Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello are the creators of one of the greatest cultural and historical eras, the Renaissance. This period gave the world many brilliant inventors, artists, architects and sculptors. However, the names of this famous four are known, perhaps, to everyone primarily thanks to the characters of the same name in the popular animated series. If for you Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello are primarily associated with a team of mutant turtles, then you will be interested to know about the real people after whom they were named.

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Leonardo da Vinci - Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist and engineer was born on April 15, 1452 in the town of Anchiano near the city of Vinci, not far from Florence. His father was the notary Pierrot, and his mother was the peasant woman Katerina. Leonardo spent the first years of his life with his mother. Soon his father married a rich and noble girl, but this marriage turned out to be childless. Therefore, Piero took his three-year-old son to be raised. Leonardo yearned for his mother all his life and tried to recreate her image in his works of art.

At the age of 15, Leonardo da Vinci was apprenticed to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio. In Verrocchio's workshop he received a multifaceted education, including painting, sculpture, and the technical and mechanical arts. Leonardo da Vinci owes his outstanding achievements in various fields to his teacher, who helped him develop analytical skills and instilled in him a love of universalism.

In 1472, Leonardo da Vinci became a member of the guild of painters of Florence.

One day Verrocchio received an order for the painting “The Baptism of Christ”. He commissioned Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. This was a common practice of the time: the teacher created the picture together with the students. Two Angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrocchio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As the Italian painter Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned his brush and never returned to painting.

It is believed that about 15 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci (in addition to frescoes and drawings) have survived. Of these, five are kept in the Louvre, one each in the Uffizi, Alte Pinakothek, Czartoryski Museum, London and Washington National Galleries, as well as in other museums.

Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci: “Mona Lisa”, “The Last Supper”, “Portrait of a Musician”, “Savior of the World”, “Madonna and Child”, “Madonna of the Rocks”, “Portrait of Ginevra de Benci”, “Benois Madonna”, “The Beautiful Ferroniere”, “John the Baptist”, “Annunciation”.

As a scientist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci considered experience to be the only criterion of truth. He studied mathematics, mechanics, hydraulics, anatomy and physiology of humans and animals, botany, geology, etc.

Leonardo da Vinci was the first to describe the equilibrium of liquids in communicating vessels, approaching Pascal's law, which was discovered only in 1653. He also studied binocular vision and human and animal anatomy. He created detailed anatomical drawings that formed the basis of modern scientific illustration, was the first to describe a number of bones and nerves, and also studied questions of embryology and comparative anatomy. A brilliant scientist proposed a way to determine the age of trees by tree rings.

Leonardo da Vinci's inventions were ahead of their time. The only invention that gained recognition during his lifetime was the wheel lock for a pistol. Leonardo da Vinci was involved in the design of aircraft, creating a model of an ornithopter; his notes also contain diagrams of a glider and a parachute. He also developed a design for a diving suit, a lifebuoy, webbed gloves (prototype flippers), a bicycle, a metal cart for transporting soldiers (prototype tank), a catapult, a searchlight, a rotating crane, various machines, etc.

In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci, commissioned by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, created a design for a stone bridge across the Golden Horn in Istanbul. The bridge was supposed to have a span of 240 meters and consist of three arches resembling a bird's tail.

The Sultan considered the project too complex and risky, so he abandoned it. In 2001, a pedestrian bridge with a span of 100 meters was built in Norway based on da Vinci's sketches.

Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519 in Amboise, France. He was buried in the Church of Saint-Florentin, but his tomb was destroyed during the French Revolution. In 1874, da Vinci's supposed remains were reburied in the Saint-Hubert chapel.

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Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the most famous sculptors, artists, poets, painters and architects of all times, was born in 1475 in the city of Caprese in the family of an impoverished Florentine nobleman, Lodovico Buonarroti. Michelangelo's mother died from exhaustion due to frequent pregnancy in the year of his sixth birthday.

In elementary school, Michelangelo did not show much interest in his studies. He preferred communicating with artists and copying icons and frescoes to his studies.

In 1488, the boy’s father apprenticed in the studio of the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio, and a year later he moved to the school of the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, which existed under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici. The talent of young Michelangelo attracted the attention of Lorenzo de' Medici. He accepted him into his home and financially helped Michelangelo develop.

Michelangelo is considered not only one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance, but also the true “father of Baroque” in architecture. His works were recognized as masterpieces of the Renaissance during his lifetime. The Italian sculptor was the first representative of Western European art whose biography was published during his lifetime.

Michelangelo lived almost 89 years. During this period, thirteen popes were replaced - he carried out orders for nine of them.

The ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel are one of the artist’s most monumental works. Goethe wrote: “Without seeing the Sistine Chapel, it is difficult to form a clear idea of what one person can do”. Among his architectural achievements are the design of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, the stairs of the Laurentian Library, Campidoglio Square and others.

The most famous sculptural works include “David”, “Bacchus”, “Pieta”, statues of Moses, Leah and Rachel for the tomb of Pope Julius II. Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo's first official biographer, wrote that “David” “robbed the glory of all statues, modern and ancient, Greek and Roman”.

Michelangelo was not only a sculptor, but also a poet. About 300 poems of the genius have survived to this day. The main themes are the glorification of man, the bitterness of disappointment and the loneliness of the artist.

Michelangelo died in February 1564 in Rome, just short of his 89th birthday. Before his death, he dictated his will in his characteristic laconic manner: “I give my soul to God, my body to the earth, my property to my relatives”. At the beginning of March, the sculptor's body was secretly transported to Florence and solemnly buried on July 14, 1564 in the Franciscan church of Santa Croce.

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Rafael Santi was born in 1483, in the city of Urbino. The Italian painter, draftsman and architect of the Umbrian, Florentine, and then Roman schools lived only 37 years and during his short life became one of the most famous and wealthy artists in Italy.
Rafael lost his parents at an early age. His mother, Margie Charla, died when he was 8 years old, and his father, Giovanni Santi, died three years later.

Raphael Santi's earliest work, the fresco of the Madonna and Child, is still in the Raphael House Museum in Urbino. Among the artist’s first works are “The Banner with the Image of the Holy Trinity” and the altar image “The Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino” for the Church of Sant'Agostino in Città di Castello.

Raphael's works are admired for their clarity of form, simplicity of composition, and embodiment of the Neoplatonic ideal of human greatness and beauty. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael forms the traditional triad of great masters of the High Renaissance. Raphael was thirty-one years younger than da Vinci, eight years younger than Michelangelo, he became a representative of the new generation of the era, and with his premature death in 1520, the decline of the High Renaissance in Italy began.

Raphael was an incredibly productive artist. He led a large workshop and left behind a rich creative heritage.

One of Raphael's most recognizable paintings is the Sistine Madonna. The artist’s most famous works include: the fresco “The School of Athens”, “The Transfiguration”, the frescoes “Stanzas”, “Donna Velata”, “The Three Graces”, “The Triumph of Galatea”, etc.

Like many other Renaissance artists, Raphael was not only an excellent painter, but also a talented poet. His drawings, accompanied by sonnets, have survived.

Raphael died in Rome on April 6, 1520 at the age of 37. Modern researchers are inclined to believe that the cause of death was a respiratory disease and the associated high temperature. A fatal role was played by a medical error - the doctors sent by the Pope, having made an incorrect diagnosis, tried to reduce the temperature by bloodletting, which is dangerous for severe colds (this was already known in the XVI century).

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Donatello, full name Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor of the Florentine school, considered one of the founders of Renaissance monumental sculpture and relief, as well as the genre of sculptural portraiture.

Donatello was born in Florence in 1386 into a simple family. His father was a wool carder. Since childhood, he showed talent for sculpture and painting. Donatello studied in one of the many Florentine sculpture workshops, where he met the architect Brunelleschi. Together they went to Rome to study with the famous master Lorenzo Ghiberti.

After returning from Rome, Donatello immediately began working on numerous orders. He created sculptures for aristocrats, bankers and even Casimo de' Medici himself. During this time, Donatello experimented with two styles: classical and realistic. His realistic sculptures were so expressive that they shocked the imagination of his contemporaries, accustomed to the idealized images of Greek and Roman sculpture. Donatello's works still adorn many architectural landmarks in Florence, including Giotto's Tower, the Bargello Museum and the Old Palace of Casimo de' Medici.

In 1444 Donatello moved to Padua, where he was commissioned to decorate the Church of St. Anthony. He managed to revive the technique that ancient Roman masters once owned. Thanks to this, his works in Padua are considered one of the most outstanding in the master’s work.

They did not want to let Donatello leave Padua. The master was inundated with orders just so that he would not go anywhere, but he was too attached to Florence.

After 13 years of work in Padua, Donatello returned to Florence, where in 1457 he began work on the sculpture of John the Baptist. it is now in the Bargello Museum in Florence. After its completion, he created bas-reliefs to decorate the Church of St. Lawrence and tombstones for the church aristocracy.

Donatello was known for his hard work and unpretentiousness. He took on any orders, even the most insignificant ones. He was not interested in money, he created for the sake of art. An interesting fact is that he kept all the proceeds in a basket in his workshop. Each student could take from there as much as he needed.

The statue of “David”, created for the garden of Casimo de' Medici, was revolutionary for its time. Before Donatello, no one could dare to sculpt a completely nude sculpture.

Very little is known about Donatello's personal life. It is unknown whether he had a family. However, he was very respected and loved in Florence. After his death, the townspeople decided to preserve his sculptures for posterity and prohibited their removal from the city.

The great sculptor worked until he was very old. The master died in 1466 and was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo, which he once decorated with bas-reliefs.

Resources: ru.wikipedia.org; obrazovaka.ru; ria.ru; dzen.ru; artifex.ru

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