13, 1501 – September 8, 1504) At the age of 26 Italian painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Michelangelo) sculpted  David   in Florence   from a block of Carrara marble.  This masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture 5.17 meters (17 feet) high, on which Michelangelo labored for