Michelangelo's first love was sculpture. Among his early works, the Pieta commissioned by the Vatican and David commissioned by the city of Florence proclaimed his unprecedented ability to transform marble from a slab of stone to a brilliant evocation of the human experience. By 1508 the artistic community of Rome felt so threatened by Michelangelo's mercurial rise to fame that they devised a plot intended to discredit and degrade the young artist. They would persuade Pope Julius II to have Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. They were convinced that the young sculptor, who had never attempted a fresco before, would inevitably fail or, at the very least, become embroiled in a time consuming effort that would remove him from the competition for years. Michelangelo at first refused, protesting that he was a sculptor, not a painter. However, Pope Julius insisted and finally prevailed. It was arduous work that required the artist to constantly paint while constantly looking upwards atop a scaffold that raised him to within inches of the ceiling. However, Michelangelo not only overcame these obstacles, but after four years, revealed a masterpiece. A true genius Ascanio Condivi was one of Michelangelo's students claimed:

“After he had accomplished this work, because he had spent such a long time painting with his eyes looking up at the vault, Michelangelo then could not see much when he looked down; so that, if he had to read a letter or other detailed things, he had to hold them with his arms up over his head."

Michelangelo’s The Sistine Chapel

Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which The Creation of Adam is the best known, having an iconic standing equaled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations. The near-touching hands of God and Adam has become an iconic of humanity where God breathes life and knowledge into Adam, the first man..

Contrary to popular belief, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in a standing/squatting position.- When they picture Michelangelo creating his legendary frescoes, most people assume he was lying down. But in fact, the artist and his assistants used wooden scaffolds that allowed them to stand upright and reach above their heads. Michelangelo himself designed the unique system of platforms, which were attached to the walls with brackets. The impression that Michelangelo painted on his back might come from the 1965 film “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” in which Charlton Heston portrayed the genius behind the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.

Michelangelo’s Poem experiences during the Sistine Chapel..

I've grown a goitre by dwelling in this den– As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy, Or in what other land they hap to be– Which drives the belly close beneath the chin: My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in, Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin. My loins into my paunch like levers grind: My buttock like a crupper bears my weight; My feet unguided wander to and fro; In front my skin grows loose and long; behind, By bending it becomes more taut and strait; Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow: Whence false and quaint, I know, Must be the fruit of squinting brain and eye; For ill can aim the gun that bends awry. Come then, Giovanni, try To succour my dead pictures and my fame; Since foul I fare and painting is my shame.

TRANSLATION I've already grown a goiter from this torture, hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy (or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison). My stomach's squashed under my chin,

My beard's pointing at heaven, my brain's crushed in a casket, my breast twists like a harpy's. My brush, above me all the time, dribbles paint so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!

My thighs are grinding into my guts, my poor butt strains to work as a counterweight, every gesture I make is blind and aimless.

My skin hangs loose below me, my spine's all knotted from folding over itself. I'm bent taut as a Syrian bow.

Because I'm stuck like this, my thoughts are crazy, perfidious tripe: anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe.

My painting is dead. Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor. I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.

Michelangelo’s The Pieta (1498–1499)- Marble

This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. Although many other artists depicted this scene during the Renaissance, Michelangelo had a different take on it. Christ's face does not reveal signs of The Passion. Michelangelo did not want his version of The Pietà to represent death, but rather to show the "religious vision of abandonment and a serene face of the Son", thus the representation of the communion between man and God by the sanctification through Christ. Artistically, this is so famous for its life -like features and depiction of “dead weight” and movement.

The David

Standing 17 feet tall and made of marble The David, portrayed in the Bible as a young shepherd who slew the giant

Goliath and went on to become a valiant and just Hebrew king, is a fit symbol of courage and civic duty to guard the city of Florence.