There were lots of key players in the Renaissance, but it might not have happened without the financier, Cosimo de Medici. The key philosophers were Plato, Plotinus, and Aristotle, though most of the players thought the interpretations of Plotinus were from Plato. However, without Aristotle's emphasis on nature and observing nature, the realism that developed wouldn't have happened, either. The Renaissance philosophers of note were men like Ficino (head of Cosimo's Florentine Platonic Academy, which was more Neoplatonic than Platonic), Vasari (who wrote Lives of the Most Excellent Painters), and even most of the artists of this time dabbled in philosophy. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, inventor, philosopher, mathematician, and poet; Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, philosopher, musician, inventor, engineer, and saw himself particularly as an inventor of arms; Brunelleschi was a painter, sculptor, architect (dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo in Florence), inventor, and mathematician. To the north, the van Eyck brothers single-handedly invented oil painting, with soft blends, vibrant colors, and amazing realism. Another painter of note is Raphael, who was considered the "Prince of Painters."
• Cosimo de Medici (1433-1499) While the Medici family originally gained wealth by sheep and the wool they produced, by the time Cosimo (the Elder) came along, they were into banking. When Cosimo's father, Giovanni, died in 1429, Cosimo took over the family's business and wealth. Under his guidance, the family fortune did nothing but grow, even though for a time he was imprisoned and then exiled for "having sought to elevate himself higher than others." Not of royal blood, Cosimo became ruler of Florence by the will of the people, and engendered favor from them by building pride in Florence itself through lavish architecture and accompanying lavish artwork. Florence's fame reached the ears of the Pope's Vatican in Rome, and encouraged the Pope to spend even more money on architecture and artwork, thus employing many of the greatest artists of the era. Without the patronage of the Medici, Florence may not have ever developed into more than a provincial city state of not much prominence.
• Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) Marsilio Ficino was considered the philosopher of Florence, and headed Cosimo de Medici's Platonic Academy beginning in 1458, which was Cosimo's attempt to revive the Platonic Academy which was begun by Plato himself and continued until Justinian I closed it in 529ad. Ficino was a lover of things Plato, and while he made no distinction between Platonic and Neoplatonic philosphy, like most of his era he blended many different traditions to come up with something uniquely his own. The magical Hermes Trismegistus was most admired by Ficino, and thought to be a contemporary of Moses. To suggest Ficino's thoughts were slightly mystical as a result might be an understatement, and his metaphysical ideas were indebted to Plotinus. Artists such as Botticelli owed much to the Neoplatonism of Ficino.
• Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni(1475-1564) Thought to be the greatest artist even in his own time, Michelangelo still holds a spot of preeminence among artists of all time. He considered sculpting to be his forté, and had to be coaxed into painting the Sistine ceiling for Pope Julius II. Michelangelo later became involved with the design of St. Peter's Basilica, begun by Bramante. Building of St. Peter's began in 1506 (two years before Michelangelo began the Sistine ceiling) and lasted for 120 years, having seven designing the architecture in all. Michelangelo's work on the Sistine ceiling lasted 4 years, and ended around early 1512, only five years before Martin Luther's famous 95 Theses. If you zoomed past the dates of the building of St. Peter's Basilica, you missed the whole reason for Luther's posting them. Since the basilica was such a vast undertaking and required large funds up front to begin, the coffers were being squeazed in Rome, which is why Tetzel and others were offering indulgences to the faithful in Wittenberg in 1517. I am most taken with Michelangelo's sonnets (see The Sonnets of Michaelangelo Buonarroti). The English translations tend to miss the beauty and rhythm of the original, but what woman's heart could not be touched by, "If but the fire that lights your eyes Were equal to their beauty, all the snow And frost of all the world would melt and glow Like torches that blaze beneath the fierce tropic skies" (he's saying the object of his sonnet is hot, as in melt-the-earth hot...=) or what Christian's heart would not be touched by his "Prayer for Faith," which includes, "If You your blood so lovingly did pour, Let not that fullness (of love) fail or suffer short supply and thus withhold Faith that opens the doors of heaven." And to think he also melts our hearts with his painting and sculptures.
• Raphaello Sanzio (1483-1520) Known as Raphael, he became a reknowned painter in both Florence and Rome, painting an enormous number of works in his short thirty-seven years. Raphael moved to Florence in 1504, where he studied the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Fra Bartolommeo and other artists residing there. He was introduced to the sfumato and chiascuro of Leonardo da Vinci, and developed a refined, soft approach to his Madonna paintings for which he is mostly remembered today. In 1508 he was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II at the suggestion of Donato Bramante, who was working on St. Peter's Basilica. A most celebrated fresco was his "School of Athens," where he included all the prominent philosophers of Greece, as well as many of his own contemporaries. This was painted at the same time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine ceiling, yet it shows a mature style quite divergent from both Leonardo and Michelangelo. The staid verticals and horizontals of the figures grouped in "schools" of thought harmonize with the verticals and horizontals of the Roman architecture, all the while encircled by the "bull's eye" of the arcade of arches. If one looks closely, one finds portraits of artists contemporary to Raphael posing as the major figures of ancient Greece.
