Michelangelo
A sculptor, painter and architect who called himself a sculptor above all: the Pieta was made at twenty-four, the David at twenty-nine. He painted the Sistine ceiling over four years almost single-handed, and the Last Judgment on its altar wall twenty-five years later; his final years went to the dome of St Peter's.
Born at Caprese near Arezzo on 15 March 1475 by the present reckoning (6 March in the Julian calendar) at 01:45 local mean time. The hour was written down by his father, Lodovico Buonarroti, who noted in the family book that his son was born 'four hours before dawn'.