Symonds, John Addington

Michelangelo Buonarroti: Most famous for painting the Sistine Chapel and his sculpture of David, the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo was also a prolific poet, in his lifetime penning more than 300 sonnets and madrigals. Michelangelo's poems are like the letters of other artists: they range from formal words of thanks to passionate argument; they flatter patrons, address lovers - and God. As in his sculpture, Elizabeth Jennings remarks, so in the poems, the "dominating feature is vehement energy, an energy which is mastered by a longing for order. It is in his poetry that many critics h...