Michelangelo (1475–1564)

Michelangelo (1475–1564)

Il Divino: Sculptor of Souls, Architect of Eternity

Few artists in history have embodied genius quite like Michelangelo Buonarroti. Sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, he was not just a titan of the High Renaissance—he was its soul.

Born in the Tuscan town of Caprese, Michelangelo’s first lessons came not from books, but from marble. Raised in Florence during its golden age, he was drawn to the chisel from a young age, famously saying he learned the art of sculpture from the milk of his wet nurse—the wife of a stonecutter. By 13, he was apprenticed to the great Domenico Ghirlandaio, and not long after, he found himself under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici, where he mingled with philosophers and poets at the Platonic Academy.

Michelangelo’s fame exploded before he turned 30. His Pietà, carved in Rome, stunned the world with its delicate sorrow and divine beauty. His David, standing defiantly in Florence, redefined heroism and sculptural perfection. Though he considered himself a sculptor above all, he painted perhaps the most iconic ceiling in art history—the Sistine Chapel. It took four years, hundreds of figures, and unrelenting vision to depict the drama of Genesis across its vast surface.

He sculpted as though he were freeing souls from stone. He painted as though heaven itself poured through his brush. And his architectural legacy—most famously the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica—rises like a monument to the Renaissance spirit.

Michelangelo lived a life of devotion: to art, to God, and to truth. Solitary and intense, he penned over 300 poems, many revealing a tender, complex love—particularly for the nobleman Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. In his final decades, he turned more deeply inward, his faith growing stronger as his body aged. Yet even in old age, he remained Rome’s creative heartbeat, designing churches, chapels, and statues well into his 80s.

They called him Il Divino—the Divine One. And rightly so. Michelangelo didn’t just create masterpieces—he shaped the visual language of Western art, leaving behind a legacy of beauty, struggle, and transcendence that continues to stir the soul.