Michelangelo was one of the most inspired creators in the history of art. He was born on March 6, 1475, in the small village of Caprese near Arezzo. As a sculptor, architect, painter and poet, he applied a tremendous influence on his contemporaries and on subsequent Western art in general. Throughout his life he had a deep attachment to his city, its art, and its cultural background. He spent a great amount of his adulthood in Rome, employed by the Popes; however, he left instructions he be buried in Florence.
             Michelangelo's father placed him in the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. After about two years he studied sculpting in the Medici gardens and was invited in the household of Lorenzo de Medici. His patron Lorenzo passed on in 1492, two years later Michelangelo fled Florence when the Medici's were temporarily expelled. In 1494 and 1495 he executed several marble statues for the Acra di San Domenico in the church of San Domenico. Michelangelo then went to Rome to study many statues and ruins. He soon sculpted his first large scale sculpture, the life size Bacchus. At about the same time Michelangelo also did the marble Peita, still in it's original place in St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo was only about 25 years old when he finished the Peita, and it's the only work he ever signed.
             Michelangelo's high point was his gigantic (14.24 ft.) marble David that he produced between 1501 and 1504, after returning to Florence. Michelangelo's most famous sculpture, became the symbol of Florence and was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in Front of the Pallazzo Vecchio. With this statue he proved himself to everybody that he not only raised the bar to all modern artists, but also the Greeks and Romans. Today Michelangelo's statue of David still stands in Florence for visitors to view.
             Pope Julius II called Michelangelo to Rome again in 1505 for two commiss
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