ST. LOUIS—Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo has long been considered a difficult, tempestuous personality, too occupied with his genius to deal with mundane matters like friendship or business. That, at least, was the portrayal provided by Charlton Heston’s depiction of him in the classic film The Agony and the Ecstasy. However, William Wallace, an art historian from Washington University who has conducted research on Michelangelo’s personal life, says that is not a fair assessment.

According to research conducted by Wallace, Michelangelo was actually an able people person, which explains his success at realizing large-scale projects. “He's able to move between the mundane and sublime with absolute ease,” Wallace says. “On one hand, he can argue with a carver about the weight of marble and, on another, he'll be thinking about a sculpture.”

It turns out that the artist even cared about his family, a fact sharply at odds with the sometimes-monomaniacal caricature of the artist in popular media. “Not only is he close to his family, but he really cares for their well-being. He helps them invest and is concerned about providing a legacy,” Wallace says.

Remarkably, he maintained this devotion to his family throughout his life, even though his father, hearing that the young Michelangelo wanted to be an artist, beat him in an attempt to dissuade him.

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