3001 Michelangelo is a main-belt asteroid whose orbit is between Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered on January 24, 1982 by E. Bowell in Flagstaff, AZ at the Anderson Mesa station, which is operated by the Lowell Observatory.
The purple marble tomb of Michelangelo was commissioned by his nephew Lionardo Buonarroti and sculpted by Giorgio Vasari. Above the tomb there is a white marble bust of Michelangelo and seated below the tomb are the sculptures of three white marble allegorical female figures dressed in robes. They represent sculpture, painting and architecture.
Below is an epitaph inscribed in Latin on purple marble which reads:
MICHAELI ANGELO BONAROTIO
E VETVSTA SIMONIORVM FAMILIA
SCVLPTORI PICTORI ET ARCHITECTO
FAMA OMNIBWS NOTISSIMO
LEONARDVS PATRVO AMANTISS. ET DE SE OPTIME MERITO
TRANSLATIS ROMA EJVS OSSIBVS ATQVE IN HOC TEMPLO MAIOR, SVOR.
SEPVLCRO CONDITIS COHORTANTE SERINISS. COSMO MED.
MAGNO HETRVRIAE DVCE. P. C.
ANN. SAL. CIƆ IƆ LXX
VIXIT ANN. LXXXVIII. M. XI. D. XV.
Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Republic of Florence on March 6, 1475. He died in Rome on February 18, 1564 at age 88. As the inscription states, his remains were brought to Florence to be one of the first famous persons interred the the Basilica of Santa Croce.
Michelangelo was the premier Renaissance artist. Among his famous works are:
Sculpture:
Bacchus, (1496-1497) Bargello National Museum - Florence, Italy
La Pieta (1499–1500) - St. Peter's Basilica - Vatican City
David, (1501-1504) Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts - Florence, Italy
Madonna and Child, (1501-1504) Bruges, Brussels
The Tomb of Pope Julius II. (1505-1545) - Vatican City
Moses (1513 - 1515) - Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy:
The Medici Chapel Tombs (1520-1534) - Florence, Italy
The Tomb of Lorenzo, with the male Dusk and female Dawn.
The Tomb of Giuliano, with the female Night and the male Day.
Madonna and Child - Tomb of Lorenzo "The Magnificent" de Medici
Paintings:
Doni Tondo a.k.a. The Holy Family (1506-1508) - Uffizi Gallery - Florence, Italy
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1512) - Vatican City
The Creation of Adam (1508-12) - Sistine Chapel - Vatican City
The Last Judgment - Sistine Chapel (1536 -1541) - Vatican City
Architecture:
St. Peter's Basilica - Vatican City
Porta Pia - Rome, Italy
Palazzo dei Conservatori - Rome, Italy
New Sacristy of the Medici Chapel - Florence, Italy
Poetry:
In addition to his well known accomplishments as a sculptor, painter and architect, Michelangelo wrote over 300 sonnets and madrigals. His early homoerotic sonnets were based on his romantic friendship with Tommaso dei Cavalieri. Later in his life he wrote poems about his platonic love for the poet and widow Vittoria Colonna.
Many of his poems reflect admiration and devotion as well as poems of a spiritual and mystical nature as reflected in the title of his poems:
"After Trying Many Years"
"Celestial Love"
"Dante"
"The Doom of Beauty"
"Every Conception That A Man Can Find"
"Great Beauty Spreads A Firestorm"
"High In The Mountains By A Deep Ravine"
"I Feel As Lit By Fire"
"Joy May Kill"
"Loves Justification"
"Love's Vain Expense"
"On the Brink of Death"
"Poem"
"To the Supreme Being"
"To Vittoria Colonna"
His complete sonnets were translated into rhyming English by John Addington Symonds and published in 1904. Michelangelo also wrote an autobiography Michelangelo Life, Letters, and Poetry