Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564)

A painter on panel and in fresco, a sculptor, architect, and poet, Michelangelo Buonarroti was the first artist recognized by contemporaries as a genius. He was born in Florence in 1475 and trained first as a painter with Domenico Ghirlandaio and then as a sculptor under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici.

In 1496, Michelangelo went to Rome where he carved the Pietà for St. Peter's. The theme of the dead Christ recurs throughout his work, and is the subject of his early Entombment.

Back in Florence in 1501, he began work on many sculptural and painterly projects, most of which were left unfinished in 1505 when he was summoned to Rome to begin work on a sculpted tomb for Pope Julius II.

From 1508 to 1512, he painted the vault of the Sistine Chapel with scenes from the Old Testament. Immediately celebrated, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with its innumerable figures in complex, twisting poses and its exuberant use of colour, is the chief source of the Mannerist style.