Michelangelo dies in Rome at 88
On this day · 18 February 1564
The towering Renaissance master died in his Rome home in 1564, but his body was secretly smuggled to Florence for burial.
On 18 February 1564, Michelangelo Buonarroti died in his home in Rome at the age of 88, closing one of the longest and most extraordinary careers in the history of art. Sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, he had shaped the visual language of the High Renaissance across nearly seven decades.
Though he died in Rome, Michelangelo had long wished to rest in Florence, the city of his youth. His body was initially placed in the church of Santi Apostoli, but within weeks his nephew Leonardo spirited the remains out of Rome and back to Tuscany, where they arrived on 11 March 1564.
A craftsman of marble who reached for the divine, he was buried among his own people.
He was laid to rest in the basilica of Santa Croce, where a grand monumental tomb designed by Giorgio Vasari was raised in his honour between 1564 and 1576.
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