Famous Italian Artists

Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini was the most well-known member of the Bellini family of Venetian artists. He is known for transforming Venetian painting into a more sensual and colorful style. The artist created deep, rich hues and intricate shadings by using transparent, slow-drying oil paints.

Italian artist, sculptor, and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini was best known as the preeminent sculptor of his day and is credited with inventing the Baroque style of sculpture. He created tiny oil paintings. The artist was also a theater performer, who wrote, produced, and starred in plays for which he constructed stage sets and apparatus. Bernini was known for building secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as large works combining architecture and sculpture, including magnificent public fountains and burial monuments, and a slew of temporary constructions (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivities.

Italian artist Sandro Botticelli was born as Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Felipepi. He apprenticed art with Fra Filippo and was taught to paint frescoes. He was commissioned by churches until he received patronage from some of the leading families in Florence, among them the Medici. Most of his paintings depicted religious subjects and mythological ones. Among his most famous Renaissance artworks is “The Birth of Venus.”

Italian artist Caravaggio was born Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. At the age of 13 the artist was an apprentice with Simone Peterzano. His style of painting was known for its realism and use of drastic contrast, later influencing Baroque painting.

Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci is most memorable for his artwork Mona Lisa. He was a man who was interested in most everything, like drawing, sculpture, architecture, and engineering. He had a profound knowledge of the human anatomy, which helped him in his artistic creativity. After beginning his own exhibit at Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke as a master artist, da Vinci began a long and successful career in painting. He continued painting until his left hand was paralyzed two years before he died in 1519.

Italian artist Giotto was born Giotto di Bondone and is looked upon as one of the first Renaissance artists. Giotto chose to paint life in actuality, incorporating three-dimensional forms and depicting precise human emotions. Among his most prominent artworks are the frescoes in Scrovegni Chapel.

Italian artist Giorgione was born as Giorgione Barbelli da Castelfranco. He was the artistic apprentice of Giovanni Bellini in Venice. He quickly stood out from other artists until, unfortunately, his life was cut short by the bubonic plague. One notable characteristic of his style was that some of his painted pictures told no story at all. He is also credited as being the first to have the stark intensity of color that is at the core of the Venetian School of Art.

Italian artist and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarotti was known as Michelangelo and created magnificent works of art. (See above.) Before he turned thirty, his two most famous sculptures were David and Pieta. The artist painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He devoted his artistic endeavors to the human figure and studying human anatomy during his free time.

Italian artist and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani was an underrated Italian-Jewish painter and sculptor with little success in his lifetime. His artwork focused mainly on portraits and nudes.

Italian artist and printmaker Giorgio Morandi mostly created still lifes depicting simple subjects like bottles and vases. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna and taught himself to sketch from books on Rembrandt. He received an award for his illustration Il Sole a Picco in 1929.

Italian artist Raphael Sanzio, or Raphael, began studying art under the apprenticeship of Pietro Vannucci in Perugia, Italy. The artist usually created religious paintings.In 1514 the Pope hired him as chief architect, and Raphael worked as both a painter and architect until his untimely death at the age of 37.

Italian artist Titian was born Tiziano Vecelli and known as the greatest painter of his time. The subjects of his painting differed from religious to mythological scenes. He is credited with founding the Venetian School of Italian Renaissance painting. The artist apprenticed with Giovanni Bellini, who was known as the greatest painter of the time.