The Poetry and the Man

Kara Ross
12/15/05

Kara Ross is a writer and Director of Operations for the Art Renewal Center. She is currently researching and writing the Catalogue Raisonne on Edmund Blair Leighton.

Michelangelo, though best known for his sculpture, was also a poet. This poetry allows us not only to explore the connection between poetry and the visual arts as a form of self expression, but also Michelangelo as a man. There are so many legends surrounding Michelangelo's motivations and actions that it is very difficult to judge what is true and what is simply propaganda or intrigue. There is no way to decipher what is true and what is false, with out knowing Michelangelo as a Man. The best way to do this is by looking at his work. Just as a person may learn who an author was through his writings, we can learn who Michelangelo was through his poetry and visual representations. This essay will be a concise discussion of the connection between poetry and the visual arts as a form of self expression, and what Michelangelo's self expression can tell us about Michelangelo as a man.

Before I begin to discuss Michelangelo's poetry and personality, there are a few facts the reader must know about both Michelangelo's life and poetry. Firstly, the poetry itself is filled with ellipsis and inverted word order and can be very hard to understand without a great deal of rereading and thought. As Christopher Ryan says in the introduction to his book, The Poems, "The words of Michelangelo's poetry often do not so much carry us along in their flow as stand firmly before us, waiting for our eyes to focus more finely so that the figure or figures may emerge gradually from the solid block."¹ In addition to this, the poems were written in Michelangelo's own tongue, and not in English, so the beauty and certainly some of the subtly of meaning has been lost in the translation. Because of this it will be necessary to go through and explain areas of the poetry that are not clear.

In addition, the reader should know that Michelangelo was known to have been madly in love with one of his young models, Tommaso Cavalier, who he met in 1532.² Michelangelo wrote many letters and sonnets to and for Tommaso between 1532 and 1546. James Saslow in his book Ganymede in the Renaissance describes Tommaso as being a "hansom and cultivated Roman nobleman", who Michelangelo was attracted to due to his "intelligence, exceptional physical beauty, and deep love of art and acquisitive admiration for antique sculpture."³ In addition, the reader should know that Michelangelo's relationship with Tommaso was the most deeply felt and long lasting love relationship of Michelangelo's life, Tommaso being amongst the most intimate loved ones at Michelangelo's death bed in 1564.⁴

One of the most influential forces for Michelangelo was his religious beliefs and his relationship with God. This is not surprising since artwork and religion have been closely related since the dawn of human life and the formation of inspiration. As George Raymond states in his book The Essentials of Aesthetics, "The products of art are to be ascribed to what is termed inspiration. When we have traced them to this overflow at the very springs of mental vitality, no one who thinks can fail to feel that, if human life anywhere can come into contact with the divine life, it must be here."⁵ This idea is very important, because Michelangelo very much believed that his art was a direct reflection of God, and that he could come to know God better through his art. This feeling of connection between God and the creation of art can be seen very clearly through Michelangelo's own poetry:

From ink, from pen in hand we see outflow

the several styles: high, low, and in-between;

so out of stone come noble forms or mean,

depending on how imaginative the art.

And, my dear lord, it's like that with your heart:

Humility's there in equal parts with pride.

I only see what's most like me inside

that heart of yours. As smile or grimace shows.

One who's flung seed of grief, pain, woe abroad

(rain falls, itself as pure, but changes straight

in seedbeds to rank earths variety),

He'll reap the same, by pain and sorrow gnawed.

Who eyes great beauty through a grief as great

sees only his suffering soul, racked with anxiety. ⁶

This poem is very important to understanding Michelangelo, because it reveals not only how he views his art in connection with God, but goes on to indicate that Michelangelo, out of all the variety of feelings and circumstances that can come into an individual life, has been burdened with a great deal of sorrow, and although he can "eye" great beauty in the world through this grief, he can only see his own "suffering soul" for which he holds God responsible.

Although Michelangelo did love his God, he also had a lot of anger towards him, most likely stemming from his internal struggle with his sexuality and his extreme poles of emotion. One can tell Michelangelo felt this way by examining another one of Michelangelo's Poems:

     I wish I'd want what I don't want, Lord, at all.

Between this heart and Your fire an icy screen,

invisible, damps it down, so these routine

words falsify what I do; the pages lie.

     Tongue says it loves you, but the heart's reply

is chilling: there is no love there. Nor can I know

which way to let grace enter, immerse it so

hard-hearted pride is hell bent for a fall.

     You be the one, Lord! Rend it! ramming through

closure that saw Your beauty dim and dwindle,

once light of the world's one sun, now cold as stone.

     Send now the promised light that's one day due

to Your comely bride on earth! Oh then I'll kindle

the fire within, doubt-free, feeling You alone. ⁷

In this poem Michelangelo tells God that he does not love him because he is so cruel to him. This is referred to when Michelangelo says "Your fire an icy screen, damps it down", "it", referring to Michelangelo's own heart. He goes on to say that although he reads psalms from the bible he does not feel their meaning fits the way he feels towards God. We can see this when Michelangelo says "these routine words falsify what I do; the pages lie".⁸ He then proceeds to say that he does not love God, nor does he know how to let God's grace enter him. But, if God were to force himself into Michelangelo's heart and give him all the love and bountifulness promised to those who love and worship God, that he would love God alone. This can be seen in Michelangelo's statements towards the end of the poem. The statement "You be the one, Lord! Rend it! Ramming through closure that saw your beauty dim and dwindle", refers to the force I mentioned Michelangelo wants God to use to have grace enter him.

¹ Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Poems, ed. Christopher Ryan, trans. Christopher Ryan ( London: J. M. Dent, 1996), XIX.
² Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Poems, ed. Christopher Ryan, trans. Christopher Ryan ( London: J. M. Dent, 1996), XVII
³ James M. Saslow, Ganymede in the Renaissance: Homosexuality in Art and Society (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 17.
⁴ James M. Saslow, Ganymede in the Renaissance: Homosexuality in Art and Society (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 17.
⁵ George Lansing Raymond, The Essentials of Aesthetics (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1921), 43.
⁶ Michelangelo Bounarroti, The Complete Poems of Michelangelo, trans. John Frederick Nims (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), 63.
⁷ Michelangelo Bounarroti, The Complete Poems of Michelangelo, trans. John Frederick Nims (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), 67- 68.
⁸ "The pages lie" most likely refers to pages in the bible. The idea that the words are routine and falsify what he does implies that the words are read out loud, often, and praise God in some fashion. The most likely section of the bible that he would be reading out loud and is dedicated to the devotion of God would be the psalms.

Marcello Venusti
Portrait of Michelangelo at the time of the Sistine Chapel
1535

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