The Renaissance was a time of great cultural and intellectual flourishing in Europe, stretching from roughly the 14th to the 17th century. This period saw great advances in art, literature and science, as well as a renewed interest in classical learning and culture.
Many iconic works of art and literature were created during this period, and important scientific discoveries helped pave the way for modern scientific thought In this table we highlight just a few of the major artistic, literary and scientific achievements of the Renaissance, emerging from this fascinating period of human history Let’s demonstrate the breadth and depth of creativity and innovation.
Sr. No. | Key Art | Literature | Year | Scientific Discoveries | ||
1 | Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa | Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince | 1513 | Copernicus’ heliocentric theory | ||
2 | Michelangelo’s David | William Shakespeare’s Hamlet | 1600 | Galileo’s telescope | ||
3 | Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus | Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote | 1605 | Kepler’s laws of planetary motion | ||
4 | Raphael’s The School of Athens | John Milton’s Paradise Lost | 1667 | Newton’s laws of motion and gravity | ||
5 | Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait | Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy | 1308 | Vesalius’ On the Fabric of the Human Body | ||
6 | Donatello’s David | Francesco Petrarch’s Sonnets | 1304 | Gutenburg’s printing press | ||
7 | Titian’s Venus of Urbino | Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron | 1353 | Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation | ||
8 | Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew | Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene | 1590 | Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of microorganisms | ||
9 | Albrecht Dürer’s Melancholia I | Thomas More’s Utopia | 1516 | Paré’s advances in surgical techniques | ||
10 | Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Hunters in the Snow | Montaigne’s Essays | 1580 | Boyle’s law of gases | ||
11 | Jan Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring | Miguel de Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels | 1613 | Bacon’s scientific method | ||
12 | Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne | François Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel | 1532 | Harvey’s circulation of blood | ||
13 | Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotonda | John Donne’s Holy Sonnets | 1591 | Torricelli’s mercury barometer | ||
14 | Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes | John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress | 1679 | Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of bacteria | ||
15 | Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas | William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads | 1798 | Lavoisier’s law of conservation of mass | ||
16 | Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa | William Shakespeare’s Hamlet | 1603 | Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons | ||
17 | Michelangelo’s David | Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy | 1308 | Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe | ||
18 | Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus | Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote | 1605 | Kepler’s laws of planetary motion | ||
19 | Raphael’s School of Athens | Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales | 1387 | Newton’s laws of motion and gravity | ||
20 | Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid | Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince | 1532 | Galileo’s telescopic observations of the sky | ||
21 | Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling | Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier | 1516 | Vesalius’ On the Fabric of the Human Body | ||
22 | Titian’s Venus of Urbino | Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince | 1532 | Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation | ||
23 | Albrecht Dürer’s Adam and Eve | Desiderius Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly | 1509 | Paracelsus’ development of modern medicine | ||
24 | Caravaggio’s The Calling of Saint Matthew | Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote | 1605 | Galileo’s law of falling objects | ||
25 | Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera | William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet | 1597 | Boyle’s law of gas pressure |