Born in the Tuscan town of Caprese in 1475, he was one of the greatest
exponents of late-Renaissance art, and together with Raphael, founder of
the styles of Classicism and Mannerism. He learned the basic rudiments
of painting and sculpture with Domenico Ghirlandaio and Bertoldo di Giovanni,
a pupil of Donatello respectively. He quickly threw himself into his artistic
work, creating his first noteworthy statues: the "Virgin of the Steps"
(1490-92) and the "Battle of the Centaurs" at the Buonarroti
house in Florence. He then moved to Bologna for a time, and in the Church
of St. Dominic he sculpted "St. Petronius", "St. Proclus"
and an "Angel" (1494-95) as the crowning part of a marble arch.
He then went to Rome, where he created "Bacchus" (1496-97), now
at the Bargello Museum in Florence, and the world famous "Pietà"
(1496) in St. Peter's (see under pietà), in which the intense grief
of the Virgin is realistic, just as the muscles, nerves and expressions
are"real". From a slightly later date is the "Virgin and
Child" (1498-1501) at the Notre-Dame church in Bruges, and the "Pitti
Virgin" (1503) at the Bargello Museum, an excellent example of bas-relief
on a tondo, the circular shape he later used for some of his paintings,
suchas the famous "Doni tondo" or "Holy Family and St. Giovannino"
(1504) at the Uffizi. This last work, along with the no longer surviving
frescos of the "Battle of Cascina" in the Palazzo Vecchio, worked
on alongside Leonardo da Vinci's "Battle of Anghiari" cartoons,
also lost, and the "Taddei tondo" in the Royal Academy in London
is one of his most perfect painted works, an artform he later concentrated
on after having mastered the art of sculpture.The later work, the "Deposition
in the sepulchre" (1511) now at the National gallery in London, has
been attributed to him, despite much uncertainty. He also worked on the
extraordinary frescos in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, painting the "Scenes
of the Genesis, Prophets, Sybil and the Naked" (1508-12) and the "Final
Judgement" (1536-41), then in the Paolina Chapel he painted the "Martyrdom
of St. Peter" and the "Conversion of Saul" (1542-50). In
these admirable examples of his maturity Michelangelo created monumental
figures of great plasticity, realistic giants with emotions, feelings and
pain, with their twisted bodies in accordance with the Mannerist style,
and pastel-toned robes wrapped around their bodies as if they were Greek
statues. His works of sculpture include the magnificent "David"
(1501-04) at the Accademia Gallery, a worthy heir to the classical athletes
of Polycletus, Praxiteles or Lisippo, "St. Paul", "St. Peter"
and "St. Pius" (1503-04) in Siena Cathedral. For Pope Julius
II he sculpted "The dying slave" (1513), now at the Louvre, "Moses"
(1515) in St. Peter in Chains Church in Rome, with its solemn power, and
the "Prisons" (1530-34) at the Accademia in Florence. The great
artist reached the peak of his splendour with the the Tombs of Giuliano
and Lorenzo de' Medici in the church of San Lorenzo (1525-34), where he
also architected the new vestry (also in Florence he built the Laurenziana
Library), with the "Pietà" (1550-55) in Florence Cathedral
and the "Rondanini Pietà" (1552-66) at the Castello Sforzesco
in Milan, as well as with the Campidoglio Piazza and the Farnese Palace
in Rome (both were built between 1544 and 1550) and with the Building of
St. Peter (from 1546 on). This extraordinarily talented late-Renaissance
Italian artist died in 1564.