Profiles of Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Beethoven. Even in their destinies the three masters are comparable, for their characters were essentially akin and so drew down on each a similar fate. They were all, throughout life, misanthropical, enigmatic, distrustful; and at certain periods each approached the borderland of madness. Despite their prodigious successes, all three had been perpetually in conflict with the world; Michelangelo strove for power, Rembrandt for luxury, Beethoven for love; but each attained his desire only by fits and starts, and always at the cost of bitter experiences. All three lost the few men and women whom they loved.