Michelangelo Buonarotti
Painter, Sculptor and Architect of Florence
(1475-1564)
Michelangelo (1475-1564) was one of the most famous artists in history. He was mainly interested in creating large marble statues, but his endless creative energy also led him to become a great painter and architect as well as a poet. He was also one of the most famous people of his time and a great leader of the Italian Renaissance; a period marked by a rebirth of interest in the art and learning of ancient Greece and Rome.
Michelangelo is best known for his treatment of the human body in painting and sculpture. His figures convey a sense of grandeur and power, and arouse strong emotions in many spectators. In size, strength, and emotional intensity, these figures go beyond real people. Michelangelo's figures are both animated and restrained, and seem to possess great spiritual energy. His work presses toward the extremes of heroism and tragedy but is never false or artificial.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
English: A vertical panorama of a copy of the stat...
English: Michelangelo's David (original statue) De...Early life. Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475. His full name was Michelangelo Buonarotti. He came from a respectable Florence family and was born in the village of Caprese, where his father was a government agent. Michelangelo had a brief classical education that dealt with the literature, art, and life of ancient Greece and Rome. When he was 12 years old, Michelangelo became an apprentice to the most popular painter in Florence, Domenico Ghirlandajo.
Before his apprenticeship was completed, Michelangelo stopped painting and began working as a sculptor under the guidance of a pupil of the sculptor Donatello. Michelangelo attracted the support of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, who invited the young artist to stay at his palace. Michelangelo's earliest surviving sculpture is a small-unfinished relief of a battle, done when he was about 16. This work...