Mar 6, 1475 – Feb 18, 1564
Sculptor, Painter, Poet, Architect
Italian
“ I heard him say that he never drew a line which he didn’t remember.” -- Ascanio Condivi
“If life pleases us, death, being made by the hands of the same creator, should not displease us.”
Upon overhearing a comment that his work, Pietá, was done by a different sculptor, Michelangelo signed the piece making it the only work that he ever signed.
Michelangelo began drawing as a small digit, and even his father, who thought an artist’s life would be no better than the life of a common laborer, could not stop him. Known as the genius of the renaissance, Michelangelo created some of the world’s most famous works of art (such as his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel). Many consider him to be the greatest artist of all time. His artistic dna was manifested in architecture, painting and poetry, but his personal favorite was sculpting. He studied and dissected bodies to understand the structure of the human form. Standing over 14-feet tall, his colossal sculpture of the Biblical hero David is perfectly proportioned. Even though it outraged many people of his day, Michelangelo’s figures wear little or no clothing, for he viewed the human body as it had come into this world: free from the trappings of society’s structure. Michelangelo was a perfectionist and, in so being, set high standards for his work. This, along with pressure from the popes giving him more work than he could ever hope to complete, caused Michelangelo to feel enslaved. When involved in a major project, his creative energies were so intense he would sleep sparingly and eat little. To him these necessities of life were just an interruption to his work. The sad expression he wore most of his life came from a jealous fellow art student, who disfigured his face with a punch to the nose.