Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti was an Italian artist widely regarded as one of the greatest who ever lived. Born in 1475, he was a supreme sculptor, painter, and architect of the Italian Renaissance. His towering marble statue of the biblical hero David and his tender sculpture of Mary cradling the dead Christ show a mastery of the human form that has never been surpassed.

He spent years lying on scaffolding to paint the vast ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, filling it with hundreds of powerful figures, and later added a mighty scene of the Last Judgment on its wall. He also helped design the great dome of St Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo's genius across so many fields made him the very model of the Renaissance master.