For many, Michelangelo Buonarroti (hereinafter, "Michelangelo") shall remain unchallenged as the ultimate Italian sculptor, painter, draughtsman and architect. In testament to their collective judgement, one needs only to point to the elaborate ceremonies and tributes that were held in Florence after his death, celebrating him as the greatest practitioner of the three visual arts of sculpture, painting and architecture, and as a respected poet.
But whether "greatest" or merely "great", Michelangelo's influence can not be disputed. For not only is he a central figure in the history of art but also one of the chief creators of the Roman High Renaissance as well as the supreme representative of the Florentine valuation of "disegno" (design) (