Contemporaries

Who were Leonardo da Vinci's contemporaries?

Leonardo da Vinci lived from 1452 to 1519, between the fall of Constantinople and the dawn of the Reformation.

Leonardo da Vinci
1452–1519
Botticelli
1445–1510
Michelangelo
1475–1564
Raphael
1483–1520
Luther
1483–1546
Copernicus
1473–1543
1450 1490 1530 1570
Art Philosophy Science

Leonardo da Vinci's lifespan is highlighted. The other bars show some notable contemporaries.

Parallels

Meanwhile, in the same years.

A new continent

In 1492, when Leonardo was 40 and at work in Milan, a new continent entered the European map. The world he knew changed within his own lifetime.

Two giants, one hall

Around 1504, Florence hired both Leonardo and the much younger Michelangelo to paint battle scenes on facing walls of the same hall. Neither was ever finished, and both are now lost.

The Reformation begins

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his theses to a church door in Wittenberg. Leonardo spent his final years in France and died in 1519, before they grew into the great split that divided Europe.

A new picture of the heavens

In Leonardo's later years, a young Nicolaus Copernicus was reworking the cosmos. His Sun-centred model would reshape astronomy, though it reached print only after Leonardo's death.

See more

This is one slice. Parallel shows the rest.

Parallel shows you contemporaries at a glance, across art, music, science and politics. For anyone you are curious about, you can see who lived at the same time.

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