The night Michelangelo Buonarroti was born, "Mercury and Venus were in the house of Jupiter", says Vasari. This means that, by a lucky star, Michelangelo could be expected to create extraordinary works of both art and intellect. How true that turned out to be! Whether it was fate or coincidence, few have not heard of this avant-garde and world-renowned talent. From painting to architecture and sculpture, there seems to be nothing Michelangelo couldn't master. It is said that Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor, but why then did he produce his sculpture with such a unique and striking representation of the human body? Why did Michelangelo create such masculine forms, and was it self-expression that caused this intense artistry? There are many factors that can influence an artist's creative process, but in Michelangelo's case the most important were most likely his religion, society, travel, and self-perception. The masculine and idealized form of the human body is an ever-present feature in Michelangelo's sculpture. . Many people over the years have speculated as to why this might be, but there has never been a definitive answer, and probably never will be. Throughout his sculpture there is a clear classical influence, both with his subjects and his penchant for artistically creating something beautiful. In most cases, for Michelangelo, this means the idealized human figure, oozing with contrapposto. This revival of classical influences is common for a Renaissance craftsman, but the new and 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 possible. exception. A......middle of paper......Print.Schulz, Juergen. “Michelangelo's unfinished works”. The Art Bulletin 57:3 (1975): 366-373. Print.Shrimplin-Evangelidis, Valerie. “Michelangelo and Nicodemism: the Florentine Pietà”. The Art Bulletin 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 Medieval Pieta: The Sculpture of Devotion or the Art of Sculpture?” International Center for Medieval Art 34:1 (1995): 28-36. Press.