Description
Marking the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth, Professor Michael Fitzgerald offers a fresh perspective on the artist, not just as a Renaissance Master, but as a profoundly complex and possibly neurodivergent individual.
Renowned for ‘David’ and the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo also showed traits such as obsessive focus, emotional intensity, and social withdrawal, leading some scholars to suggest links to autism or OCD.
Blending art history with psychological insight, this talk invites us to consider how Michelangelo’s inner world may have fuelled his creative brilliance and enduring legacy.
About the Speaker
Michael Fitzgerald
Michael Fitzgerald was the Henry Marsh Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and was the first Professor of Child Psychiatry in Ireland. He has served as a Clinical and Research Consultant to the Irish Society for Autism and is an Honorary Member of the Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations.
Dr. Fitzgerald holds a doctorate in the field of autism and has been a researcher in this area since 1973. He received his training at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin, Chicago Medical School, the Maudsley Hospital, and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London.
He has clinically diagnosed over 2,000 individuals with autism and Asperger’s syndrome and served on the Government Task Force on Autism and the Family. He has contributed to both national and international journals on autism and is the author of over 120 publications. He has written or co-written 20 books.
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