Michelangelo

What does it take to find a god trapped inside a block of marble and set him free? This "Divine One" viewed his work as a wrestling match with the material itself. "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free," he grunted, his body aching under the Sistine Chapel. He is the master of *terribilità*, an overwhelming sense of awe that makes the viewer feel small before the human form. His sculptures don't just sit; they breathe, tension their muscles, and prepare to strike. He is the monumental pulse of the Renaissance.