ABSTRACT
A closer examination of Michelangelo’s poems quickly shows that a large number of them feature Neoplatonic concepts, and that these Neoplatonic motifs are clearly influenced by Marsilio Ficino. Michelangelo’s poems are written in the tradition of Dante, Petrarch, and Tuscan verse, but they cannot be fully appreciated without the new quality that Neoplatonism achieved through Ficino in Florence. This chapter deals with the fact that although Michelangelo’s poetry shows evidence of having been deeply influenced by Florentine Neoplatonism – right down to verbal correspondences with De amore, Marsilio Ficino’s commentary on Plato’s Symposium – biographies of Michelangelo ignore the significance of Neoplatonism in his life. It examines the most important biographies of Michelangelo for the extent to which they take Neoplatonism into account, as well as Michelangelo’s poetry and his relationship to Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. Michelangelo’s Ganymede drawing belongs to a group that he presented as a gift to a young Roman noble, Tommaso de’ Cavalieri.
