
MichelangeloItalian, 1475–1564May one see it?
Braunschweig, Germany
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
1534–1564 · Workplace
Rome
1550
Vasari publishes his biography
Giorgio Vasari published his Lives, including a biography of Michelangelo, the first Western artist whose biography appeared in his lifetime. Vasari held that his work transcended that of any artist living or dead and was “supreme in not one art alone but in all three”.
1553
Ascanio Condivi's biography is published
His pupil Ascanio Condivi published a book of recollections of the master, with his portrait.
1554
Verses on divine love
Michelangelo's faith deepened towards the end of his life. In a poem of 1554 he wrote that neither painting nor sculpture could any longer calm his soul, now turned towards the divine love that opened its arms on the cross.
February 1564
His will: “my soul to God, my body to the earth”
Before his death Michelangelo dictated his will with characteristic brevity: “I give my soul to God, my body to the earth, my possessions to my family.” His nephew Leonardo reached Rome a few days before he died, and Tommaso dei Cavalieri, Daniele da Volterra and his doctors were with him at the end.
18 February 1564
Died