Portrait of Michelangelo

Portrait of Michelangelo MICHELANGELO 1475 - 1564

Italian, Florentine

A painter, on panel and in fresco, a sculptor, architect and poet, Michelangelo Buonarroti was the first artist recognized by contemporaries as a genius. michelangelo portrait michelangelo paintings

He was born in Florence in the 1470s and trained first as a painter with Domenico Ghirlandaio, and then as a sculptor under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici. The 'Manchester Madonna' is probably an unfinished work from Michelangelo's youth.

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. michelangelo

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. michelangelo buonarroti