Like Beethoven, Michelangelo was driven by such enormous aggression as to be incapable, at times, of self-control. This aggression, neutralized, was indispensable for his creativeness: great art is born of conflict; it is not conflict-free. Michelangelo's work from the time of his statue of David expresses the control of aggression and the taming of instinct. Much of his remarkable misanthropy and violent ill temper arose from his early experiences. Though his mother died when he was six, until his tenth year he was reared in the home of a peasant stonecutter, whereas his three younger brothers remained in the far superior home of their parents. These events influence much of his work.