Artists' Biographies

Biographies

Alberti, Leon Battista

Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 and spent the first 40 years of his life studying Greek and Roman civilizations. Through his research, Alberti gained a reputation as a learned Latin scholar. In the later half of his life, Leon turned towards architecture and painting. He published two books, On Painting and On Architecture, which were very influential. Although Alberti was primarily known as an architect, he is often credited with formulating the first laws of perspective using the first perspective aids in painting.

Brunelleschi, Filippo

Filipio Brunelleschi, a famous Renaissance architect, developed many important construction methods as well as contributing to the evolution of perspective. His mathematical work led to the invention of linear perspective. Filipio also used his knowledge of gold and silversmithing to create his peepshow, an important development in interactive perspective art.

da Messina, Antonello

Antonello took his name from the town of Messina, where he was born around 1430. He married a woman named Giovanna and they probably had children. His career centered around oil painting. He seemed to be influenced by the Flemish style brought by northern Italian painters and by the few years he spent in Vienna.

da Vinci, Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the small French town of Vinci. He spent most of his time working on his inventions. In fact, painting was just one of his many talents. He was also known as a writer, an architect, a sculptor, a botanist, an engineer, a mathematician, a musician, a city planner, a costume and set designer, and a philosopher. With all the things he did, da Vinci often got in trouble for not finishing many of his works. Da Vinci wrote all his notations on his blueprints backwards! It is thought he did this to keep other people from being able to discover his secrets. He was one of the first inventors to experiment with the helicopter and the notion of flying. At that time in history autopsies on cadavers were illegal, but it is estimated that he performed more than thirty of them.

Leonardo also studied optics from both the scienitific and the artistic points of view. He believed that painting should be considered a Liberal Art because it was based on mathematically derived perspective theory and satisfied the primary sense of sight. Da Vinci realized that unless a person viewed a painting through a peephole, the visual image would be different than the image the artist painted. The "trompe l'oeil" school of art was later based on this principle.

Dou, Gerrit

Gerrit Dou was the son of a glass maker and engraver. Born in Leiden around 1613, Dou was a student of Rembrandt. Later, in the 1640s, Dou founded the Leiden School of Fine Painting or "fijnschilderij". In Leiden, a major university town and center for fine glass engraving, equipment such as perspective aids and optics were readily available. Multiple sources confirmed that Dou often used magnifying lenses and other aids to create his paintings. Dou's paintings payed careful attention to detail, treated surfaces with elegant lighting effects, and were noted for their observation of everyday life.

Dürer, Albrecht

Albrecht Dürer was the most famous German painter in the Renaissance. Because he kept a detailed diary, more is known about Dürer than any other Renaisannce artist. He was a prominent print maker as well as an artist. As an artist, Dürer introduced realistic watercolors as well as idealized nude figures to German art. He published many works on subjects ranging from civil defense to geometry and perspective. Dürer, who was influenced by Leon Battista Alberti, used modified perspective aids in many of his paintings.

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Augsburg about 1497 or 1498. He married Elsbeth Schmid around 1520. They had two sons and two daughters. He also had two more children by a mistress. His gift for drawing and satire showed up in his early teens. Holbein was known as, arguably, the best portrait painter ever. He was known for an "icy cold" attention to detail that got him tagged as a confirmed atheist, although his religious beliefs were undocumented. Holbein probably died of the plague in the fall of 1543.

Pozzo, Andrea

Andrea Pozzo was born in Trento on November 30, 1642. He became a Jesuit lay brother in 1665 but was allowed, even encouraged, to continue painting. He was best known for his perspective frescoes and his artistic contributions. The majority of his work was inspired by the church, including many altarpieces and ceiling vaults. He wrote a few brochures about painting which have been translated into many languages. Pozzo died in Vienna on August 31, 1709.

van Eyck, Jan

Van Eyck was born around 1390, in Maaseych, Netherlands. Little is known about him before 1422, when he was assumed to be in his late twenties or early thirties. The majority of his surviving works were from the last ten years of his life. Jan worked at the courts of both Duke John of Bavaria and Duke Philip of Burgundy. As the court painter, he had to paint portraits and decorations, design costumes and ornamentation for tournaments, ceremonies and festivals. He also painted shields, stain banners, and color statues. Jan van Eyck was more than just a painter. The Duke of Burgundy often sent him on secret missions to destinations unknown. In October of 1428, van Eyck was sent to paint a portrait of Princess Isabella to convince Philip to marry her. Philip later married Isabella on January 8, 1430. Around 1433, van Eyck married a woman named Margaret. They had at least two children. Jan van Eyck died in 1441, in Bruges.

Van Hoogstraten, Samuel

Samuel van Hoogstraten, born in 1627, was a pupil of Rembrandt. Van Hoogstraten's writings were a primary source of Rembrant's school. Along with the accounts, van Hoogstraten also included many criticisms of Rembrandt's paintings. He also studied under another pupil of Rembrandt, Carl Fabritius. Fabritius experimented with convex mirrors in paintings. Van Hoogstraten, a "trompe l'oeil" artist, created a series of peepshow boxes. These incredible boxes were extremely popular during his time.

Vermeer, Jan

Jan Vermeer, a Dutch artist, was born in 1632, and often called Vermeer van Delft to distinguish him from an earlier Jan Vermeer. He lived in the town of Delft his entire life. Vermeer, a painstaking worker, produced only about 40 known paintings. His paintings were known for their soft light and slightly blurred outlines. His work is also associated with the camera obscura, although recently his use of this device has come into question. The perspective of his paintings was so precise, however, that computer models of his room have been generated, adding substance to the theory he used the camera obscura in his work.

[Main Page] [Artists' Bios] [Guided Tour] [Science Principles] [Follow Up]