Italian artist

Sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. Michelangelo Buonarroti is one of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance, indeed of all time.

He began his career in Florence when at age 13 he became an apprentice to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. After leaving Ghirlandaio he studied at the sculpture school in the Medici Gardens where he enjoyed the patronage of Lorenzo de Medici, head of one of Europe's most powerful families.
In the mid-1490s Michelangelo moved to Rome where he quickly established his reputation as a talented artist and became the favorite of a succession of popes. He spent the following 30 years creating some of history's most famous works of art, including the sculptures "Pieta" and "David"; the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; and the architectural design for the grand staircase in the Laurentian Library in Florence.
Michelangelo's final years were spent writing poetry, painting a fresco of "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpting an artistically radical "Pieta" unfinished at the time of his death.

Works