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The great Michelangelo was born at Caprese, Italy on March 6, 1475. He was a well-known figure during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and his works make his name live on in history.
As a sculptor, he crafted the marble "Bacchus" and the "David" in Florence and the "Pieta" in Rome. In spite of these great works, Michelangelo would rather have been painting. Carving marble is extremely difficult, requiring tens of thousands of metal-to-metal-to-stone strikes.
Michelangelo's rival, Leonardo da Vinci, gives a good description of the process in one of his notebooks:
"The sculptor in creating his work does so by the strength of his arm by which he consumes the marble, or other obdurate material in which his subject is enclosed: and this is done by most mechanical exercise, often accompanied by great sweat which mixes with the marble dust and forms a kind of mud dabbed all over his face.
The marble dust flours him all over so that he looks like a baker; his back is covered with a snowstorm of chips, and his house is made filthy by the flakes and dust of stone."
Today sculptors wear safety glasses, but Michelangelo did not. He had to see the stone, to see each mark, to make tiny adjustments to the angle of his chisel and to the force of the blow. He could not afford to slip. One wrong stroke could break a finger, an arm, or worse.
Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He worked on this project from 1508 to 1512. It is regarded as his greatest achievement as a painter. From 1520 to 1534, he worked on the Medici Tombs and designed the Laurentian Library.
He was appointed architect of St. Peter's in Rome in 1542 and held the position until his death in 1564.
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