Pain and despair and also hope portrayed Michelangelo in his early history of mankind: the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. When he created this Vault between 1508 and 1512 the main proponents of the High Renaissance and pioneer of Mannerism as a sculptor and painter played a central role in the artistic and intellectual life of Italy.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in 1475 in the Tuscan Caprese. He was educated by the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, the sculptor may at Bertoldo di Giovannis being the study of the Antiquities of great influence.

From 1496 to 1501 Michelangelo in Rome was active, where among others the "Pietà" for St. Peter's was built. Untill 1504 he worked in Florence at the monumental statue of "David", which is still the closely relation to the ancient world. The following sculptures mark the transition to the Mannerism.

In 1505 Michelangelo was commissioned for the tomb of Pope Julius II, but only after the death of 1513 in reduced and could be completed as the obstinate artist without the client agreement. Until 1516 the "bound slaves" and "Moses" emerged. As an architect he should be working for the Medicis, but could not do the planned construction and developed design principles, which started in 1521 in the staircase of the Laurentian library in Florence. From 1534, Michelangelo lived in Rome.

Michelangelos works are characterized with religious theme and architectural plans such as the construction of St. Peter's Church or of Palazzo Farnese. We can learn a lot through his letters and sonnets about Michelangelo, who died in 1564.

(Rebirth). Designation of art from about 1350 until the 16th century.

A state of mind that developed in Florence in the late 14th century that was retrospectively classified as rebirth of the classical ideals of Greek and Roman antiquity. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Renaissance spread first over Italy and then all over Western Europe and determined the entire artistic creation. Such brilliant artists as Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dürer, Holbein, Cranach and Fouquet created their immortal works by following the humanistic premises and putting a human being in the center of all thinking.

Renaissance experienced its heyday in literature through dramatic works and poems of William Shakespeare.

At the end of the 16th century, Renaissance had to make way to the luxury of baroque before its ideas had their rebirth in the classicism of the 18th century.