Michelangelo - Life, Works & Painting Style | Great Artists Explained in 3 minutes!

Michelangelo Buonarroti, often just called Michelangelo, was one of the most important Italian artists of the High Renaissance, known for his masterful works in painting, sculpture and architecture.
He was born in 1475 in Caprese, Italy, to wealthy parents and grew up in Florence. Despite his father's opposition, he began training with Domenico Ghirlandaio at the age of thirteen. Michelangelo continued this at the art school of Lorenzo il Magnifico, where he discovered his passion for sculpture.
A fellow pupil hit him on the nose and disfigured him, so that he had to live with his supposed 'ugliness' for the rest of his life.
As a young artist, he was sponsored early on by the influential Medici family in Florence, for whom he created many works over the course of his career.
But Michelangelo also created a wide range of masterpieces in the fields of sculpture, painting and architecture for many other clients, such as popes, aristocrats and state institutions. He worked in various Italian cities, particularly Florence, Rome and Bologna.
Michelangelo did not like talking to other people, never married, had no children and devoted his entire life to art.
In 1534, he left Florence for good and moved to Rome. Just as he was working as an architect on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, he died in 1564 at the age of 89, which was a very old age for the time.
His painting style was characterized by an intense attention to detail and a deep emotional expressiveness. Michelangelo’s works are characterized by dramatic gestures, vivid colors and masterful anatomy.
Frequent motifs in his art were biblical scenes, mythological themes and human figures in dynamic poses, reflecting his studies of the human body.
He saw himself primarily as a sculptor who recognized the pre-existing work of art in the raw block of marble and wanted to give it soul, although he also made significant contributions as a painter, architect and poet.
Michelangelo developed many plans for gigantic works, but only a fraction were realized. The reasons for this range from lack of time and loss of interest to philosophical and psychological interpretations.
One of his masterpieces of sculpture is the David. This marble sculpture shows the biblical hero David in a moment of concentrated calm before the battle against Goliath.
The Creation of Adam is one of the most famous images in Western art history. It is a fresco and part of the ceiling painting in the Sistine Chapel. It shows the moment when God breathes life into Adam.
The Last Judgement is another important work in the Sistine Chapel, dramatically depicting the end of the world and the judgement of souls. It demonstrates his ability to masterfully depict complex compositions with numerous figures.
He created around 300 drawings, some 40 sculptures, several monumental frescoes and was a prolific architect. His works remain unsurpassed as masterpieces of human creativity and technical skill.