Michelangelo succeeded Bramante and others as chief architect of St. Peter's Basillica in Rome in 1547.
Known as one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born in the Italian village of Caprese on March 6, 1475. He started sketching at a young age and took an apprenticeship in his early teens with Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Though he enjoyed drawing, painting and sculpting, eventually he turned to architecture. Michelangelo focused on all types of art, refusing to be pigeonholed as a specific type of artist. He used multiple media to express his creativity at different periods of his life.
Drawing
Michelangelo, bereft of a mother at 6 and raised by his nobleman father, began drawing at age 10. Much to the chagrin of his father and his teacher, Michelangelo often skipped academic studies to spend as much time as he could drawing. When his father realized the relentlessness of Michelangelo's passion, he enrolled him for three years in Ghirlandaio's workshop.
Painting
While under Ghirlandaio's tutelage, Michelangelo learned the basics of fresco, the style of painting he later used on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. In 1490, as part of Ghirlandaio's workshop, Michelangelo helped decorate the Church of Santa Maria Novella's central chapel. This experience served him well when he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In just over four years, he painted more than 300 figures on the ceiling, including scenes of the Creation.
Sculpture
Lorenzo the Magnificent, a member of the influential Medici family of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for two students to learn the secrets of sculpture at San Marco; one of them was Michelangelo. At age 21, he created a statute of Bacchus, now housed in the Bargello museum in Florence. Michelangelo, commissioned by Cardinal San Diogini, completed the "Pieta," a sculpture of Mary holding the dead body of her son Jesus, for the St. Petronilla Chapel in Rome. Going against tradition, Michelangelo signed the sculpture. His sculpture of David is considered a masterpiece.
Architecture
Not as well-known for his architecture, many people aren't aware of Michelangelo's contribution to St. Peter's in Rome and his involvement with the Laurentian Library. The library's interior architectural styling is considered revolutionary for its time. Michelangelo devoted 18 years to St. Peter's, and some consider his influence on architectural styling to be his greatest artistic contribution.
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