Michelangelo

Artist · 1452 – 1519

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath — painter, inventor, anatomist and engineer — whose curiosity and genius made him the archetype of the 'Renaissance man'.

• Mona Lisa
• The Last Supper

Why The two titans of the Florentine Renaissance were famous rivals, briefly set to paint competing frescoes.

Painter · 1881 – 1973

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor who co-founded Cubism and ranks among the most influential and prolific artists of the twentieth century, creating works such as Guernica and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

• Cubism
• Guernica

Why Also a painter & sculptor · Comparable historical impact

Painter · 1840 – 1926

Claude Monet was a French painter and the leading founder of Impressionism, whose studies of light and atmosphere — from Impression, Sunrise to the Water Lilies — revolutionized modern painting.

• Impressionism
• Impression, Sunrise

Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact

Painter · 1606 – 1669

Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher of the Golden Age, regarded as one of the greatest artists in history, celebrated for The Night Watch, his searching self-portraits, and his mastery of light and shadow.

• The Night Watch
• Self-portraits

Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact

Painter · 1853 – 1890

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose intense color, expressive brushwork, and emotional depth made him one of the most influential artists in Western history, though he found little recognition in his own lifetime.

• The Starry Night
• Sunflowers

Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact

Statesman · 1743 – 1826

Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, who was also a prolific writer, architect and scholar whose Notes on the State of Virginia was a landmark of early American letters.

• Declaration of Independence
• Third U.S. President

Why Also a architect · Comparable historical impact

Emperor · 1542 – 1605

Akbar was the third Mughal emperor, who expanded the empire across much of the Indian subcontinent and is remembered for his administrative reforms, religious tolerance and patronage of the arts during a long and powerful reign.

• Expansion of the Mughal Empire
• Religious tolerance

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Queen · 1533 – 1603

Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603, whose long and stable reign — the Elizabethan era — saw a golden age of culture, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and England's rise as a sea power.

• The Elizabethan golden age
• Defeating the Spanish Armada

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Astronomer · 1564 – 1642

Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, the "father of modern science", whose telescopic discoveries and championing of heliocentrism transformed our understanding of the cosmos.

• Telescopic astronomy
• Defending heliocentrism

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Inventor · 1400 – 1468

Johannes Gutenberg was a German inventor and printer who introduced movable-type printing to Europe around 1440, an innovation that transformed the spread of knowledge and helped launch the modern world.

• The printing press
• Movable type

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Theologian · 1483 – 1546

Martin Luther was a German theologian and reformer whose challenge to the Catholic Church sparked the Protestant Reformation and reshaped the religious, political and cultural landscape of Europe.

• Ninety-Five Theses
• The Protestant Reformation

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Novelist · 1547 – 1616

Miguel de Cervantes was a Spanish writer whose novel Don Quixote is widely regarded as the first modern novel and one of the greatest works in world literature.

• Don Quixote
• The first modern novel

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Astronomer · 1473 – 1543

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer who formulated the heliocentric model placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the universe — a revolution in human thought.

• The heliocentric model
• The Copernican Revolution

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Sultan · 1494 – 1566

Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who led it to the height of its power through military conquest, legal reform and a brilliant flowering of art and architecture.

• Ottoman golden age
• Legal reforms (the Lawgiver)

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1564 – 1616

William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist.

• Hamlet
• Romeo and Juliet

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Poet · 1265 – 1321

Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet of the late Middle Ages whose masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, is considered one of the greatest works of world literature and helped establish the Italian language.

• The Divine Comedy
• Inferno

Why From the same civilization · Comparable historical impact

President · 1809 – 1865

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, who led the nation through its Civil War, preserved the Union, and abolished slavery before his assassination in 1865.

• Leading the Union in the Civil War
• The Emancipation Proclamation

Why Comparable historical impact

Economist · 1723 – 1790

Adam Smith was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and economist, the father of modern economics, whose work The Wealth of Nations laid the foundations of free-market thought.

• The Wealth of Nations
• The invisible hand

Why Comparable historical impact

Mathematician · 780 – 850

Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician and scholar of the Islamic Golden Age, the "father of algebra", whose name gave us the word "algorithm".

• Founding algebra
• The word 'algorithm'

Why Comparable historical impact

Mathematician · 1912 – 1954

Alan Turing was an English mathematician and computer scientist who founded theoretical computer science, helped break the German Enigma cipher in World War II, and pioneered the study of artificial intelligence.

• Turing machine
• Breaking the Enigma code

Why Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1879 – 1955

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize.

• Theory of relativity
• E=mc²

Why Comparable historical impact

Painter · 1483 – 1520

Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance whose works, prized for their harmony and grace, include The School of Athens and a famous series of serene Madonnas.

• The School of Athens
• Sistine Madonna

Why Also a painter & artist · Active in the same era

Philosopher · 1469 – 1527

Niccolò Machiavelli was a Renaissance Italian diplomat, political philosopher and writer whose treatise The Prince founded modern political science and gave his name to ruthless statecraft.

• The Prince
• Founding modern political science

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Humanist · 1466 – 1536

Erasmus was a Dutch humanist, scholar and writer, the leading intellectual of the Northern Renaissance, whose satire In Praise of Folly and pioneering edition of the Greek New Testament shaped both literature and the coming Reformation.

• In Praise of Folly
• Greek New Testament

Why Active in the same era