Michelangelo - Greatest Artist Ever?

Michelangelo was born Italian and lived from 1475 to 1564. Among many other famous works of art he is credited with sculpting David and Pieta, designing the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica and painting the famed Sistine Chapel frescoes.

During his 89 year life he embodied the persona of an Artist. Leaving us some of the most undeniably brilliant sculptures, drawing, paintings, poetry, and architect the world has ever seen.

There had never been before, nor has there been since an artist who's work in so many different fields has been so revered. You will find famous painters, the like of Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, etc and poetic geniuses like, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, etc... and you will also some very talented and gifted sculptures and the architects. What you will not find is another artist that excelled in each of these arts as Michelangelo did.

If you consider the time it takes to master just one of these disciplines, leaving his name in literary books, art museums, architectural structures and pencil drawings is nothing short of amazing.

Michelangelo was without question the greatest marble sculptor during the era in which he lived. Many say he was the best of any era. He preferred marble sculpting and fresco painting above all other forms, which are two of the hardest styles to create, let alone master. The speculation is it was the physical, intellectual and artistic challenges of these forms of art drew him to them. From looking at his paintings, even when undertaking this art form he was interested in challenging himself. Often choosing the most difficult poses and he continuously layered his work with multiple meanings in reference to religion, mythology among other subjects.

It was clear early on that Michelangelo was destined to be an artist. Legend has it that even his father's ongoing scolding's could not keep the young Michelangelo from drawing instead of attending to his schoolwork. In fact his father is believed to have beaten Michelangelo on numerous occasions. Attempting to persuade him into another profession.

Michelangelo so dedicated himself to his love of art that during his lifetime he never married.

Because Michelangelo's love for art was so persistent his father soon allowed him to be an apprentice at the age of 13 with Domenico Ghirlandia, on what was to be a paid apprenticeship. An arrangement that was quite uncommon for the time. Normally the apprentice paid to learn from the master while learning and working odd labor in the master's home. A conflict forced him out after a year.

He was then invited to stay at the home of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. Where Michelangelo would continue his art studies. Michelangelo, by the time he was 16 had completed two medium sized sculptures and would go on to complete 30 completed and famous sculptors and 7 paintings. There is no precise number but when Michelangelo died in 1556 he left a large number of sculptors and paintings incomplete.