To keep abreast of painting, sculpture and contemporary Irish art, see Visual Arts in Ireland. It has literally thousands of paintings and sculptures by famous Irish artists like Jack B Yeats, William Scott, Francis Bacon and William Orpen, as well as works by great European artists like Giotto, Leonardo Da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Goya, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Rothko and Andy Warhol. Learn about the history of Irish art, from Newgrange Neolithic carvings to the magnificent Illuminated Manuscripts like the Book of Kells and Book of Durrow, up to modern styles by Rowan Gillespie (sculptor) and Francis Tansey (acrylic painter). Learn about the work of the Irish Arts Council, the Royal Hibernian Academy and keep up to date with the Irish art market. Whether you are an art-collector, a museum curator, a gallery owner or just an art-lover, its a great website to browse. And if you want information about the dozens of art venues and museums in Ireland, visit Irish Art Galleries. It lists all the major state museums, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Crawford Gallery and the National Self-Portrait Collection in Limerick, as well as all the main private venues in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Michelangelo

The great Italian High Renaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti was born at Caprese, Florence. He sketched widely as a child, and was duly apprenticed him to Domenico Ghirlandaio, an established artist of the day, for a term of 3 years. But within a year, despite having already absorbed the elements of fresco technique and completed copies of the great Florentine Old Masters of the past, he moved to the workshop of Bertoldo di Giovanni, a sculptor working for the Medici family. Indeed, during the years 1490-1492, Michelangelo lived with the Medicis; during this time he learned from such artists as Leonardo, Giotto, and Poliziano. Moving in 1496, to Rome, Michelangelo carved the first of his major sculptures, the Bacchus and the St Peter's Pietà, which revealed his mastery of the human body and composition as revealed in this sculpture made his name. In 1501 he returned to Florence where he completed his masterpiece David, the Bruges Madonna and began the Twelve Apostles. He also painted the Doni Tondo.