Michelangelo Buonarroti

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Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Florentine sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He was one of the outstanding figures of the High Renaissance and a creator of mannerism. He spent five years in Rome where he made his name with a statue of Bacchus and the Pietà (now in St Peter's). In 1501 he returned to Florence, where he carved the gigantic David, a symbol of the new-found confidence of the Florentine Republic. In 1505, Pope Julius II called him to Rome to carry out two substantial commissions. The first, a magnificent tomb for Julius I, ended in disaster due to lack of funds from the Pope's heirs. The other, a vast painting for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, was Michelangelo's most sublime achievement. He added The Last Judgment later, starting in 1536. Among Michelangelo's other great (unfinished) works are the Medici Chapel and the Biblioteca Laurenziana, both for the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. For the last 30 years of his life, Michelangelo concentrated on architecture. He created the magnificent cathedral of St Peter's, Rome, but died before completing it.

http://www.firenzemusei.it/00_english/accademia; http://www.rm.astro.it/amendola/sistina.html; http://www.louvre.fr

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