Italy: Most Famous Artists

Italy has been the epicentre of European art for centuries, with Italian artists contributing a massive amount of work to our cultural history. If you were to ask someone to name a famous artist or a famous painting, it’s highly likely that one of the names on this list would be the first to spring to mind!

From the time of the Roman Empire we are left with sculptures and relics that have great historical significance, through to the cultural explosion of the Renaissance and to the modern day – Italy’s impact on art has been incredibly substantial!

Read on to find out more about the top 10 famous Italian artists, 

many of whom you already know and love!

1. Leonardo da Vinci



Considered one of the greatest painters of all time, Leonardo da Vinci was also a polymath, an engineer, a scientist, a sculptor, and much more – a true Renaissance man! Despite fewer than 25 of his works surviving, his paintings are some of the most famous in the world – with the Mona Lisa being the most famous portrait ever, and The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting.

A little known fact about da Vinci is that – despite being known worldwide as a genius – he never received any formal schooling, as he was completely homeschooled!

2. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio



The leading Italian painter of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Caravaggio is best known for the intense, and sometimes uncomfortable, realism of his large religious works. Orphaned at a young age after his entire family contracted the bubonic plague, Caravaggio was taken on as an apprentice in an art studio at the tender age of 12.

His work had a great influence on the development of Baroque painting techniques, especially his dramatic use of lighting.

This has gained Caravaggio the status of a Baroque master, and he is still admired today – not least by Pope Francis!

3. Titian



Known as Tiziano Vecelli in Italian, Titian was an Italian painter during the Renaissance era and is considered the greatest member of the 16th century Venetian school of painting. He was an incredibly versatile painter, adept with portraits, landscapes, and mythological and religious subjects. He was incredibly popular during his lifetime, with his art sought after by Italian princes, the royal house of the Habsburgs, and the papacy.

Around 300 of his works still exist today, housed around the world in art galleries and museums.

4. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino



Better known simply as Raphael, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino was another great Italian painter of the High Renaissance. His work was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, as he incorporated the use of dynamic movement and chiaroscuro (intense contrast between light and dark) in his pieces.

Considered one of the great masters of the Renaissance, Raphael’s work is most admired for its clarity of form and composition, as well as his depiction of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur.

5. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni



Considered the archetypal Renaissance man, Michelangelo’s artistic versatility has resulted in his work being known worldwide and made him one of the most famous Italian artists.

A sculptor, painter, architect and poet, Michelangelo’s greatest works are also considered some of the greatest artistic works to have ever been created – think the David sculpture, housed in the Galleria dell’Accademia, or his depiction of Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

What you might not know, however, is that Pope Julius II actually selected Raphael (the two were rivals at the time) to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel originally, but Raphael convinced the Pope to commission Michelangelo instead – hoping to prove that Michelangelo was not as great a painter as he was!

TO READ ABOUT THE OTHER FIVE, CLICK HERE...

Medival Graves Found in Germany

Early medieval weapons and jewelry found in southwestern Germany near the Danube River. 

(Image credit: State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the RPS / Yvonne Mühlei)

Archaeological treasures, including Stone Age pottery and medieval graves with swords and jewelry, have revealed a long history of human habitation near the Danube River in Germany.

At the site, in the Geisingen-Gutmadingen district of Tuttlingen, in southwestern Germany, archaeologists discovered one grave from the Neolithic, or Stone Age, that dates to the third millennium B.C. and contains distinctive pottery from the Corded Ware culture. They also found 140 early medieval graves, dating to between A.D. 500 and 600, that contain goods including swords, lances, shields, bone combs, drinking glasses and earrings.

"Our Gutmadingen district is probably much older than we previously assumed," Mayor Martin Numberger said in a statement. The district had previously been dated to 1273 based on the first written records of settlement there.

The finds were made by a team from archaeology firm ArchaeoTask GmbH in an area near the Danube river where a rainwater retention pond is planned. The Stone Age grave points to the presence of a The Corded Ware people, who are now known mostly for their pottery decorated by geometric lines formed by pressing cord into clay and leaving the impressions to dry. These people were probably pastoralists who kept animals such as cows and sheep, and some also practiced early farming of crops such as barley. Graves from this period are rare in southwestern Germany, according to local officials.

The early medieval graves date to the century after the end of the Western Roman Empire, which fell in 476 A.D. when the German warlord Odoacer deposed the Roman emperor Romulus Augustus. This period is part of what is known as the Migration Period, or the Völkerwanderung, when various tribes in Europe moved around, often conquering one another and pushing each other into new territories. Historians consider this period the transition between antiquity and the early Middle Ages.  READ MORE...

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian’s Wall once marked the extent of the Roman empire in Britannia. Now it’s a pitstop on the way to Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, or the country’s largest city, Glasgow. Things have changed over the past two thousand years.

But the 73-mile-long chain of walls, ditches, towers, and forts—which stretches across Great Britain, linking the North Sea and the Irish Sea—continues to fascinate. This year, 1,900 years after construction began, soldiers clad in Roman armor will once again patrol its length and the sounds of ancient instruments will float over its ramparts.


Writer Joe Sills and archaeologist Raven Todd DaSilva traverse a tricky section of the wall, just east of Sewingshields Crags. To the right lies Northumberland National Park—home of England’s cleanest rivers and darkest skies.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID GUEST


These celebrations make now a great time to visit, and an even better time to hike its length. The wall’s most popular attraction, the sprawling hillside complex of Housesteads Roman Fort, sees some 100,000 visitors per year. But only 7,000 people hike the full length of the wall annually.


The reign of Roman emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) coincided with the pinnacle of Roman power. An expansive emperor—Roman territory reached its widest extent when his reign began—he was known as a builder of monuments, from his opulent villa at Tivoli, near Rome, to the defensive fortifications marking the frontiers of his empire; both are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Built under Hadrian starting in A.D. 122, the wall stretches through the counties of Northumbria, Cumbria and Tyne, and Wear. For hikers, this landmark near the Scottish border makes the perfect trail for those looking for a straightforward route that barely necessitates a map. Guided by stonework and hedgerows, its path blazes by sidewalks, meadows, woodlands, and crags in a line that has been beaten since ancient times.  READ MORE...