Jacques Arcadelt (c.1507-1568) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy and France. He became one of the most celebrated composers of early madrigals, helping to shape a genre that would dominate secular vocal music in the sixteenth century.

Arcadelt worked in Florence and Rome, including service in the papal chapel, before later moving to France. His first book of madrigals was enormously successful, and pieces such as Il bianco e dolce cigno became models of graceful text setting.

His music is notable for clarity, balance and lyrical ease. Compared with later madrigalists, Arcadelt often favoured smooth vocal lines and transparent expression, allowing poetry to speak with natural elegance.

Arcadelt stands at a crucial point between Franco-Flemish polyphonic craft and the emerging Italian madrigal style. His music helped define the sound of secular Renaissance song before the genre grew more dramatic and harmonically adventurous later in the century.