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Michelangelo |
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Chalk portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra. |
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
(March
6,
1475 –
February 18,
1564), commonly known as Michelangelo,
was an
Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter,
Renaissance architect and
poet. While he made few forays beyond the
arts, his artistic versatility was of such a
high order that he is often considered a contender
for the title of the archetypal
Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow
Florentine
Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo's output in
every field during his long life was prodigious;
when the sheer volume of correspondence, sketches
and reminiscences that survive is also taken into
account, he is the best-documented artist of the
16th century. Two of his best-known works, the
Pietà and the
David, were sculpted in his late twenties to
early thirties. Despite his low opinion of painting,
Michelangelo also created two of the most
influential
fresco paintings in the history of Western art,
on the
ceiling and altar wall (The
Last Judgement) of the
Sistine Chapel in
Rome. Later in life he designed the dome of
St Peter's Basilica in the same city and
revolutionised classical architecture as he had done
every other discipline he mastered, with invention
of the
giant order of
pilasters.
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