Portrait
by Ottavio Leoni, c. 1621.
Michelangelo Merisi da Carvaggio (1571-1610) was always known as Caravaggio for the name of his native town near Milan. Caravaggio began his painting career with study in Milan and a possible visit to Venice where he would have seen the great oils of Titian and Tintoretto. But while still in his twenties he went to Rome. For ten years he worked in Rome with trips to Naples and Sicily: he changed painting forever. His achievement so totally transformed the way that painters worked that for decades afterwards followers all over the world described themselves as “Caravaggisti.”
16th Century
| 1502 | Columbus sails on fourth & last voyage to Honduras and Panama. Amerigo Vespucci second voyage to South America, proclaims it is not India but "a new world." |
|---|---|
| 1503 | Prince Henry of England marries Princess Catherine of Aragon. Death of Pope Alexander VI (Borgia); Election of Giuliano della Rovere as Pope Julius II. Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa. |
| 1504 | Death of Queen Isabella of Castile, Ferdinand now has difficult situation in the control of Spain since he is not the legal heir to Isabella but instead the heiress is their daughter Juana. Raphael paints The Marriage of the Virgin (now in Brera, Milan). |
| 1505 | Foundation of Christ's College, Cambridge, by Margaret Countess of Richmond, beginning of the great days of Cambridge with generous royal patronage. |
| 1506 | Death of Christopher Columbus.(b. 1451) |
| 1507 | Ordination to the priesthood of Martin Luther. Map maker Martin Waldseemuller proposes the new world on maps be named "America" after Amerigo Vespucci of Florence. |
| 1508 | Michelangelo in Rome: paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. |
| 1509 | Henry VIII becomes King of England. (d. 1547) |
| 1510 | Martin Luther in Rome as delegate of his monastic order. Death of Botticelli. Passing of the Florentine artistic Renaissance. |
| 1511 | Erasmus nominated professor of Greek at Cambridge. |
| 1512 | Michelangelo finishes the Sistine Ceiling and Raphael finishes the frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura (School of Athens) next door to the Sistine. |
| 1513 | Death of Pope Julius II. Election of Michelangelo's childhood friend from the Medici palace, Giovanni de'Medici as Pope Leo X. Michelangelo finishes Moses for tomb of Pope Julius II. |
| 1515 | Death of the King of France Louis XII. succeeded by his nephew Francis I (to 1547). Now begins life long duel between two young kings: Hen VIII and Francis I. |
| 1516 | Death of Ferdinand of Spain, his grandson Charles age 16 succeeds to throne of Spain. (His mother Junana supposedly insane is locked up in a monastery for decades to keep her off the throne.) |
| 1517 | (Oct 31) Martin Luther, 95 Theses, Begin of Reformation. Luther protests the sale of Indulgences by the church.Coffee arrives in Europe for the first time. |
| 1518 | Diet of Augsburg. Luther called before Diet by Cardinal Cajetan. Luther refuses to recant. Raphael paints portrait of Pope Leo with Cardinals (Uffizi). Foundation of the Royal College of Physicians in London. The beginning of modern scientific medicine. |
| 1519 | Charles, King of Spain, also elected Holy Roman Emperor at the death of his grandfather Maximilian. Now unites all of Spain, the Low Countries, Ger. and all of new lands of America in one empire. Martin Luther, in Leipzig Disputation: questions infallibility of the Pope. Death of Leonardo da Vinci.Cortes enters Tenochtitlan, capital of Aztec empire, meets Montezuma. |
| 1520 | Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther and declares him a heretic. Luther publicly burns the Papal Bull. Reformation is under way. (April 6)Death of Raphael, Rome mourns passing of an age.Magellan on his circumnavigation of globe passes through the Straits of Magellan heads into the Pacific. |
| 1521 | Death of Pope Leo X. Magellan killed in the Philippines but the expedition continues and finally reaches Portugal completing first round the world navigation. |
| 1522 | Luther finishes his translation into German of the New Testament, Wittenberg printer Hans Lufft begins to print what will be 100,000 copies over the years. Other vernacular translations follow. |
| 1523 | Elect Giulio de' Medici: Pope Clement VII (to 1534). |
| 1524 | Zurich: Zwingli abolishes the Roman Catholic Mass. |
| 1525 | Battle of Pavia. Disaster for France. King Francis I is captured. Spain now in complete control of Italy. |
| 1527 | May 5: Sack of Rome. Imperial troops loyal to King of Spain Charles (and Holy Roman Emperor) go crazy and loot the Holy City and kill more than 4,000 inhabitants and steal all the art treasures. The Pope hides in Castel Sant Angelo. Usually cited as the End of the Renaissance. |
| 1528 | King Henry VIII begins his proceedings: Requests "divorce" (annulment) from Catherine of Aragon. |
| 1530 | In Germany, write the Confession of Augsburg, to unite all of Protestant Germany. Sign the Schmalkaldic League, alliance of all Prot Ger against the Roman Catholic Emperor Charles. Germany at war. |
| 1531 | King Henry VIII recognized: Supreme Head of the church in England. |
| 1532 | John Calvin: leading the Reformation in France. |
| 1533 | ENGLAND: Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. He proclaims marriage of Hen and Cath void and proclaims marriage of Hen and Anne Boleyn lawful. Pope excommunicates Henry. Anne crowned as Queen of England. Birth of daughter Elizabeth to Henry and Anne. FRANCE: Pope Clement VII (Medici) marries his relative Catherina de' Medici to the future King of France, Henry Valois. |
| 1534 | King Henry of England makes a final break with Rome and proclaims himself head of his own English Reformed church (Anglican international church=Episcoal in USA). Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury. Death of Pope Clement VII, elect Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paul III. |
| 1540 | First publish versions of Copernicus' heliocentric theory. Establish the new order of the Jesuits as new troops in the Roman Catholic war with the Protestants. |
| 1543 | Publish Copernicus' De Revolutionibus: proposes the sun at the center of the universe. |
| 1545 | Convene the Council of Trent as the Roman Catholic Church tries to organize to fight the spreading Reformation (this effort to be known as the Counter Reformation). |
| 1546 | Death of Martin Luther. Michelangelo designing the dome of Saint Peter's. Titian paints his portrait of Pope Paul III and his nephews. |
| 1547 | Death of Henry VIII: succeeded by his son Edward VI (1537-1553). Death of Francis I of France. succeeded by his son Henry II(1519-1559). Birth of Cervantes(1547-1616). |
| 1549 | English church publishes the new Book of Common Prayer (much of which is written by Thomas Cranmer). |
| 1550 | Publish Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists. Marks new attitude to artists: artists are special, almost divine. |
| 1553 | Death of King Edward VI of England: succeeded by his Roman Catholic half-sister Mary. |
| 1554 | Queen Mary: marries Philip of Spain, future king. |
| 1555 | Elect Giovanni Pietro Caraffa: Pope Paul IV. |
| 1556 | Charles V abdicates giving Spain to his son Philip and the Empire to his brother Ferdinand I and retires to a monastery. Queen Mary burns the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer at the stake when he refuses to recant his Protestantism. |
| 1558 | Mary Queen of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth as Queen Elizabeth I. Protestant Church of England re-instated. Death of Charles V former King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1564 | (Feb)Death of Michelangelo.(b. 1575) |
| 1564 | (Feb 15) Birth of Galileo. (d. 1642) |
| 1564 | (April 23) Birth of William Shakespeare. (d. 1616) |
| 1568 | Revolt of the Protestant Netherlands from control of Spain. Birth of new Protestant Republic of Netherlands and birth of new alliance between the two Protestant countries of Eng and Neth. |
| 1572 | Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, Paris: kill thousands of Protestants. |
| 1573 | Birth of Caravaggio. (d. 1609) |
| 1585 | Shakespeare comes to London. |
| 1586 | Unveil the plot to kill Queen Eliz and put Mary Queen of Scots on throne. Mary sentenced to death (executed 1587). |
| 1588 | Spanish Armada, Spain's attempt to destroy Protestant England with the cooperation of the Papacy fails. This final blow to idea of reuniting all of Europe under renewed Roman Catholic Papacy. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. |
| 1589 | Henry of Navarre becomes King of France as Hen IV. Galileo professor of mathematics at University of Pisa. |
| 1593 | King Hen IV converts to Rom Catholicism ("Paris is well worth a mass.") |
| 1594 | Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. |
| 1595 | Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream. |
| 1596 | Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice. Birth of Descartes. |
| 1598 | Shakespeare: Henry V. |
| 1599 | Shakespeare: Julius Caesar. |
| 1600 | Burn Giordano Bruno on the Campo de'Fiori in Rome for heresy. King Henry IV of France marries Marie de' Medici. Shakespeare: Hamlet. |
| 1603 | Death of Queen Elizabeth of England. She is succeeded by her cousin James (Stuart) in Scotland. |
| 1610 | Galileo, The Starry Messenger, published in Venice. One of the most shocking and exciting works of scientific advance ever experienced in modern Europe. Galileo becomes an overnight sensation, a scientific rock star. Letters pour into Padua from all over Europe. |