Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti (b.1475-d.1564) was an Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, poet and architect. Along with his contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, he is considered one of the great artists of European art.

He was born born in the village of Caprese in Tuscany. Michelangelo receives his formal education under Domenico Ghirlandaio and the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. In Florence Michelangelo becomes acquainted with Classical antiquity, which will have enormous influence on his work. Throughout this period, in the 1490s, Michelangelo worked in Florence, Venice and Bologna.

In 1496 Michelangelo moves to Rome. One of his first major assignments is for the well-known Pieta in St. Peter's basilica. Back in Florence Michelangelo creates another masterpiece: the statue of David (1500-1504). It originally rested in the Palazzo della Signoria, outside Florence