Editing Michelangelo (section)

===Relationships and poetry===
{{poemquote|Love for a lady's different. Not much
in that for a wise and virile lover's trouble.
|translation of Michelangelo work by John Frederick Nim}}

It is impossible to know whether Michelangelo had any physical relationships.<ref>Hughes, Anthony, "Michelangelo", p. 326. Phaidon, 1997.</ref> Understanding about his sexuality is rooted in his art, especially his poetry.<ref>Scigliano, Eric: [http://books.simonandschuster.ca/9780743254779 "Michelangelo's Mountain; The Quest for Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630155910/http://books.simonandschuster.ca/9780743254779 |date=30 June 2009 }}, Simon and Schuster, 2005. Retrieved 27 January 2007.</ref> He wrote more than three hundred sonnets and [[wikt:madrigal|madrigals]]. About sixty are addressed to men – "the first significant modern corpus of love poetry from one man to another".<ref name=saslow />

The longest sequence, displaying deep loving feeling, was written to the young Roman patrician [[Tommaso dei Cavalieri]] ({{circa|1509–1587}}), who was 23 years old when Michelangelo first met him in 1532, at the age of 57.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Zöllner|first1=Frank|
title=Michelangelo, 1475–1564: The Complete Paintings, Sculptures and Architecture|year=2019|edition=2nd|first2=Christof|last2= Thoenes|publisher=[[Taschen]]| isbn=978-3-8365-3716-2|location=[[Cologne]]|pages=381, 384, 387–90 |oclc=1112202167|translator=Karen Williams|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1112202167
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bredekamp|first=Horst|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1248717101|title=Michelangelo |year=2021|isbn=978-3-8031-3707-4|location=Berlin|pages=466–86| language=de|oclc=1248717101 |publisher=Verlag Klaus Wagenbach}}</ref> In his ''[[Lives of the Artists]]'', Vasari observed: "But infinitely more than any of the others he loved M. Tommaso de' Cavalieri, a Roman gentleman, for whom, being a young man and much inclined to these arts, [Michelangelo] made, to the end that he might learn to draw, many most superb drawings of divinely beautiful heads, designed in black and red chalk; and then he drew for him a Ganymede rapt to Heaven by Jove's Eagle, a Tityus with the Vulture devouring his heart, the Chariot of the Sun falling with Phaëthon into the Po, and a Bacchanal of children, which are all in themselves most rare things, and drawings the like of which have never been seen."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32362/32362-h/32362-h.htm|volume=IX
|title=Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors, and architects|first=Giorgio|last=Vasari|author-link= Giorgio Vasari|year=1914|translator=Gaston du C. De Vere
|publisher=Medici Society|location=London|pages=105–06}}</ref> Some scholars downplay the relationship between Michelangelo and Cavalieri as one of platonic friendship.<ref>According to {{harvtxt|Gayford|2013}}, "Whatever the strength of his feelings, Michelangelo's relationship with Tommaso de'Cavalieri is unlikely to have been a physical, sexual affair. For one thing, it was acted out through poems and images that were far from secret. Even if we do not choose to believe Michelangelo's protestations of the chastity of his behaviour, Tommaso's high social position and the relatively public nature of their relationship make it improbable that it was not platonic."</ref> The poems to Cavalieri make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another; they predate by 50 years [[Shakespeare]]'s [[Shakespeare's sonnets|sonnets]] to the fair youth:

{{poemquote|I feel as lit by fire a cold countenance
That burns me from afar and keeps itself ice-chill;
A strength I feel two shapely arms to fill
Which without motion moves every balance.
|translation of Michelangelo work by Michael Sullivan}}

Cavalieri replied: "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.<ref name="Hughes, Anthony p. 326">Hughes, Anthony: "Michelangelo", p. 326. Phaidon, 1997. The author insists Michelangelo's homoerotic poems form, "an emotionless and elegant re-imagining of Platonic dialogue, whereby erotic poetry was seen as an expression of refined sensibilities".</ref>

In 1542, Michelangelo met [[Cecchino dei Bracci]] who died only a year later, inspiring Michelangelo to write 48 funeral [[wikt:epigram|epigrams]]. Some of the objects of Michelangelo's affections, and subjects of his poetry, took advantage of him: the model [[Febo di Poggio]] asked for money in response to a love-poem, and a second model, [[Gherardo Perini]], shamelessly stole from him.<ref name="Hughes, Anthony p. 326"/>

The nature of the poetry has been a source of discomfort to later generations. Michelangelo's grandnephew, [[Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger]], published the poems in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed; he also removed words or in other instances insisted that Michelangelo's poems be read allegorically and philosophically,<ref>Rictor Norton, "The Myth of the Modern Homosexual", p. 143. Cassell, 1997.</ref><ref name=saslow /> a judgment some modern scholars still repeat today.<ref name="Hughes, Anthony p. 326"/> It was not until [[John Addington Symonds]] translated the poems into English in 1893 that the original genders were restored. Since then it has become more accepted that his poems should be understood at face value, that is, as indicating his personal feelings and a preference by him for young men over women.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society|year=2005|isbn=978-0822334248|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|first1=Walter G.|last1=Andrews|first2=Mehmet|last2=Kalpakli|page=56 }}</ref> The [[Elizabeth Jennings (poet)|Elizabeth Jennings]] translation, ''The Sonnets of Michelangelo'', is considered the standard version.<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Grevel Lindop|first=Grevel|last=Lindop|title=Elizabeth Jennings Obituary|newspaper=The Guardian|date=31 October 2001|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/oct/31/guardianobituaries.books|access-date =10 March 2025}}</ref>

Late in life, Michelangelo nurtured a friendship with the poet and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538 and who was in her late forties at the time. They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died. These sonnets mostly deal with the spiritual issues that occupied them.<ref>Vittoria Colonna, ''Sonnets for Michelangelo''. A Bilingual Edition edited and translated by Abigail Brundin, The University of Chicago Press 2005. {{ISBN|0-226-11392-2}}, p. 29.</ref> Condivi, who in his biography was preoccupied with downplaying Michelangelo's attraction to men,<ref name=saslow>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/articles/james-saslow-interview-michelangelo-poetry|title=James M. Saslow on Sensuality and Spirituality in Michelangelo's Poetry|author=Jeffrey Fraiman|website=[[Met museum]]|date=5 January 2018}}</ref> alleged Michelangelo said his sole regret in life was that he did not kiss the widow's face in the same manner that he had her hand.<ref name="A. Condivi p. 103"/>