Sculptor turned architect, designer of the dome of St Peter’s
One of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, immortal for his sculpture and painting, who yet in old age poured vast energy into architecture with equally astonishing results. Past seventy, he took over the long-stalled work of St Peter’s Basilica, decisively simplifying his predecessors’ ornate schemes and designing himself the great dome that still rules the Roman skyline — going back explicitly to study and measure the ancient Pantheon, pouring classical power and a sculptor’s grandeur into the structure. He also designed the Capitoline Square. As a sculptor, he treated architecture too as a giant sculpture to be shaped, full of muscle and tension — laying a seed for the coming of the Baroque.
When Michelangelo took over St Peter’s in old age, he was already renowned and beyond need of fame or gain. He saw the work as service to God, and insisted on taking no payment. Braving obstruction on all sides, he simplified the scheme and designed the dome, giving the last years of his life to this church — though he did not live to see the dome closed. A sculptor completed, in a whole cathedral, the grandest "sculpture" of his life.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.