Rachel Markowitz's Renaissance Personages Assignment

One of the many important personages of the Renaissance era was a man by the name of Raphael, an Italian painter and architect.  Born in Urbino, Italy, in 1843 his first painting lessons came from his father. Raphael later worked with inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci, another significant personage of the Renaissance, in Tuscany and Umbria. Raphael was also employed by the pope to create art in Rome.  His work is admired for its clarity and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the religious, specifically Neo-platonic, ideal of human splendor. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael was one of the three masters of that period.

Although Raphael was faced with the hardship of losing both his mother and father at a very young age, his talent still emerged.  In his teenage years it was clear that Raphael was extremely artistically gifted when he drew a more than impressive self-portrait.  Before his death, Raphael’s father enrolled him in the workshop of Pietro Perugino, another very accomplished artist, as an apprentice.  His first documented work was the Baronci Altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, in a town near Urbino.  In the following years he worked for many other prestigious churches and artists and became an expert himself.

Dying at the early age of only thirty seven, Raphael achieved quite a bit during his short lifetime.  Although his influences on artistic style during this time were not on the level of those of Michelangelo, Raphael, too, was greatly admired by his contemporaries.  Raphael was named architect of the new Saint Peters. Most of his work there was altered or demolished after his death, but a few drawings have survived.  He designed and painted the Chigi Chapel for, Agostino Chigi, the Papal Treasurer.  Raphael was one of the finest draftsmen in the history of Western art and used drawings extensively to plan his compositions. When beginning to plan a piece, he would lay out a large number of slew drawings of his on the floor and begin to draw rapidly. This amazed anybody who had the opportunity to witness this phenomenon.  Raphael managed to go through many hard times and channel all that was inside of him to turn it into something amazing. He was born with great talent, allowing him to make a significant contribution to the Renaissance, with his beautiful creations. Aside from his outstanding accomplishments, the reason that I believe him to be one of the most important and influential people of the Renaissance is because if his journey. Raphael set precedent for all future aspiring children, whether it be in art or another interest, to overcome their troubles in order to reach their dreams and potential, as well as to prove themselves without the help of others.  More so than his works, the message that he displays is one that can be applied to everyone's life up until today and for many years to come, and for that reason I believe him to be one of the most important personages and role models to come out of the Renaissance.  These being only a brief overview of Raphael’s abundance of accomplishments, it is clear that he made a great and lasting impact during the Renaissance.

William Shakespeare, another extremely accomplished and important personage of the Renaissance Era, was undoubtedly at the forefront of advancements made during this time period.   Different from people such as Raphael who wowed the world when it came to the visual arts, Shakespeare was a luminary because of his plays and his contributions to the English language.  One of the most important and noteworthy accomplishments of Shakespeare was his addition of over 2000 new words to the English language. These words include capricious, pejorative, hobnob and equivocal. Shakespeare also wrote thirty-seven plays, in addition to two long poems and 154 sonnets. His writing remains very alive today in English curriculums worldwide and also provided many years of entertainment during the Renaissance. Shakespeare astounded the world with his deep and realistic insights and portrayals of human behavior and made a significant impact on the world.