Significant people of the renaissance
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) drew on the human body for inspiration and created works on a vast scale. He was the dominant sculptor of the High Renaissance, producing pieces such as the Pietà in St. Peter’s Cathedral (1499) and the David in his native Florence (1501-04). He carved the latter by hand from an enormous marble block; the famous statue measures five meters high including its base. Though Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor first and foremost, he achieved greatness as a painter as well, notably with his giant fresco covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, completed over four years (1508-12) and depicting various scenes from Genesis.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.” Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Art, da Vinci believed, was indisputably connected with science and nature. Largely self-educated, he filled dozens of secret notebooks with inventions, observations and theories about pursuits from aeronautics to anatomy. But the rest of the world was just beginning to share knowledge in books made with moveable type, and the concepts expressed in his notebooks were often difficult to interpret. As a result, though he was lauded in his time as a great artist, his contemporaries often did not fully appreciate his genius—the combination of intellect and imagination that allowed him to create, at least on paper, such inventions as the bicycle, the helicopter and an airplane based on the physiology and flying capability of a bat.
Raphael Sanzio, the youngest of the three great High Renaissance masters, learned from both da Vinci and Michelangelo. His paintings–most notably “The School of Athens” (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the same time that Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel.
Isabella I of Castille 145-1504. One of the great Renaissance queens, Isabella I is known for her wise government and patronage of the arts. She married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, uniting most of span under their joint rule. From 1482 isabella and Ferdinand waged a war to conquer Granada, the last outpost of the Moors in Spain. While Ferdinand was at the front, Isabella ran the government and provided for the support of the troops. Throughout her reign, Isabella strengthened her royal authority, creating a more centralized government, abolishing the nobles' rights to coin money, restoring the central currenty and codifiying the law. After the war Isabella created a court of learning where literature, music, and art were valued. She supported Christopher Columbus, financing his voyage to India, which led to the discover the New World.