Sandro Botticelli
(1445 - 1510) Florentine early Renaissance painter whose Birth of Venus (c. 1485) and Primavera (1477-78) are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.

Masaccio
Tommaso (Masaccio) was born in San Giovanni in Altura (now San Giovanni Valdarno) on 21st December 1401. His father was Giovanni di Mone Cassai, a notary by profession, and his mother was Monna Jacopa di Martinozzo.

Giotto di Bondone
Florentine painter and architect. Outstanding as a painter, sculptor, and architect, Giotto was recognized as the first genius of art in the Italian Renaissance. Giotto lived and worked at a time when people's minds and talents were first being freed from the shackles of medieval restraint.

Filippo Brunelleschi
Florence 1377 - 1446 . Sculptor and architect. He is famous for the daring and original ideas behind his projects (such as the Cupola of the Duomo in Florence) and for the way in which he harmoniously re-elaborated the forms of classical architecture according to the new spirit of his age. He was trained as a sculptor and goldsmith in one of the typical Florentine workshops.

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo was born on 15th April 1452 at Anchiano near Vinci in the Florence area. He was the illegitimate son of a notary, Ser Piero, and a young woman named Caterina

Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was a Renaissance artist, sculptor and poet. Michelangelo is famous for creating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as well as the Last Judgment over the altar, and The Martyrdom of St. Peter and The Conversion of St. Paul in the Vatican's Cappella Paolina; among his many sculptures are those of David and the Pietà...

Raffaello Sanzio
Raphael was born on 6 April 1483 to Giovanni Santi and Màgia Ciarla. His father, a painter, was well known in artistic circles in Urbino. His works contain motifs from various sources, among them Perugino and Melozzo da Forli.

Giorgio Vasari
He studied the basic methods of the early Mannerist school of painting in Rome and Florence, where he took his cue from Raphael and Michelangelo as well as from Venetian influences. Thanks to his eclectic and scholarly education, he was soon mixing in a favourable environment in Rome (1542-46) which brought him into the circle of Cardinal Farnese, who gave him his first commission...

Benvenuto Cellini
Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and metal-worker. His autobiography, written in a racy vernacular, has been famous since the 18th century (it was first published in 1728) for its vivid picture of a Renaissance craftsman proud of his skill and independence, boastful of his feats in art, love, and war, quarrelsome, superstitious, and devoted to the great tradition embodied in Michelangelo. It has given him a wider reputation than could have come from his artistic work alone; but to modern eyes he also appears as one of the most important Mannerist sculptors, and his statue Perseus is one of the glories of Florentine art.

Giambologna
Giambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, also known as Giovanni Da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna (1529 - 1608) was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.

Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (1420?-92). One of the great artists of the early Italian Renaissance, Piero della Francesca painted religious works that are marked by their simple serenity and clarity. He was also interested in geometry and mathematics and was known for his contributions in these fields.

Duccio di Buoninsegna
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255-1260, Siena - c. 1318-1319, Siena) was the most influential Sienese artist of his time and one of the key figures in the development of European painting. Duccio is considered to have had a major influence on the formation of the International Gothic style, and to have influenced Simone Martini and the brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, among others.

Donatello
Donatello was the son of Nicolo di Betto Bardi, a member of the Florentine Woolcombers Guild, and was born in Florence, probably in 1386. Donatello was educated in the house of the Martelli family. It is, however, certain that Donatello received his first training, according to the custom of the period, in a goldsmith's workshop, and that he worked for a short time in Lorenzo Ghiberti's studio.

Perugino
Pietro Perugino, real name Pietro Vanucci, Italian painter, master of the Umbria School, was born near Perugia in Umbria (southeast of Tuscany). We do not know about his initial training, but his early development was decisively influenced by Verrocchio and years spent in Florence, where he worked in the studio of Verrocchio, simultaneously with Leonardo da Vinci.

Andrea del Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio, born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, (c. 1435 -1488) was an influential Florentine sculptor, goldsmith and painter who worked at the court of Lorenzo de Medici. His pupils included Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli, but he also influenced Michelangelo. He worked in the serenely classic style of the Early-High Renaissance.