Michelangelo

Born in the Republic of Florence in 1475, Michelangelo achieved early fame with sculptures that set a new standard before age thirty. Though he resisted the commission and didn't consider himself a painter, he created the Genesis scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling and later The Last Judgment on its altar wall—frescoes that reshaped Western art. He pioneered Mannerist architecture with the Laurentian Library, and at seventy-one became architect of St. Peter's Basilica, transforming its design and overseeing the dome. Contemporaries called him Il Divino and admired his terribilità—the awe his…