Influential Figures in Arts and Letters
Diego Velázquez
Developed a naturalistic style with tenebrist lighting, influenced by Caravaggio and his followers.
Caravaggio
Considered the first great exponent of Baroque painting.
Goya
His work embraces easel and mural painting, printmaking, and drawing. In all these facets, he developed a style that ushered in Romanticism. Goya’s art also marks the beginning of contemporary painting and is considered a precursor to the avant-garde painting of the twentieth century.
Turner
An English Romantic landscape artist whose style led to the founding of Impressionism.
Andrea Palladio
Considered an author of Mannerism, his country villas and other works significantly influenced Neoclassicism.
Michelangelo
An Italian Renaissance sculptor, architect, and painter, considered one of the greatest artists in history for his sculptures, paintings, and architectural work.
Auguste Rodin
A French sculptor contemporary with the Impressionist current. He was framed within the absolute academicism of the neoclassical sculpture school.
Antonio Canova
An Italian sculptor, prominent in the Neoclassical style.
Phidias
A painter and architect belonging to the first Greek classicism. Phidias designed the statues of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis of Athens (Athena Parthenos).
Antoni Gaudí
A Spanish architect and leader of Catalan Modernism.
Le Corbusier
A Swiss-French theorist of architecture, architect, designer, and painter. He is considered one of the clearest exponents of the modern movement in architecture.
Lao Tzu
Credited with writing the Tao Te Ching (or Dao De Jing), a foundational text of Taoism.
Dante Alighieri
An Italian poet. His masterpiece is The Divine Comedy.
Virgil
A Roman poet, author of the Aeneid, the Eclogues, and the Georgics.
Leo Tolstoy
A Russian novelist widely considered one of the greatest writers of Western and world literature.[1] His most famous works include War and Peace.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Russian novelist of the nineteenth century, known for works like Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Franz Kafka
A Bohemian writer in the German language, known for works like The Metamorphosis and The Trial.
Henry Moore
An English sculptor known for his abstract bronze and marble sculptures.
Giotto
A noted Italian painter, sculptor, and architect of the Trecento. He is considered the first of many artists who contributed to the creation of the Italian Renaissance.
Mercè Rodoreda
A Catalan writer. She is considered the most influential contemporary Catalan writer, known for works like The Time of the Doves.
Rembrandt
A Dutch painter and engraver. Art history considers him one of the greatest masters of Baroque painting.
Mies van der Rohe
An architect and industrial designer, a pioneer of modernist architecture.
Édouard Manet
A famous French painter, highlighted as one of the founders of Impressionism.
Johannes Vermeer
One of the most famous Dutch painters of the Baroque period, known for his mastery of light.
Pablo Picasso
A Spanish painter and sculptor, creator of the Cubist movement.
Palladius
A Roman writer and agriculturist of the fourth century, known for his work on farming, Opus agriculturae.
Homer
The name given to the ancient Greek poet and bard traditionally credited with the authorship of the major Greek epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.