Chapter 16　Four in One

Today there is no famous sculptor who is also a famous painter and architect. But in 1475，a man who would become a world-famous sculptor, painter, and architect was born.He was also a poet and wrote verses that are still published.Not only that, but he is considered the greatest artist of the Italian Renaissance.Many people call him the greatest sculptor since Phidias of ancient Greece.

The name of this wonderful genius was Buonarroti. Have you ever heard of Buonarroti?Very few people know him by that name.We know him as Michelangelo.Michelangelo was trained as a sculptor in marble, and he always spoke of himself as a sculptor in spite of the fact that his most famous works are the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

As a boy he carved a statue in snow that amazed a member of the famous Medici family, the Duke of Florence. The boy was permitted to study the ancient Greek and Roman statues collected by the duke, who later gave him work to do.Some of the statues were those that were dug up from the ground after having been hidden for centuries.Can you imagine the excitement of standing near archeologists as they discover a long-lost famous statue?Michelangelo did just that.He saw the Greek statue of Laocöön pulled out of the ground-a man and his sons strangled by snakes.It’s no wonder that Michelangelo