Strong shoulders, thick legs, defined muscles. The attributes were true of Michelangelo’s depictions of men, but also many of his women. In the past century, art historians have theorized that Michelangelo — creator of the world’s most famous Pieta, the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling and Last Judgment frescoes, and Florence’s David — masculinized the female form because he was a product of a patriarchal society that denigrated women, or because he found men more beautiful.
