Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) was acknowledged even during his lifetime as 'Il Divino' (*The Divine One*). Viewing himself primarily as a sculptor, he carved the breathtaking Pietà at age twenty-four and the colossal marble David (1504) for Florence, embodying heroic human dignity and civic freedom.

Between 1508 and 1512, under Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel single-handedly in fresco, creating the epochal Creation of Adam. Twenty-five years later, he returned to paint the titanic Last Judgment on the altar wall. In his eighties, appointed chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica, he designed its monumental soaring dome, leaving an unmatched artistic imprint on world history.