Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo Buonarroti was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Born near Arezzo in 1475, he trained in Florence under Domenico Ghirlandaio and in the Medici circle. He carved the Pietà and the marble David, and painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and Last Judgment for the papacy in Rome. In later decades he worked as an architect, directing construction of St. Peter's Basilica and designing the Laurentian Library and Medici Chapel. He also left a body of sonnets and madrigals. Widely regarded in his own lifetime as a leading artist, he died in Rome in 1564 and was buried in Florence.