malenkiyscot

Read remotely

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Michelangelo, who painted the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and designed the dome of St Peter's Basilica, passed himself off as poor but was actually too miserly to show his huge wealth, a U.S. art historian says.

"He was a funny sort of man, somewhat paranoid and somewhat dishonest, who didn't want it to be known he was fabulously rich," Rab Hatfield, a professor at the Florence branch of Syracuse University, told Reuters Monday.

Michelangelo complained in his old age that he was living in poverty, but Hatfield says he had amassed a massive fortune from creating masterworks such as his gleaming white marble David, now in Florence's Accademia gallery.

Hatfield has unearthed two of Michelangelo's bank accounts and numerous deeds of purchase that show the prolific painter, sculptor and architect was worth about 50,000 gold ducats when he died in 1564, more than many princes and dukes of his time.

"It was an enormous, truly enormous amount of money," said Hatfield, who has published his findings in a book entitled "The Wealth of Michelangelo".