Kneeling Woman  MICHELANGELO  Musée du Louvre, Paris

On the left of The Entombment the kneeling figure of Mary Magdalene appears to meditate 
on something in  her raised hand. This drawing by Michelangelo in 
the Louvre is clearly a preparatory study for this figure and shows her looking 
at the crown of thorns, the nails in her other hand.
The Doni Tondo, painted perhaps five years later, develops this pose 
with an added backwards twist.
Doni Tondo  Detail of the Virgin Mary  MICHELANGELO 
Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze

Birth name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni 
Born March 6, 1475
near Arezzo, in Caprese, Tuscany 
Died February 18, 1564

Field sculpture, painting, architecture and poetry 
Training Apprentice to Domenico Ghirlandaio 
Movement High Renaissance 

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo's output in every field during his long life was prodigious; when the sheer volume of correspondence, sketches and reminiscences that survive is also taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century. Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and the David, were sculpted in his late twenties to early thirties. Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential fresco paintings in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Later in life he designed the dome of St Peter's Basilica in the same city and revolutionised classical architecture with his invention of the giant order of pilasters.