March 6, 1475—Michelangelo Buonarroti is born in Caprese, near Florence.
December 6, 1481—Michelangelo’s mother, Francesca, dies.
April 1488—Thirteen-year-old Michelangelo is officially apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, the Florentine master.
c. 1490—Michelangelo leaves Ghirlandaio’s studio to work in the Medici Gardens.
April 8, 1492—Michelangelo’s patron, Lorenzo de’ Medici, dies, leaving the young sculptor’s future uncertain.
1495—Michelangelo catches the eye of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici with a work of art—a sleeping cupid. With help, he sells the piece as an antiquity. The deception is discovered, but Michelangelo uses letters from his patron to secure his first position in Rome.
June 25, 1496—Michelangelo arrives in Rome for the first time.
1496–7—Michelangelo creates Bacchus, a work that fails to please his patron, Cardinal Riario, but does secure his next commission.
1498–9—Michelangelo works on the Rome Pietà, the piece that cements his reputation in Rome.
1501–4—Michelangelo completes David and installs it in Florence.
November 1, 1503—Giuliano della Rovere is elected Pope Julius II.
1505–45—Through contract disputes, money negotiations, and vast disappointment, Michelangelo works on Julius II’s tomb. When it is finally installed in 1545, the tomb bears little resemblance to the original plans.
January 14, 1506— Laocoön is discovered in Rome, shaping Michelangelo’s work both in stone and in paint.
April 1506—Pope Julius II lays the cornerstone for the new St. Peter’s Basilica, having engaged Bramante as the building’s first architect.
1506–8—To appease Julius II after an argument about money, Michelangelo completes a bronze statue of the pope for the city of Bologna. Citizens angry with the pope later melt the statue.
May 10, 1508–October 31, 1512—Michelangelo works on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The project is fraught with conflict and struggle, but the results are hailed as miraculous.
February 21, 1513—Pope Julius II dies. In the following months, Pope Leo X, a Medici pope, is elected to replace him.
1515–34—With Leo X as a patron, Michelangelo returns to Florence.
1518–21—Michelangelo completes The Risen Christ in Florence and ships it to Rome, where his assistants install it.
May 6, 1527—The armies of the Holy Roman Empire invade Rome, killing thousands of Romans and scarring the city for years.
1531—Michelangelo’s father, Lodovico, dies in Florence.
1532—Michelangelo meets Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. Their friendship lasts the rest of Michelangelo’s life.
1534—Michelangelo leaves Florence, which has become an unfriendly place for republicans, never to return.
1536–41—Michelangelo returns to the Sistine Chapel, this time to paint The Last Judgment on the wall over the altar. Controversy about the fresco follows him until his death.
1536—Michelangelo, working on The Last Judgment, meets Vittoria Colonna, a friend with whom he engages in spiritual and theological debates.
1538—Pope Paul III engages Michelangelo to restore the Campidoglio, making the Capitoline Hill once again the heart of Rome.
1542–50—Pope Paul III commissions Michelangelo’s last frescoes. The aging artist takes nearly eight years to finish two works in the Pauline Chapel.
1546—Michelangelo takes over the Palazzo Farnese project and is appointed chief architect of St. Peter’s after the death of Antonio da Sangallo.
1547–55—Michelangelo creates the Florentine Pietà. Although it was intended for his own tomb, it never was installed there.
1550—Giorgio Vasari publishes Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, which includes the first published biography of Michelangelo.
1553—Ascanio Condivi publishes The Life of Michelangelo, considered more accurate than Vasari’s book.
c. 1556–64—An elderly Michelangelo works on the Rondanini Pietà, his last sculpture. He does not finish it before he dies.
c. 1560—Pope Pius IV commissions Michelangelo to design the Sforza Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore.
1561—Michelangelo designs the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli to occupy the frigidarium of the Baths of Diocletian; he also designs the Porta Pia, a new gate for the Roman city wall.
February 18, 1564—Michelangelo dies in his home at Macel de’ Corvi in Rome, surrounded by friends.