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Italian artist and architect (1475-1564)
1475 – 1564
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance [1]. Born in the Republic of Florence, he received his education at the University of Florence and was subsequently active in Rome from his thirties onwards [1][10]. His work drew inspiration from classical antiquity and exerted a lasting influence on Western art, with contemporaries and later critics alike regarding him as the defining creative figure of his era [1][8].
During his lifetime, Michelangelo was frequently referred to as Il Divino, or "the divine one," a testament to the sense of awe — described by contemporaries as terribilità — that his works inspired in viewers [11]. Giorgio Vasari, one of three biographers who published accounts of the artist while he was still alive, declared his work "supreme in not one art alone but in all three," meaning sculpture, painting, and architecture [9]. He was the first Western artist to have his biography published during his own lifetime, and the volume of surviving correspondence and sketches makes him among the best-documented artists of the sixteenth century [8][9].
Michelangelo's expressive physicality proved enormously influential after his death, as subsequent artists' attempts to replicate his style contributed to the emergence of Mannerism, a movement bridging the High Renaissance and the Baroque [11].
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. He was born in the Republic of Florence but was mostly active in Rome from his 30s onwards. His work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era. Michelangelo achieved fame early. Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before the age of 30. Although he did not consider himself a painter, Michelangelo created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture. At the age of 71, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the Western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death. Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive. Three biographies were published during his lifetime. One of them, by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that Michelangelo's work transcended that of any artist living or dead, and was "supreme in not one art alone but in all three". In his lifetime, Michelangelo was often called Il Divino ("the divine one"). His contemporaries admired his terribilità—his ability to instill a sense of awe in viewers of his art. Attempts by subsequent artists to imitate the expressive physicality of Michelangelo's style contributed to the rise of Mannerism, a short-lived movement in Western art between the High Renaissance and the Baroque.
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