Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese (now known as Caprese Michelangelo), Italy. Sometime after his birth, his mother fell ill and for a few years Michelangelo was raised by a family of stonecutters. This exposure to stone and craft could possibly be the reason why he continued to carve sculptures from stone for the rest of his life. He returned home to his father and siblings after his mother died and at the age of six he started grammar school in Florence.
Over the years his father noticed his lack of interest in schooling and so Michelangelo became an apprentice to Domenico Ghirlandaio in Loreno de'Medici's school at the age of thirteen. In just a year at the school it was evident how incredibly talented he was in the arts, and in 1489 he was moved into the personal employ of one of the Medici family where he was able to study classical sculpture. During his continued training, Michelangelo was under the direction of Bertoldo di Giovanni, a former pupil another great Renaissance artist, Donatello.…show more content… Michelangelo left Florence, and over the next seven years he worked on numerous pieces and became more well known for his superb sculptures. Although Michelangelo is most well known for his fresco paintings on the walls and ceilings of the Sistine Chapel, he preferred sculpting and was most fond of the marble David that he completed at the age of twenty-nine in 1504 after his return to Florence. At one point in his life he declared that he was not a painter, but a sculpture and even signed his letters as Michelangelo the
