Tommaso dei Cavalieri

Tommaso Dei Cavalieri (1509–1587) was the object of the greatest expression of Michelangelo's love. Cavalieri was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. Cavalieri was open to the older man's affection: I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more than I wish for yours. Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until his death.

Contents

Poems

Michelangelo dedicated to him over three hundred sonnets and madrigals, constituting the largest sequence of poems composed by him. Some modern commentators assert that the relationship was merely a Platonic affection, even suggesting that Michelangelo was seeking a surrogate son.[1] However, their homoerotic nature was recognized in his own time, so that a decorous veil was drawn across them by his grand nephew, Michelangelo the Younger, who published an edition of the poetry in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed. John Addington Symonds, the early British homosexual activist, undid this change by translating the original sonnets into English and writing a two-volume biography, published in 1893.

The sonnets are the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another, predating Shakespeare's sonnets to his young friend by a good fifty years.

Examples include the sonnet G.260. Michelangelo re-iterates his neo-Platonic love for Cavalieri when in the first line of the sonnet he states "Love is not always a harsh and deadly sin."

In the sonnet G.41 Michelangelo states that Tommaso is all that can be. He represents pity, love and piety. This is seen in the third stanza:

l'amor mi prende e la beltà mi lega;
la pietà, la mercè con dolci sguardi
ferma speranz' al cor par che ne doni.
Love takes me captive; beauty binds my soul;
Pity and mercy with their gentle eyes
Wake in my heart a hope that cannot cheat[2]

One of the most famous of Michelangelo's poems is G.94, which is also called the "Silkworm." In the sonnet he wants to be garments to clothe the body of Cavalieri.

Drawings

Michelangelo also sent Cavalieri some drawings,[3] termed by Johannes Wilde presentation drawings.[4] That is, finished works meant as presents, rather than studies. These too were greatly appreciated by Cavalieri, who was very sorry to hand some to Rome's court men.[3][5] Giorgio Vasari stood on their great originality. His view is held today, particularly regarding the one he had titled The Dream. Unlike some of the other drawings, it does not derive from Greek Mythology, and its uncertain subject is interpreted as linked with beauty.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Michelangelo", The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, Volume 24, page 58, 1991. The text goes so far as to claim, 'These have naturally been interpreted as indications that Michelangelo was a homosexual, but such a reaction according to the artist's own statement would be that of the ignorant'.
  2. ^ Buonarroti, Michaelangelo (1904). Sonnets. now for the first time translated into rhymed English. Trans. John Addington Symonds. p. 26. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014269975. 
  3. ^ a b c "Michelangelo's Dream". The Courtauld Gallery. http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2010/michelangelo/Michelangelo.shtml. Retrieved 10 April 2011. 
  4. ^ "Presentation Drawing". The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press. 2002. http://www.answers.com/topic/presentation-drawing-2. Retrieved 2011-04-10. 
  5. ^ "Casa Buonarroti - Drawings of Michelangelo". http://www.casabuonarroti.it/english/e-cleo.htm. Retrieved 10 April 2011. 

Further reading

Key: *Attributed · †Lost
Sculptures
Florence, c. 1488–92
†Head of a Faun (c. 1488) · Madonna of the Stairs (c. 1491) · Battle of the Centaurs (c. 1492) · Crucifix (1492)
Ark of St Dominic (1494–95)
†Sleeping Cupid (1496) · †Standing Cupid · Bacchus (1496–97) · Pietà (1499–1500) · David (1501-04) · Madonna of Bruges (1501–04) · St. Paul (1503–04) · St. Peter (1503–04) · Pius (1503–04) · Taddei Tondo (c. 1503) · Pitti Tondo (c. 1503) · St. Matthew (c. 1505)
Moses (c. 1513–15) · Rebellious Slave (1513–16) · Dying Slave (1513–16) · Young Slave (c. 1519–36) · Bearded Slave (c. 1519–36) · Atlas Slave (c. 1519–36) · Awakening Slave (c. 1519–36) · The Genius of Victory (c. 1532–34) · Rachel (1545) · Leah (1545)
Medici Chapel (1519–34)
Cristo della Minerva (Christ Carrying the Cross) (1519–20) · Apollo (David) (c. 1530) · Crouching Boy (c. 1530-34) · Brutus (1540) · *Palestrina Pietà (1550) · Florentine Pietà (c. 1550) · Rondanini Pietà (1552–64)
Paintings

*The Torment of Saint Anthony (c. 1487-88) · Manchester Madonna (c. 1497) · Doni Tondo (c. 1503–06) • †Battle of Cascina (1504) · The Entombment (c. 1505) · †Leda and the Swan (1530)

Cappella Paolina frescoes (1542–50)
Architecture
New Sacristy (1520–34) and Laurentian Library (1523–59) in the Basilica of San Lorenzo
Works on paper
Milieu