Renaissance art and architecture · Italy · 1475–1564
Michelangelo Life & Career Timeline
Marble, fresco and architecture at the monumental scale of the High Renaissance.
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MMichelangeloRenaissance art and architecture · Italy
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About Michelangelo
Michelangelo shaped sculpture, painting and architecture through works created for Florence, Rome and the papacy.
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Michelangelo biography
Michelangelo timeline: key events
Explore 18 documented Moments in chronological order. Read the dates, locations and source references below. Where available, additional context explains why a milestone matters.
Born at Caprese
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born while his father served as a local magistrate.
Source: www.britannica.comApprenticed to Ghirlandaio
The workshop introduced him to fresco technique and large narrative commissions.
Source: www.britannica.comEnters the Medici sculpture garden
Lorenzo de’ Medici’s circle exposed the teenager to antiquities, poetry and humanist thought.
Source: www.britannica.comMadonna of the Stairs
The shallow relief is among Michelangelo’s earliest surviving sculptures.
Source: www.britannica.comBattle of the Centaurs
The crowded marble relief demonstrated an early command of muscular bodies and unfinished surfaces.
Source: www.britannica.comLeaves Florence
Political upheaval sent Michelangelo away; in Bologna he completed figures for San Domenico.
Source: www.britannica.comBacchus carved in Rome
The ambitious life-size pagan subject established his technical confidence in marble.
Source: www.britannica.comPietà
Commissioned for a French cardinal, the sculpture joined ideal beauty with intimate grief.
Source: www.britannica.comDavid
Michelangelo transformed a long-abandoned marble block into a civic emblem of the republic.
Source: www.britannica.comJulius II commissions a tomb
The immense project occupied Michelangelo intermittently for decades and produced Moses and the Slaves.
Source: www.britannica.comSistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo designed and painted a vast biblical programme across the chapel vault.
Source: www.britannica.comMoses
The commanding seated figure became the centre of the reduced tomb of Julius II.
Source: www.britannica.comMedici projects
He designed the New Sacristy, tomb sculpture and Laurentian Library architecture.
Source: www.britannica.comDefends the Florentine Republic
Michelangelo planned fortifications during the republic’s last stand against Medici restoration.
Source: www.britannica.comSettles permanently in Rome
He left Florence and formed a close intellectual friendship with Vittoria Colonna.
Source: www.britannica.comThe Last Judgment
The monumental altar fresco presented resurrection and judgment through a turbulent field of bodies.
Source: www.britannica.comChief architect of St Peter’s
Michelangelo simplified earlier plans and developed the powerful central dome design.
Source: www.britannica.comDies in Rome
Michelangelo died aged eighty-eight and was buried in Santa Croce in Florence.
Source: www.britannica.comThis educational timeline is not endorsed by or affiliated with Michelangelo or their representatives. Event text is original editorial copy based on the linked sources.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor · Public-domain work; file metadata on Commons
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About the Michelangelo timeline
Who is Michelangelo?
Michelangelo shaped sculpture, painting and architecture through works created for Florence, Rome and the papacy.
How many moments are included?
This public timeline currently contains 18 sourced moments spanning 1475–1564.
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This public timeline is created and maintained by Memmie Editorial Team. Schools, clubs and cultural organisations can apply to become timeline partners.
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