Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect and poet and one of the great artists of the Italian Renaissance.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese near Florence (Italy), where his father acted as a judge in the local court of law. A few weeks after his birth, the family moved to Florence. In 1488, Michelangelo was apprenticed to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio.
After they were expelled from Florence, Michelangelo travelled to Bologna and then, in 1496, to Rome. His primary works were sculptures in these early years. His “Pieta” (1497) made his name and he returned to Florence as a famous sculptor. There he produced his “David” (1501—1504), his most famous sculpture.
In 1505, Pope Julius Ⅱ summoned Michelangelo back to Rome and commissioned him to design the Pope's own tomb. The project was never completed, although Michelangelo did produce a sculpture of Moses for the tomb.
Michelangelo's next major commission was “The Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel” in the Vatican (1508—1512). It was recognised at once as a great work of art and from then on Michelangelo was regarded as Italy's greatest living artist.
In 1534, Michelangelo returned to Rome, where he was commissioned to paint “The Last Judgement” on the wall of the Sistine Chapel (a church in the Vatican, Rome). From 1546 he was increasingly active as an architect, in particular on the great church of St Peter's. He died in Rome on February 18, 1564.
