Capturing the Renaissance:
Old Traditions And New Ideas: 1400-1450:
Manuel Chrysoloras (1350-1415): Greek bearing gifts
Christine de Pizan (1364-1430): Defender of women
Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444): Light of his age
Jan Hus (1370-1415): Bohemia's proto-Protestant priest
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446): Realizing the impossible cathedral
St Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444): People's preacher
Donatello (1386/87-1466): Passion in stone and bronze
Cosimo de'Medici (1389-1464): Father of the fatherland
Jan van Eyck (1395-1441): Capturing the world in detail
Masaccio (1401-1428): Putting painting in perspective
Europeans At Peace: 1450-1475:
Flavio Biondo (1392-1463): Re-imagining the glory that was Rome
Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1481): Art reborn in another form
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464): God and man in a (nearly) infinite universe
Francesco Sforza (1401-1466): Self-made Duke
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472): Original Renaissance man
Pope Pius II (1405-1464): Humanist, poet and pope
Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457): Contentious for pleasure and for profit
Alessandra Strozzi (1407-1471): Mother's dreams and marital schemes
Isotta Nogorola (1418-1466): Young humanist turned holy woman
Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482): Artful Duke
Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1425-1482): Side-stepping social strictures
Gentile Bellini (1429?-1507): Portraits of faces and facades
Mehmet II (1432-1481): Conqueror of Constantinople
Emerging Nations: 1470-1495:
William Caxton (died 1492): English books for English readers
Heinrich Kramer (1430-1505): Inquisition's witch-hunter
Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros (1436-1517): Grand inquisitor
Felix Fabri (1441-1502): Pious pilgrim, wisecracking wanderer
Antonio de Nebrija (1441-1522): Inventor of Spanish
Matthias Corvinus (1443-1490): Hungary's humanist king
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492): Magnificent
Luca Pacioli (1445/46-1517): Dazzled by divine numbers
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510): From Pagan scenes to apocalyptic themes
Josquin des Prez (1450-1521): Restless choirmaster, star composer
Aldus Manutius (1450?-1515): Printer and purveyor of pocket books
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519): This man will never do anything
King Joao II (1455-1495): Perfect prince
Antonio Rinaldeschi (died 1501): Gambler and blasphemer
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): Admiral of the ocean sea
John Cabot (1451-1498): Sailor from Venice, explorer from England
Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498): Fire in Florence
Jakob Fugger (1459-1525): Financier of church and empire
Desiderius Erasmus (1466/67-1536): Temperate revolutionary
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527): First political scientist
Tommaso Inghirami (1470/71-1516): Hero of the Vatican, heroine of the stage
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528): Renaissance comes to Germany
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): Revolutionary of the celestial spheres
Isabella d' Este (1474-1539): First lady of the Renaissance
Cesare Borgia (1475-1507): To be imitated by all those who have risen to rule
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564): Miracles in paint and stone
Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529): Perfect courtier
Raphael (1483-1520): Master of the high Renaissance
Leo Africanus (1490-1554): Wanderer at heart, Christian by convenience
Collapse Of The Old Order: 1510-1535:
Hayreddin Barbarossa (died 1546): King of the Corsairs
Lucas Cranach the elder (1472-1553): Reformation's illustrator
Thomas More (1478-1535): Defending the 'good catholyke realme'
Martin Luther (1483-1546): New church
Bartolome de Las Casa (1484-1566): Apostle and missionary to the West Indies
Titian (1485-1576): Dynamic colour in Venice
Nicolaus Kratzer (1486/87-after 1550): Royal watchmaker and astrologer
Bernard van Orley (1488-1541): Weaver of paintings
Cristoforo da Messisbugo (1490-1548): Classic Italian cooking
Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547): Divine rhymer
Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549): Royal writer, auxiliary queen
Pietro Aretino (1492-1556): Scourge of kings'
William Tyndale (1494-1536): Scripture translator, bible smuggler
Francois Rabelais (1494-1553): Gargantuan talent
Hans Holbein the younger (1497/98-1543): Mirror of princes
Niccolo Tartaglia (1499/1500-1557): Stuttering savant
Pope Paul IV (1476-1559): Most hated of popes
Emperor Charles V (1500-1558): Emperor of the western world
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571): Great sculptor, better autobiographer
St Francis Xavier (1506-1552): Apostle and missionary to the East Indies
Andrea Palladio (1508-1580): Perfection in stone and brick
Jean Calvin (1509-1564): Predestined by God
Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510-1569): La Senora of the Sephardim
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564): Physician of the emperor, dissector of the dead
St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582): God's ecstatic disciple
Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589): Machiavellian queen
Louise Labe (1520/24-1566): Jousting poetess
Eleanor of Toledo (1522-1562): Duchess and party planner
Framing Of Modernity 1550-1600:
Laura Battiferra Ammannati (1523-1589): Sappho of her age
Pieter Bruegel the elder (c 1525-1569): Peasant painter
Dick Tarlton (died 1588): Queen's comedian
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/26-1594): Saviour of sacred music
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527?-1593): Heads of state, heads of cabbage
Sofonisba Anguissola (c 1532-1625): Feminine eye
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592): Literary art of introspection
Arcangelo Tuccaro (c 1535-1602): Acrobat to the aristocracy
Edmund Campion (1540-1581): One of the diamonds of England
Catena (died 1581): Rustler, robber, bandit chief
Veronica Franco (1546-1591): Courtesan and wordsmith
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601): Lord of Star Castle
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600): Burnt offering to science
Isabella Andreini (1562-1604): Born to the stage