Dashed left edge = started before this timeline ·
Dashed right edge = still ongoing
Events in the 1590s 9
1525 – 1594Giovanni PalestrinaRenaissance polyphony masterItalian Renaissance composer whose smooth, flowing polyphony became the model for Catholic sacred music and the standard of counterpoint.
1528 – 1599Francisco GuerreroSpanish Renaissance composerFrancisco Guerrero spent most of his career at Seville Cathedral and composed sacred music that was widely published and performed in Spain and Latin America.
1533 – 1592Michel de MontaigneFrench essayistMontaigne invented the essay as a literary form, exploring human thought, skepticism, and philosophy.
1535 – 1596Giaches de WertFranco-Flemish madrigal composerGiaches de Wert was a prolific madrigalist whose later works anticipated the expressiveness of the early Baroque. His influence on Monteverdi was profound.
1543 – 1598Philippe de MonteFranco-Flemish madrigal composerPhilippe de Monte was one of the most prolific composers of madrigals and motets in the late Renaissance, serving as imperial Kapellmeister in Vienna for many decades.
1550 – 1596Alfonso Ferrabosco the ElderItalian Renaissance composerAlfonso Ferrabosco the Elder was an Italian composer active in England whose madrigals had great influence on native English composers including William Byrd.
1553 – 1599Luca MarenzioItalian madrigal composerLuca Marenzio was the most prolific and influential Italian madrigalist of the late 16th century. His expressive text-painting and harmonic refinement made him famous throughout Europe.
1593 – 1656Artemisia GentileschiBaroque · ItalyArtemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 – c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter and the first woman to be accepted into the Florentine Academy of the Arts. Her powerful depictions of female heroines are now among the most celebrated Baroque works.
1599 – 1660Diego VelázquezBaroque · SpainDiego Velázquez (June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) was the leading painter of the Spanish Golden Age and court painter to Philip IV. Las Meninas is considered one of the most important paintings in Western art history.