Michelangelo (The Library of Great Masters)

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in 1475 at Caprese, in Tuscany. He was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1488, when he was 13, and worked continuously until six days before his death. In 1489, Michelangelo was summoned to the court of Lorenzo de'Medici, where he learnt the technical skills essential to his craft, fashioning clay and practising drawing by copying earlier works. Michelangelo examines the life and works of this great artist, including the Pieta, created when he was just 23, and the David, commissioned in 1501. The book is divided in to sections corresponding to the phases of Michelangelo's work, with one section devoted to the paintings on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.