Michelangelo Is Born

Setting the scene

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Republic of Florence, while his father served as local magistrate. Raised in Florence, he apprenticed briefly with Ghirlandaio before joining Lorenzo de' Medici's sculpture garden.

What happened

He carved the Pietà in Rome at about 24 and the David in Florence, then spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512) for Pope Julius II, often on scaffolding he designed himself.

Why it still matters

Michelangelo later designed St. Peter's dome and wrote sonnets into his eighties. Memorable detail: he painted the Sistine ceiling largely standing, not lying on his back as popular myth claims, and complained in a poem that the work left his spine 'twisted like a Syrian bow.'

Background

He later worked for popes and patrons in Rome.