Michelangelo was left-handed and used his right hand because of prejudice against left-handed people during his time, medicine in art expert Davide Lazzeri says in a new article in Clinical Anatomy. He worked hard to use his right hand from a young age in painting but continued to chisel and sculpt with his right, Lazzeri says.

This was because he needed more strength in making sculpture, the expert says. Lazzeri came to his conclusions by comparing the impressions he made in his works with the recent discovery that he had arthritis in his hands and with a self-caricature recently found in his painting of Victoria Colonna, where he is seen painting with his right hand.