The man, the art, the sonnets, the architect

Artists come in many forms, as Michelangelo showed, even in architect. But when you mix a man with the talent of sculpture, drawings, paintings, poetry, and architect you have the unmistakably brilliant and sometimes fascinating life of Michelangelo.

There has not been one celebrated in so many different fields in all history. You will easily find other brilliant and just as famous painters, as Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, etc. and you will also find poetic geniuses like, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, etc, and you will also find noble and talented sculptures and architects. Michelangelo excelled in all four, which if you take into account the amount of time it takes to master just one talent or career, leaving his name in literary books, art museums, architectural structures and pencil drawings.

Michelangelo was undoubtedly the greatest marble sculptor during that era, and beyond. He preferred marble sculpting and fresco painting above all other forms, which are two of the hardest style to create in each field. It was perhaps, many have speculated, the physical, intellectual and artistic challenges that provided him the desire for these forms. Even in painting Michelangelo choose the most difficult poses and he continuously layered his work with multiple meanings in reference to religion, mythology, and a number of other subjects.

His love for male beauty has shown meticulously in his sculptures, his love rooted deep on both the physical and emotional levels. His greatest male love was Tommaso dei Cavalieri who, along with many other youths, posed for Michelangelo for his work.

It wasn't a guess that Michelangelo was destined to be an artist, even his father's scolding could not keep young Michelangelo from drawing instead of schoolwork. In fact his father was heard to have beat Michelangelo on numerous occasions, attempting to persuade him into another profession. Most modern commentaries speculated that this was merely a platonic relationship these words written by Cavalieri speak volumes for the bond, "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more then you, never have I wished for a friend more than I wish for you." During his lifetime Michelangelo never married

With Michelangelo's persistent love for art and dedication to painting his father soon caved in and allowed him to be an apprentice at the age of 13 with Domenico Ghirlandia, who paid Michelangelo for his apprenticeship. The process was very uncommon for the 16th century, normally the apprentice paid to learn from the master while learning and working odd labor in the master's home, but a conflict forced him out after a year.

He was then invited to stay at the home of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. Where Michelangelo would continue his art studies as well as learn anatomy. By the time Michelangelo was 16 he completed two medium sized sculptures. Michelangelo would go on to complete 30 completed and famous sculptors and 7 paintings. Although there is no precious number, when Michelangelo died in 1556 he still had a large number of sculptors and paintings incomplete.