Few men have achieved immortality with their accomplishments.
A true artist is distinguished by a unique ability to take their moment in time and distill its essence so that the resulting work becomes timeless.
Various eras and different places gave birth to prominent and famous artists. Each of them left their mark on the history of world culture and art.
Today Kuadros wants to show you who we consider the 5 most fascinating artists of all time.
No.1 Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Leonardo da Vinci was a true genius who honored this world with his presence in the 15th century.
This Florentine ranks among the most influential artists in history, as he left a significant legacy not only in the field of art but also in science, managing to merge science and art to create works that have become part of the history of humanity.
As an engineer and inventor, Leonardo developed ideas that were far ahead of his time. As a scientist, Leonardo advanced knowledge significantly in the areas of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.
For Leonardo, sight was the highest sense of man as it conveyed the facts of experience immediately, accurately, and securely. Da Vinci lived in the golden age of creativity alongside contemporaries such as Raphael and Michaelangelo, contributing his well-known genius to practically everything he touched.
Renaissance Italy is a pinnacle in human history. Today, no name symbolizes the Renaissance era better than Leonardo da Vinci.
Not long ago, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci sold for $450.3 million at a Christie’s auction, Salvator Mundi, which has been the highest price paid for any artwork sold at auction.
Buy a reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's Self-Portrait at the online store of Kuadros
No. 2 Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 - 1564 in Caprese, Italy, being the second of five children.
A painter, both in panel and fresco, sculptor, architect, and writer of sonnets, Michelangelo Buonarroti was the first artist recognized by contemporaries as a genius.
Although the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican are probably his most well-known works today, the artist truly considered himself a sculptor.
His two most recognized works in this field are The Pietà and David. Michelangelo worked in marble sculpture his entire life and in other arts only during certain periods. The masterpieces of the Sistine Chapel ceiling are partly a reflection of the increased attention given to painting in the 20th century and partly because many of the artist's works in other media remain unfinished.
Michelangelo, the quintessential Renaissance man, continued to sculpt and paint until his death, although he increasingly worked on architectural projects as he aged: his work from 1520 to 1527 in the interior of the Medici Chapel in Florence included designs for walls, windows, and cornices that were unusual in their design and introduced surprising variations in classical forms.
Michelangelo died at the age of 88 after a brief illness in 1564. A Pietà he had begun sculpting in the late 1540s, intended for his own tomb, remained unfinished, but is displayed in the Museo del La Opera del Duomo in Florence.
Buy a reproduction of Michelangelo's Self-Portrait at the online store of Kuadros
No.3 Rembrandt (1606-1669)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, (born July 15, 1606, Leiden, Netherlands, died October 4, 1669, Amsterdam).
He was a prolific painter, draftsman, and printmaker, and is often considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the best artist of the Dutch golden age.
Rembrandt's works represent a wide range of styles and themes, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, and biblical and mythological themes, as well as studies of animals. He was a compulsive art buyer and a collector of all kinds of antiques, props, and weapons to use in paintings.
Rembrandt quickly gained fame among Dutch art lovers and a buying public. His unusual etchings gave him international fame. The artist took an innovative turn with his use of light and expanded the capacity of pictorial effects. His drawings, which were indeed made as practice exercises or studies for other works, were also collected by contemporary art lovers.
Rembrandt's most famous painting is The Night Watch, known for three aspects: its colossal size (363 cm × 437 cm), the dramatic use of light and shadow, and the perception of movement in what would traditionally have been a group portrait.
In contrast to his successful public career, Rembrandt's family life was marked by misfortune. Despite Rembrandt's financial success as an artist, teacher, and art dealer, his penchant for an ostentatious lifestyle forced him to declare bankruptcy. Fortunately, these problems in no way affected his artistic work.
Buy a reproduction of Rembrandt's Self-Portrait at the online store of Kuadros
No. 4 Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890)
Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, in the south of the Netherlands.
Son of a pastor, Van Gogh became famous for his use of light and color, being one of the best artists in the world, although he was unknown until after his death.
Van Gogh painted thick strokes on canvas giving thick brushstrokes or using the edge of a palette. His post-impressionist work influenced most major artistic movements of the 20th century. However, throughout his life, he only sold a few paintings.
At the age of 27, he decided to become an artist, teaching himself to draw and paint, and received financial support from Theo (Brother). In 1886, Van Gogh joined Theo in Paris and met many artists, including Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro, and Gauguin, with whom he became friends. He spent some time in psychiatric hospitals and swung between periods of inertia, depression, and incredibly concentrated artistic activity, his work reflecting the intense colors and strong light of the countryside around him.
Several of his paintings are now among the most expensive in the world. Some of his most well-known artworks include: "Sunflowers" and "The Starry Night". The latter he painted in the asylum where he stayed in Saint-Rémy, France, in 1889, a year before his death. "This morning I saw the field from my window long before dawn, with nothing but the morning star, which seemed very big," he wrote to his brother Theo.
On July 27, 1890, again suffering from depression, Van Gogh shot himself. He died two days later. In 1973, the Van Gogh Museum opened its doors in Amsterdam to make the works of Vincent van Gogh accessible to the public.
Buy a reproduction of Vincent Van Gogh's Self-Portrait at the online store of Kuadros
No. 5 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Pablo Picasso, painter, sculptor, engraver, ceramist, and Spanish expatriate scenographer, was one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator of cubism.
After his death in 1973, his value as an artist and inspiration for other artists has only increased. Picasso is also credited with the invention of constructed sculpture and the collage art style. The artist also used clay, plaster, precious metals, and wood to create revolutionary sculptural works that the world had never seen before.
Picasso's final works were a mixture of the many styles he had embraced throughout his life. Picasso enjoyed examining classical works that had influenced his development over the years, and he produced several series of variations on paintings by classical masters, including Rembrandt, Diego Velázquez, and Edouard Manet, the founder of modern traditions.
A multitude of paintings that Picasso created during his final years are now widely accepted as the beginning of the neo-expressionist movement.
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