Michelangelo was not the serene, cerebral artist of popular imagination. He was a brawler whose nose was broken in a fistfight with a rival sculptor, a miser who lived in squalor despite enormous wealth, and a workaholic who slept in his boots and rarely bathed. He carved the David, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and designed St. Peter's dome — three of the greatest achievements in Western art — while quarreling with popes, rivals, and his own family.

This episode traces Michelangelo from his apprenticeship in Florence through the commissions that defined the High Renaissance, the physical suffering of painting the Sistine ceiling, and the seven decades of relentless creation that made him the most celebrated artist in history.

• The broken nose from a fistfight with sculptor Pietro Torrigiano and the rivalries that defined hi ...