I lived from 1475-1564.
I was from Italy, and am in the European category.
Florence, Italy, is considered the home of the great painter, poet, architect, and sculptor, Michelangelo Buonarroti, known today simply as Michelangelo. The second of five sons to Ludovico di Buonaorotto Simoni, he was born in 1475 in the nearby village of Caprese but always considered himself a "son of Florence." It's easy to look around and find his influence on the city. His tomb is displayed prominently alongside those of Machiavelli, Galileo, and Rossini, and many of his most famous works of sculpture are housed throughout Florence - including, the magnificent statue of David.
Read full description by GypsyDreamer, OP Research Team...
As a poet, Michelangelo left us with approximately 300 pieces of poetry, occupying the considerable place in the Renaissance lyrics. Though many if not most literary and artistic persons during the Renaissance wrote poetry, Michelangelo was a very able and learned poet and rose above the general level in poetry, as he did in visual arts. His writing of poetry was not a mere diversion, and the poetry has the artistic quality which marks his other works. He is considered by critics to be the "foremost madrigalist of the Italian Cinquecento" and "the greatest Italian lyrical poet of the sixteenth century."
Michelangelo was both highly literate and plain-spoken. He felt passionate toward individuals, both female and male (Vittoria Colonna and Tommasco Cavalieri in particular. Platonic love suited Michelangelo because the demands of his profession came first. Vittoria who was independent and highly intelligent, was inaccessible. She was the woman who came closest to being his intellectual equal, and a person characterized by loftiness, nobility and virtue--all of which appealed to the poet. He turned to her for guidance and idealized her through the ecstasy of his religious mindset; Michelangelo was a deeply religious person who believed in prayer and all the accompanying Renaissance religious imagery characteristic of his era. She was a widow and friend to Michelangelo in his later maturity. She died at the age of 56 and Michelangelo was deeply affected by her death writing many commemorative pieces in her honor.
Michelangelo is perhaps best known for the sonnets and madrigals inspired by Tommaso de' Cavalieri whom Michelangelo met in 1532 when Tommaso was twenty-three and Michelangelo was fifty-seven. Michelangelo's love for Cavalieri is revealed in numerous poems dedicated to him. Tommaso Cavalieri who was married and had children remained the artist's friend until the end of his life. Whether the love they shared was platonic or sexual is still debatable depending on the source of information.
Bibliography Source: wsu.edu and thinkquest.org
Michelangelo's artistic career laster over 70 years.
All sonnets (I - LXXVII) are translations by John Addington Symonds.
Popular poetry
NO mortal thing enthralled these longing eyes
When perfect peace in thy fair face I found;
13 lines, 21 comments
After trying many years, and then
near death, the able man may know
16 lines, 32 comments
CHOICE soul, in whom, as in a glass, we see,
Mirrored in thy pure form and delicate,
14 lines, 11 comments
Every conception that a man can find
is in the stone itself, already there
14 lines, 12 comments
I feel as lit by fire a cold countenance
That burns me from afar and keeps itself ice-chill;
14 lines, 9 comments
WHAT should be said of him cannot be said;
By too great splendor is his name attended;
14 lines, 5 comments
High in the mountains by a deep ravine
inside my massive block, enclosed, alone —
4 lines, 8 comments
NOW hath my life across a stormy sea
Like a frail bark reached that wide port where all
14 lines
Rendete a gli occhi miei.
Give back unto mine eyes, ye fount and rill,
18 lines, 1 comment
_Non fur men lieti._
15 lines, 1 comment
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