The night Michelangelo Buonarroti was born, “Mercury and Venus were in the house of Jupiter,” Vasari said. This means that, depending on a lucky star, Michelangelo could be expected to produce extraordinary works of art and intelligence. How true it turned out! Fate or coincidence, there are few who have not heard of this world-renowned avant-garde talent. From painting to architecture and sculpture, it seems there is nothing Michelangelo could not master. It is said that Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor, but why then did he create his sculpture with such a unique and striking depiction of the human body? Why did Michelangelo create such masculine forms, and was it self-expression that brought about this intense artistic talent? Many factors can influence an artist's creative process, but for Michelangelo the most important were probably his religion, society, travels, and self-perception. The masculine, idealized form of the human body is a pervasive feature of Michelangelo's sculpture. . Over the years, many people have speculated about why this is, but there has never been a definitive answer and there probably never will be. Throughout his sculpture there is a distinct classical influence, both in his subject matter and in his inclination to artistically create something beautiful. In most cases, for Michelangelo, this means the idealized human figure, imbued with contraposto. This revival of classical influences is common in a Renaissance artisan, but the new exaggerated shape of the human body is new and unique to Michelangelo's artistic style. Much of the art created during the Renaissance was religiously oriented, and with Michelangelo, this was not the case. exception. Middle of paper ......Print.Schulz, Juergen. “The Unfinished Works of Michelangelo.” The Art Bulletin 57: 3 (1975): 366-373. Print.Shrimplin-Evangelidis, Valérie. “Michelangelo and Nicodemus: the Florentine Pietà. » Le Bulletin d’Art 71: 1 (1989): 58-66. Print. Symonds, John Addington. The life of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Charleston: BiblioBazaar, 2006. Print. Vasari, Giorgio, Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. The lives of artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 1999. Print. Von Einem, Herbert. Michelangelo. Trans. Ronald Taylor. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1976. Print.Wallace, William. Michelangelo: The artist, the man and his times. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Ziegler, Joanna E. “Michelangelo and the Medieval Pietà: The Sculpture of Devotion or the Art of Sculpture? International Center for Medieval Art 34: 1 (1995): 28-36. Print.