But Michelangelo persevered. His early sculptures caught the attention of Florence’s great ruler, Lorenzo de’ Medici, who invited the boy to be educated with his own sons. Soon after, Michelangelo was astonishing people with the lifelike creations he wrested from marble–from the heartbreaking Pieta he sculpted when he was only twenty-five to the majestic David that brought him acclaim as the greatest sculptor in Italy.
Michelangelo had a turbulent, quarrelsome life. He was obsessed with perfection and felt that everyone–from family members to his demanding patrons–took advantage and let him down. His long and difficult association with Pope Julius II yielded his greatest masterpiece, the radiant paintings in the Sistine Chapel, and his most disastrous undertaking, the monumental tomb that caused the artist frustration and heartache for forty years.
With her thoroughly researched, lively narrative and superbly detailed illustrations, Diane Stanley has captured the life of an artist who towered above the late Renaissance–and whose brilliance in architecture, painting, and sculpture amazes and moves us to this day.
Children’s Books 2000-NY Public Lib., Books for Youth Editor’s Choice 2000 (Booklist), Lasting Connections 2000 (Book Links), Best Books 2000 (School Library Journal), Top 10 Youth Art Books 2000 (Booklist), and Notable Children’s Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2001, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council
Leonardo da Vinci, inventor extraordinarie and artist, is illustrated beautifully in this historical biography by Emily Hahn.
1891. Illustrated by the author. Pyle is best known for the children’s books that he wrote and illustrated. It is from his famous Book of Pirates that our present-day concept of pirates has come. School children still read his Men of Iron, The Story of King Arthur and his Knights, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and many other tales. In Men of Iron young Myles Falworth wins a reputation for courage and independence while still in training at the castle of the great Earl of Mackworth. But one day he discovers that his blind father had been condemned for treason and is still being hunted by a powerful enemy who is close to the King. To challenge the King’s champion means certain death. Should he risk all to win back his family’s honor? See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. 
Third in the intriguing Leonardo da Vinci mystery series known for “capturing the essence of 15th-century Milan”. 
Travel to the Milan of 1483 with this intriguing new series, starring the legendary Renaissance man himself-Leonardo da Vinci. 
For the first time in decades, here, in a single volume, is a fresh look at the fabled Tudor dynasty, comprising some of the most enigmatic figures ever to rule a country. Acclaimed historian G. J. Meyer reveals the flesh-and-bone reality in all its wild excess.
Light on Lucrezia is the compelling story of a beautiful woman caught up in a tortuous web of fear and love.
From the award-winning author of The King’s Daughter comes a story of love and defiance during the War of the Roses. 
Before the Tudors, there were the Borgias. More passionate. More dangerous. More deadly.
From the author of The Creation of Eve comes a tale of love and madness, royal intrigue and marital betrayal, set during the Golden Age of Spain. Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents’ crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family’s ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents’ own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns. He is caring, charming, and attracted to her-seemingly a perfect husband.
