Artists

Leonardo da Vinci is the most representative personality of the Renaissance period and he was considered a polymath due to his interest and skill in fields like painting, sculpture, architecture, music, science, mathematics, engineering, anatomy, geology, botany, cartography, invention and writing.

Donatello is one of the first representatives of the early Renaissance period and in his 80-year long life he became famous mostly for his sculptures, especially for his bronze David which foresaw the realism that was to come and was also the first free-standing nude since ancient civilizations.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, best known for his Genesis scenes and The Last Judgment from the Sistine Chapel and his impressive sculptures David and Pietà, was the first Western artist to have biographies written about him, praising him as Il Divino, in his own lifetime, something unheard of until then.

Having studied all over Italy with some of the best masters, Sandro Botticelli soon became a favorite of the nobles who wanted to decorate their homes and he was even commissioned by the Pope for some works at the Sistine Chapel; unfortunately, towards the end of his life the teachings of Savonarola made him deny his early works.