5 Italian Renaissance Artists You Should Know (That Aren’t Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci)

The subject of Italian Renaissance art is a vast and deep one, with much area to cover and many trails to explore. Even if you’ve never studied art, you’ve probably heard of some of the biggest names to emerge from this period, such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. There were many other influential artists, not only from Florence, but from all across the peninsula. In this article, we’re going to talk about five other Italian Renaissance artists you may or may not have heard of—but who you should definitely know.

Giovanni di Paolo
Giovanni di Paolo (c. 1403-1482) was a painter of the Sienese School. He worked primarily on illuminated manuscripts, panel paintings, and altarpieces, and his patrons mainly consisted of members of religious communities. His Purification of the Virgin painting (now in the Pinacoteca in Siena) was most likely the altarpiece for the church in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, a massive complex that underwent many changes over the centuries and primarily cared for foundlings and pilgrims. (Today, it is a fascinating museum).

Giovanni di Paolo’s style is mystical and entertaining, situated in an often otherworldly earthly terrain and depicting religious events. He applied his imaginative genius to subjects that were already tried-and-true and familiar to his contemporaries, re-visioning them in a completely new way. His style was indicative of the International Gothic at the time, including influences from northern Italian artists and perhaps even the Limbourg brothers who were in Siena in 1413. Certainly the sharply delineated, elongated lines of his figures and the bold, gradated colors, particularly in the skies, reveal a striking similarity between di Paolo and the Dutch miniaturists.

One of his most incredible works is Saint Catherine Exchanging her Heart with Christ’s (c. 1461). This was part of a number of smaller panel paintings that most likely formed a predella for an altarpiece (potentially the Purification of the Virgin referenced above, though scholars disagree). In this fascinating image, Saint Catherine of Siena stands on a cloud surrounded by churches, holding up her heart to Christ, who appears in the corner in a ray of gold. Saint Catherine is hierarchically scaled here, unusually large compared to the buildings around her, the walls of which form odd angles. Below Christ is a representation of him on a church with an open door, almost as if beckoning the viewer—along with Catherine—inside, perhaps symbolic of Christ’s love. All of Giovanni di Paolo’s art certainly had a unique gift for drawing viewers within.

Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico (c. 1400-1455) created paintings so beautiful that when he was beatified in 1982 he was named a patron of artists. Of all the artists on this list, he’s probably the one you are most likely to recognize. In life, he was known as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole and was a Dominican friar who lived at the convent of San Marco in Florence, then newly finished. His paintings show an incredible use of light and experimentations with perspective. He painted frescoes of religious scenes in the monks’ cells at the convent, including one of his most well-known and famous works, the Annunciation at the entrance to the cells. Later on, he (and his assistants) also executed frescoes for the Niccoline Chapel in Vatican City. They depict scenes from the lives of Saints Stephen and Lawrence, two early martyrs of the church.

Fra Angelico’s San Marco altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child and saints (1438-1443) is an exquisite painting commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici (the Elder). It has an interesting blend of the late medieval Gothic style with its sheer amount of gold decoration and the typical composition of the subject matter (a centered and enthroned Virgin and Child with neat rows of saints flanking them), and rather stiff, upright forms, along with the more naturalistic elements and use of perspective that would come to characterize the Renaissance. The background, for instance, consists of a group of trees rather than the plain gold of many earlier works. And the geometric designs on the carpet the saints stand on shows the elements receding into space—quite a difficult feat with such complicated and varying forms. 

Plautilla Nelli
Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588) was a self-taught female Renaissance painter in Florence. She was also a Dominican nun and resided in the convent of St. Catherine of Siena. Growing up, she was born into a fairly wealthy family, her father being a merchant, and today a street in Florence is even named after her family.

Aside from being one of the few women artists of the time, Plautilla is particularly unique for having done large-scale paintings. These—such as her depiction of The Last Supper (6.5 x 21 feet)—would have needed not only assistants to help her with the execution, but also scaffolding. Nelli is also one of the few women painters to have been mentioned by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists. Her inspirations primarily came from Fra Bartolomea, Andrea del Sarto, Perugino, and Bronzino.

Plautilla’s Lamentation is a particularly evocative work, created as an altarpiece for her convent. Perhaps one of the most striking aspects is the women’s red-rimmed eyes, an extraordinary detail and complement to their solemn expressions. The figure in yellow on the left even has tears streaming down his cheeks. Compositionally, Plautilla was inspired by Fra Bartolomeo’s painting of the same subject, particularly Paul’s outstretched arms and Mary Magdalene cradling Christ’s feet. Her background, however, is much more detailed, showing the crucifixion scene and intricate, layered buildings.

Antonello da Messina
Antonello da Messina (c. 1425-1479) was born in Messina, Sicily to a father who was a sculptor. This artistic background might have inspired him to become an artist as well, and he ended up one of the most prominent and influential southern painters of the fifteenth century. Unfortunately, we do not know much about his life. He most likely did an apprenticeship in Rome and then later moved to Naples. He also spent time in Venice in the latter part of his life and rejected an offer as court portrait painter to the Duke of Milan. He is known as having been a great portraitist and for the hints of Netherlandish influence in his paintings. For example, the overall composition of his crucifixion scene and the way Christ and the two thieves are represented is quite typical of northern painting, particularly the fact that Christ is the only one nailed to the cross; the thieves are tied and in contorted positions. It’s quite similar to Jan van Eyck’s representation of the same subject in his diptych of the Crucifixion and Last Judgment.

Paolo Veronese
Almost exactly contemporaneous with Plautilla Nelli, Paolo Veronese (c. 1528-1588) was one of the most important Venetian artists of the sixteenth century. The other two great Venetian painters of the period are Titian and Tintoretto, though Veronese is perhaps the lesser known of the three. His chosen surname gives away his birthplace, Verona. He is known mainly for his incredible large-scale paintings. Early on in his career, he painted for a number of churches in Verona, then in Venice he painted works for such places as the Villa Barbaro at Maser and the Ducal Palace. His paintings consisted of both religious and classical subjects, with sweeping, dramatic figures and experiments in foreshortening.

One of his most remarkable works is the Supper at Emmaus (c. 1559), currently at the Louvre but most likely originally owned by Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. It depicts the scene of Christ appearing to his disciples after his Resurrection, while the background consists of Classical architectural elements, including columns and a lintel and pediment topping a door. It shows the dramatic, dynamic characters typical of his work. Surrounding the main characters from the biblical narrative are figures in sixteenth-century Venetian dress. It is also one of Veronese’s typical large-scale works, measuring at 8 x 14 ft.

Italian words for art history
Chiaroscuro: literally “light-dark,” used to describe paintings with stark shadows

Sfumato: literally “vanish,” this describes a hazy quality between forms rather than sharp lines

Contrapposto: literally “contrasted” or “countered,” this word describes statues that show a visible weight shift on one leg as opposed to another. The intention is to make the figure look more dynamic.

Tondo: literally “round,” the name given to circular paintings

Rinascimento: Renaissance