Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, he was active for most of his career in Rome, where he painted the ceiling and later the Last Judgment of the Sistine Chapel and served as chief architect of St Peter's Basilica. His sculptures, including the David and the Pieta, drew on classical antiquity and set new standards of anatomical mastery. Alongside his rival Leonardo da Vinci, he is considered an archetypal Renaissance man and one of the most influential artists in Western history.