Remembering Italian Artist Michelangelo on Birth Anniv.

Today marks the birth anniversary of Italian well-known artist Michelangelo, fondly known as Il Divino.

To celebrate his talent, art achievements, and work, a number of renowned museums and art shows are hosting special exhibitions and tour operators are taking travelers on his-inspired journeys across the world.

Born in the Republic of Florence, in 1475, Michelangelo's work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art.

Michelangelo is perhaps the most notable artist in the world. Not only was he a staggeringly talented painter, but he was also a skilled Italian sculptor, architect, and one of the remarkable poets of all time, greatly increasing the knowledge of the time on subjects such as mathematics, engineering, literature and so much more.

In a very real way, the great artist was the original Renaissance Man along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci.

Furthermore, he has been an inspiration to millions of artists and painters over the centuries not only in artistic and scientific ideas, but as an icon of all that we feel a genius artist should stand for: invention, the single-minded approach, and a dedication to beauty.

Michelangelo, who died in February 1564, is cited as one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century by many European artists and several scholars have described him as the most accomplished artist of his era.

Throughout his successful career, the creative artist also created numerous surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, besides two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall.

In addition to the above mentioned, he is well-known for some of his seminal work, such as "The Pietà", "David", “The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508–1512)”, "The Taddei Tondo"(1502), The "Madonna of the Steps" (1490–1492), The "Doni Tondo" (1504–1506), "Dying Slave"(1513) and "The Prophet Jeremiah" (1511).

According to historians, the great artist, who is one of the greatest geniuses in human history, was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive.

Actually, two biographies were published during his lifetime. One of them, by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that Michelangelo's work transcended that of any artist living or dead, and was "supreme in not one art alone but in all three."