Every year, millions visit Michelangelo's famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Millions more people flock to his statue of David in Florence. "There's been an emphasis upon Michelangelo as the 'divine', the creator of these great works of art — truly awesome works — that we tend to forget that there was a human being behind these creations," said William Wallace, professor of art and archeology at Washington University in St. Louis. 

"We tend to think that [Michelangelo] was able to accomplish anything and everything because he did accomplish some magnificent things," said Wallace, adding that Michelangelo spent his life feeling he was never achieving his best work. "He was dissatisfied with a lot of things that we think are pretty magnificent. None of these things are very easy for him: art-making, love, or death."