Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475 in the village of Caprese, Italy, where his father was serving as a magistrate of the Florentine Republic. Michelangelo briefly attended grammar school managed by Francesco da Urbino but he spent most of his time drawing or sketching. It was something he couldn't live without, but brought him frequent scolding and even beatings by his father who considered drawing and fine arts to be a waste of time that brought no money or honor to his family. Little did his father know that in time Michelangelo would become one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance.

At thirteen Michelangelo was apprenticed to Dominico Ghirlanaio, the leading fresco (wall) painter in Florence. Michelangelo remained only one year: it was Ghirlandaio himself who sent him to the "Medici Gardens Art School" that Lorenzo the magnificent had founded in Florence for young artists and sculptures. During this first year at the "Medici Gardens", the young Buonarroti develo

The Pieta' (1550) was done in Michelangelo's last years when he found time for sculpture; often this meant working late at night, by the light of a candle stuck in his hat. This group is generally labeled a pieta' (Mary mourning the dead Christ), but is actually more like a deposition (taking the body down from the cross) or even an entombment. The tall, hooded Nicodemus, who is said to have carried Christ's body to the tomb; the others are Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary, Michelangelo is believed to have given Nicodemus his own features, carving the group for the altar of the church in which he intended to be buried. But, becoming dissatisfied with the work, he smashed it up. His assistant Calcagni later put it back together rather crudely (Christ's left arm is patched and his leg is missing) and finished the Magdalene in his bland style; yet the poignancy of Michelangelo's original concept remain undiminished.

Michelangelo was given another commission by Pope Paul III, it would be two frescoes for the Pope's own, newly built, private chapel, the Cappella Paolina (Pauline Chapel). The Conversion of St Paul (1542-1545) represents a key moment in the history of Christianity, and its central figure is the Pope's namesake. Saul of Taurus was a zealous persecutor of the early Christians until, on his way to Damascus, he was struck down and blinded by a great light and heard the voice of Jesus himself reproaching him. Saul eventually recovered from his blindness and, as the Apostle St Paul, became the driving force in bringing Christianity to the gentiles. Michelangelo makes visible Jesus and the heavenly host, creating a contrast between the groups on earth and in the sky. A blinding bolt sends Saul's companions reeling back; he himself lies stunned in the foreground while his horse bolts. Unusually, Michelangelo portrays Saul as an old man, presumably to identify him with Pope Paul.

With the unexpectedly extinguished power line of the Medici family, the sole survivor, Pope Leo X commissioned Michelangelo to commemorate the deaths of Giuliano de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici by building a funerary chapel on to the side of the family church, San Lorenzo in Florence, and furnishing it with suitably splendid tombs, carved by his own hand. Like so many of Michelangelo's undertakings, the tomb project which was named Lorenzo de' Medici ran into all sorts of problems, and when he left Florence for good in 1534, the tombs of the two dead dukes were more or less complete, but their more illustrious ancestors rested-and still rest-in a simple chest opposite the altar. Nevertheless the Medici Chapel is one of Michelangelo's grandest achievements. The figure representing Lorenzo is, despite the almost frivolous fantasy of his face in shadow, as he seems to contemplate the riddles of life and death.

The Piazza del Campidoglio Rome is Michelangelo's claim to fame as a town planner. The site is the former Capitoline Hill, the civic center of ancient Rome. By the early 16th century it was run down and almost inaccessible, until Pope Paul III decided to restore it. In 1538 the ancient bronze equestrian statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius- the only surviving monument of its kind-was set up on the hill; Michelangelo designed its base, and at some point over the next few years out a set of plans involving ramps, buildings, and a pavement carrying an oval geometric pattern, all integrated into a symmetrical scheme of a kind that had never been seen before. Though finished almost a century after his death, the piazza is essentially laid out according to Michelangelo's design, although Marcus Aurelius is now in a museum.

Madonna and Child was the third of the tondi, or round works of art, created by Michelangelo. This one is known as the Pitti Tondo, since it was carved for a patron named Bartolommeo Pitti. It is smaller than the Taddei Tindo and, although it is likewise unfinished, has reached a more advanced state and seems on a

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