Celebrate Michelangelo’s 551st birthday by exploring the making of one of history’s most brilliant and complex artistic minds. Born on March 6, 1475, Michelangelo Buonarroti lived nearly 89 years—long enough to witness the glories of Renaissance Florence, the discovery of the New World, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and the reigns of 13 popes. Over that remarkable span, he transformed Western art through sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry.
Many believed Michelangelo’s talent to be miraculous and untrained, the product of divine genius. It was a myth the artist himself encouraged to shape his legacy. Yet like all Renaissance apprentices, the young Michelangelo studied his craft with discipline and curiosity, learning from masters, copying the ancients, and experimenting with materials and styles.
Art historian Elaine Ruffolo traces his journey from student to master, beginning with his adolescence spent in the household of Lorenzo il Magnifico to the execution of his masterpiece, the “David,” completed when he was not yet 30 years old.
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