, the god Hermes was given as epithet the Greek name of Thoth. He has also been identified with Enoch. Other similar syncretized gods include Serapis and Hermanubis. Hermes Trismegistus might also be explained in Euhemerist fashion as a man who was the son of the god, … - 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). - Troilus
In Greek mythology, Troilus is a Trojan prince and one of the many sons of Priam. In medieval and Renaissance versions of the legend of the Trojan War, Troilus falls in love with Cressida, whose father has defected to the Greeks because he can foresee the sack and genocide of Troy. Cressida pledges her love to him, but when she is returned to the Greeks in a hostage exchange, she loses hope, and winds up with the Greek hero Diomedes. - Candice Night
Candice Night (May 8, 1971 in Hauppauge, Long Island, NY, USA) is an American vocalist/lyricist and the partner of former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. She sang backing vocals for Blackmore's band Rainbow and is now the lead singer for Blackmore's Renaissance-influenced project, Blackmore's Night. - Julian Bream
Julian Bream O.B.E. (born July 15, 1933) is a internationally celebrated British guitarist and lutenist. Among his other accomplishments, he has been successful in the renewal of interest in the Renaissance lute. =Biography= Bream was born in London and brought up in a very musical environment. His father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed by hearing the playing of Django Reinhardt. - Andrea Doria
Andrea Doria or D'Oria (November 30 1466 - November 25 1560) was a Genoese "condottiero" and admiral.
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