Known Names

We know many painters by names other than their real ones.

Known name
Dates
Real Name
Why?
Cimabue 1240 - 1302 Cennu di Peppi He was stubborn so he was named 'Cimabue' or 'ox-head.'
Fra Angelico 1395 - 1455 Guido de Pietro He was a monk and this was his religious name: Fra meaning Brother.
Masaccio 1401 - 1428 Tommaso de Ser Giovanni di Mone He never cared for his appearance so his name became Masaccio, "Messy Tom"
Sandro Botticelli 1444 - 1510 Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi Botticelli means 'little barrel.'
Hierinymous Bosch 1450 - 1516 Jeroen van Aken He took his name from the town where he was born s'Hertegonbosch in the Netherlands
Da Vinci 1452 - 1519 Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci" He used the name of his Father's birthplace, Vinci.
Grünewald 1470 - 1528 Matthias Gothardt Neithardt Not known … his real name was only discovered in 1930
Michelangelo 1475 - 1564 Mchelangelo Buonarrotti He only used his first name - Michael
Giorgione 1477 - 1510 Gorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco Little George
Raphael 1483 - 1520 Raffaello Sanzio A French variety of his first name.
Corregio 1489 - 1534 Antonio Allegri Not known.
Titian 1485 - 1576 Tiziano Vecellio An alliterative nick-name
Sebastionao del Piombo 1486 - 1517 Sebastiano de Luciano He was made keper of the Papal Seals, the Piombo.
Bronzino 1503 - 1582 Agnolo di Cosimo 'Bronzino' means 'bronze colored' or 'tanned'
Parmaigiano 1503 - 1540 Girolamo Francesco Mazzoia The Liitle one from Parma after the town in which he grew up
Tintoretto 1518 - 1594 Jacopo Robusti His father was a professional dyer
Pieter Brueghel 1525 - 1569 Bruegel He spelt his name with an 'h' until 1559 and his sons kept the 'h.'
Paolo Veronese 1528 - 1588 Paolo Caliani Nicknamed after the town of his birth: Verona
El Greco 1541 - 1614 Domenikos Theotocopoulos Born in Greece he settled in Spain and was known as 'The Greek.'
Caravaggio 1571 - 1610 Michelangelo di Merisi He was born near the village of Caravaggio
Velazquez 1599 - 1660 Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez His father, Juan Rodriguez, belonged to the Portuguese family of Silva; the child took the name of his mother, Gerónima Velazquez
Goya 1746 - 1828 Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes Goya was the simplest part of his family name
Hokusai Katsushika 1760 - 1849 Hokusai Kawamura He took the name of a close farming village
Utagawa Hiroshige 1797 - 1858 Ando Hiroshige He took the name of his teacher
Hitler 1889 - 1945 Heidler The name of his stepfather.

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