Michelangelo

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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 – 1564), known as Michelangelo, was a quintessential Italian Renaissance artist, excelling as a painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. His remarkable versatility in various disciplines positions him alongside Leonardo da Vinci as an archetypal Renaissance man. Michelangelo's prolific output is underscored by a wealth of correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, making him the best-documented artist of the 16th century. Notable early works include the Pietà and David, both completed before he turned thirty. Despite his reservations about painting, he created seminal frescoes, including the Genesis scenes and The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. As an architect, he pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library and, at 74, took over as architect of Saint Peter's Basilica. His significance is highlighted by the publication of two biographies during his lifetime, with Giorgio Vasari declaring him the pinnacle of artistic achievement since the Renaissance's inception. Revered as Il Divino ("the divine one"), Michelangelo's terribilità, or awe-inspiring grandeur, influenced subsequent artists and led to the emergence of Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art following the High Renaissance.