At thirty-one, Michelangelo was considered the finest artist in Italy and perhaps the world; long before his death at the ripe old age of nearly ninety, his admirers called him the greatest sculptor and artist who ever lived. (And his detractors, of whom there was no shortage, called him an arrogant boor, a miser, and a swindler.)

Decade after decade, he labored at the epicenter of turbulent events that shaped the face of the European world and the course of history. Michelangelo's accomplishments are monumental—it's enough to recall the vast frescoes of the Sistine Chapel or the marble giant David. And yet, what he accomplished at the limit of human strength is only a small fraction of his plans, the scale of which was truly more befitting a demiurge than a mortal...

In his book, renowned art historian and critic Martin Gayford explores what the world was like in which the titanic genius of the Renaissance accomplished his artistic feats, and what it was like for him to live in this world – Michelangelo Buonarroti, the man who forever changed our understanding of what an artist should be.