Michelangelo Buonarroti (my-kel-an-jay-loh bwon-nar-roh-tee) was born in Florence to a poor family. At the age of six he was sent to live with the family of a stonecutter. There he came to love the feel of a sculptor’s chisel and hammer in his hands. Over the next ten years, Michelangelo’s genius was given shape and direction through study with Florence’s foremost artists. By the time he was 24, he had completed his first sculptural masterpiece, the Pietà, depicting the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of Christ.

Michelangelo’s personal and artistic intensity led him to attempt projects of great scope. One such work was his magnificent painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo was unsure about this project, for the ceiling was 40 feet (12 m) wide, 133 feet (40.5 m) long, and very high and rounded. The heroic job took four years to complete, from 1508 to 1512. During that time Michelangelo worked flat on his back on a platform he built 68 feet (20.7 m) above the chapel floor. He painted 145 pictures with more than 300 figures depicting the story of the Creation, Fall, and Redemption of humanity. His sculptor’s eye influenced these images; they looked almost three-dimensional thanks to Michelangelo’s use of light and dark shading. He even painted some figures in gray tones to imitate sculpture. All the figures in the paintings are in active poses that emphasize their characteristically muscled bodies. Michelangelo’s emphasis on the authority of the artist’s vision was an important part of the expression of his genius.