Michelangelo has been considered the greatest artist of all time.  His works have influenced countless other sculptures, paintings, drawing and other types of art.  He came from a fairly modest beginning and eventually worked his way into the most successful and popular artist ever.

From Birth to Becoming an Artist
The Early Half of his Most Memorable Works
The Later Half of His Most Memorable Works

A passage from his diary concerning his faith and obsessions:
"My first work was a small bas-relief, The Madonna of the Stairs. Mary, Mother of God, sits on the rock of the church. The child curls back into her body. She foresees his death, and his return on the stairway to heaven. "My second work, another small relief. My tutor read me the myth of the battle of the Lapiths against the Centaurs. The wild forces of Life, locked in heroic combat. "Already at 16, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms...one spiritual, the other earthly, I've kept these carvings on the walls of my studio to this very day." - Michelangelo