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Let’s look at some of the work of that undeniable Maestro of Marble, Signore Michelangelo Buonaroti. Impatient, jealous, quarrelsome, and with dubious standards of personal hygiene, Michelangelo stands, chisel and hammer in hand, as one of the great titans of art. He was a sculptor and painter, an engineer and an architect, as well as a poet. He feuded with Leonardo da Vinci, sassed off to the Pope, and was not very complimentary to his fellow artists. He was also a profound student of humanity, and this instinctive sympathy and ability to depict emotion through the figure of the human body is what sets him apart. A titan himself, his work frequently featured titanic figures, muscular and imposing. But some of them represent not success, but failure: thanks to an interfering Pope Julius II, who wanted things done on his own terms, the project that was to be Michelangelo’s crowning glory, the tomb project for Julius II, was never to be completed as originally envisioned.

is for Michelangelo's Slaves

( Raphael said of Michelangelo that he was as 'lonely as the hangman.' )