Michelangelo

Michelangelo (1475–1564) was a sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance, raised in Florence. Apprenticed at thirteen to Domenico Ghirlandaio, he studied from 1490 in the circle of Lorenzo de' Medici. In Rome he carved the Pietà, his only signed work, and in Florence finished the David in 1504, before turning thirty.

In 1505 Pope Julius II recalled him to Rome to build a tomb with forty statues. It followed him for forty years and gave the world the Moses. Julius then set him to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512), over 300 figures.

For the Medici he built the Medici Chapel. After the Florentine republic fell in 1530 he was condemned to death and later pardoned. He painted The Last Judgment (1534–1541), and in 1546 took over St Peter's and designed its dome, completed after his death. He died in Rome in 1564.