Michelangelo Buonarroti, arguably the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, is born in the small village of Caprese on March 6, 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artist’s apprentice at age 13. Demonstrating obvious talent, he was taken under the wing of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts. He would go on to master painting, sculpture and even architecture, becoming best known for powerful sculptures like David and for his ceiling frescoes at the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.