3. LEONARDO
DA VINCI
He was an Italian polymath: painter, scientist,
and inventor, just to name some of his talents. Leonardo di Ser
Birth name
Piero
Leonardo has often been described as the
archetype of the Renaissance man, whose April 15, 1452
unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his Born Vinci, Florence,
Italy
powers of invention.
He is perhaps the most diversely talented May 2, 1519
person ever to have lived. Died
(aged 67)
Amboise,
Touraine, France
Nationality Italian
Many and diverse
Field fields arts and
sciences
Movement High Renaissance
Mona Lisa, The
Works last supper, The
Vitruvian man
4. Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda ) is a 16th
century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, during the Renaissance.
The work is on display at the Louvre museum in Paris
under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of
Francesco del Giocondo. Arguably, it is the most famous
and iconic painting in the world.
The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a
woman whose facial expression is frequently described
as enigmatic, as though the subject is hiding a secret.
5. The Vitruvian Man, stored in the Gallerie
dell’Accademia, Venice, was drawn by Leonardo
da Vinci around the year 1487. It is
accompanied by notes based on the work of the
famed architect, Vitruvius. The drawing, in pen
and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two
superimposed positions with his arms and legs
apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle
and square. The drawing and text are
sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or,
less often, Proportions of Man.
6. The Last Supper , representing the last meal Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles and
disciples before his death, was painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century. It is a
mural painting in Milan created for Duke Ludovico Sforza and his Duchess Beatrice
d’Este.
7. He is one the greatest artists of all time. As an
artist he was unmatched, the creator of works
of sublime beauty that express the full
Michelangelo di
breadth of the human condition. Birth name Lodovico
Michelangelo’s output in every field during his Buonarroti Simoni
long life was prodigious: he is the best- 6 March 1475
Born near Arezzo,
documented artist of the 16th century. Tuscany
18 February 1564
Died (aged 88)
Rome, Italy
Nationality Italian
sculpture, painting,
Field architecture, and
poetry
Movement High Renaissance
David, The
Works Creation of Adam,
Pietà
8. The Statue of David, completed by Michelangelo
in 1504, is one of the most renowned works of
the Renaissance. It was placed in the Piazza della
Signoria, Florence.
Created out of a marble block from the quarries
at Carrara that had already been worked on by
an earlier hand, it definitively established his
prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary
technical skill and strength of symbolic
imagination.
9. Michelangelo, under the patronage of
pope Julius II, painted the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel.
He was originally commissioned to paint
the 12 Apostles against a starry sky, but
now contains over 300 figures and had at
its center nine episodes from the Book of
Genesis, divided into three groups: God's
Creation of the Earth; God's Creation of
Humankind and their fall from God's
grace.
The work is part of a larger scheme of
decoration within the chapel which
represents much of the doctrine of the
Catholic Church.
10. In 1497, the French ambassador in the Holy See
commissioned Michelangelo one of his most
famous works, the Pietà. The contemporary
opinion about this work was summarized by
Vasari: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless
block of stone could ever have been reduced to
a perfection that nature is scarcely able to
create in the flesh“.
11. GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
Giuseppe Mazzini was a political
revolutionary and one of the most
influential among the prophets of
democratic nationalism.
In 1831 he organized a new political June 22, 1805 (1805-
society called “La giovine Italia” (Young Born
06-22)
Genoa, Ligurian
Italy). The group's motto was God and the Republic, now Italy
People, and its basic principle was uniting
the various states and kingdoms of the
peninsula into a single republic as the only March 10,
Died 1872 (aged 66)
true foundation of Italian liberty. Pisa, Italy
Political activist,
Profession politician and
journalist
12. GIUSEPPE MARCONI
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian
inventor, best known for his
development of a radio telegraph
system. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize
in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in
25 April 1874(1874-
recognition of their contributions to the 04-25)
Born
development of wireless telegraphy“ and Palazzo Marescalchi,
Bologna, Italy
was ennobled in 1924 as Marchese
Marconi. 20 July 1937
(aged 63)
Died
Rome, Italy
Known for Radio
Nobel Prize for
Notable awards
Physics (1909)
13. GIUSEPPE
GARIBALDI
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an
Italian military and political
figure. In his twenties, he
joined the Carbonari (Italian
patriot revolutionaries), and Date of birth: July 4, 1807
fled Italy after a failed Place of birth: Nice, First french Empire
Date of death: June 2, 1882 (aged 74)
insurrection. He has been
Place of death: Caprera, Kingdom of Italy
dubbed the "Hero of the Two
Worlds" in tribute to his Movement: Il Risorgimento (Unification of Italy)
military expeditions in both Major organizations:
La Giovine Italia ("Young Italy")
Carbonari
South America and Europe. He
is considered an Italian national Garibaldi Memorial, Staten Island,
New York
hero. Garibaldi Monument in Taganrog,
Russia
A bust of Garibaldi outside the
entrance to the old Supreme Court
Major monuments: Chamber in the U.S. Capitol
Building in Washington, D.C.
Monumento a Giuseppe Garibaldi,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
A statue of Garibaldi pointing at
the Vatican City on Janiculum in
Rome, Italy
14. MARIA
MONTESSORI
Maria Montessori was the first woman in Italy
to receive a medical degree. She worked in
the fields of psychiatry, education and
anthropology.
She believed that each child is born with a
1870
unique potential to be revealed, rather than as Born Chiaravalle
a "blank slate" waiting to be written upon. (Ancona), Italy
She avocated in this sense a most natural and
1952
life-supporting environment, which should Noordwijk,
Died
adapt itself to children’s own needs. Olanda
She developed
revolutionary
teaching
Known for techniques by
observing the
way children
learn.
Two
nomination for
Notable awards
Nobel Peace
Prize
15. GIUSEPPE VERDI
Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian Romantic
composer, mainly of opera.
He was one of the most influential
composers of the 19th century.
Although his work was sometimes Birth name
Giuseppe Fortunino
Francesco Verdi
criticized for using a generally diatonic
rather than a chromatic musical idiom, 10 Ottobre 1813
and for having a tendency toward Born
Roncole di Busseto
(Parma)
melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks
dominate the standard repertoire a
century and a half after their composition Died
27 Gennaio 1901
and are still performed nowadays in opera Milano
houses throughout the world.
Nationality Italian
Field music
La Traviata, Aida,
Works Nabucco, Rigoletto,
Don Carlos
16. DANTE ALIGHIERI
Dante is one of the greatest poets in the
Italian language.
Beatrice, the poetic love of his life, plays an
extremely important role in his poetry.
Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to
her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece mid-May to mid-
Born June 1265
The Divine Comedy, that she was his Firenze
guardian angel who alternately berated and
encouraged him on his search for salvation. September 14,
He was one of the first authors to write in Died
1321 (aged about
56)
the vernacular Tuscan, rather than Latin, Ravenna
and thus had a defining effect on what
Italian is today.
Statesman, poet,
Occupation
language theorist
Nationality Italian
17. RAFFAELLO
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino was an Italian
painter and architect of the High Renaissance,
celebrated for the perfection and grace of his
paintings and drawings. Raphael's work was
luminous in atmosphere, rich and clear in
Raffaello Sanzio
colour, harmonious in movement, sculpturally Birth name
da Urbino
three-dimensional, and perfectly balanced in
composition. March 28, 1483 or
Born April 6, 1483
Urbino, Marche
April 6, 1520
Died (aged 37)
Rome, Italy
Nationality Italian
Painting and
Field
architecture
Movement High Renaissance
