Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. Although the Sistine Chapel made him famous, he thought of himself as a sculptor. His mother, Francesca, died when he was six years old. When his mother died he moved to a wet nurse's house. The wet nurse's husband was a stone cutter so he could have sworn he had marble in his milk. This is how his passion for marble came.
Some of his most famous sculptures are David at 14' 3'', the Pieta at 5' 8.5'', and Moses as "A Fortress of Strength." Most of his works have some link to Christianity because he was a profoundly educated man of utmost faith in God. He was punched in the nose and left with a disfigured one for life because of his faith.The Sistine Chapel took him four years to paint. To paint the ceiling he had to stand on a scaffling. He had to have his nose to the ceiling the whole time and it is said that his brain shifted down towards his neck because of this position.
A famous quote of his is "I cannot live under the pressures of patrons, let alone paint." Two of his noble thoughts are "Men are worth more than money" and "Going slowly you make fewer mistakes." He died of osteopetrosis, marble bone disease.
Books
Raboff, Ernest. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Garden City: Double day & Co., Inc., 1971
Ventura, Pierro. Michelangelo's World. New York:G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1989
Visit some of Michelangelo's famous works at