The Sonnets of Michelangelo

These Italian sonnets and related lyrics, written mainly in the sixteenth century, treat love, the making of art, aging, and the soul's approach to God. Many are addressed to the young Roman noble Tommaso de' Cavalieri; others turn to Vittoria Colonna and to a late, penitential voice that distrusts earthly beauty. Recurrent images are fire, stone, night, the bow, and the unfinished figure. There is no continuous narrative. The volume is a body of Petrarchan and spiritual verse by a sculptor-painter, not a treatise on painting and not a life of the artist.

Quarter-bound in white parchment with pale green silk or dark green cloth covers. Grey slipcase.