Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet who lived from 1475 to 1564. He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1501 and 1504 and later worked on the tomb of Pope Julius II and the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel's west wall between 1508 and 1512. In his later years, Michelangelo worked on the design of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome from 1537 to 1541.