Please join us to learn about the research from  Nicola Guida & Mattia Italiano

Mattia Italiano is a Ph.D student in Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in Gender and Sexuality studies in English and Italian Renaissance, with particular focus on the ways Italian literary tradition contributed to the creation of a homoerotic narrative in the poems of Barnfield, Shakespeare, Michelangelo and other poets from the Early Modern period.

Title: Michelangelo’s Rrime to Tommaso: The Sinful Love of a Believer

When Michelangelo Buonarroti died in 1564, his legacy had already started to earn eternity, spreading his image not only as an all-round artist, but also as a strong model of Christianity. As the centuries went by, this halo of Faith, which permeated his works and lifestyle (at least according to what his poetry recounts), became increasingly influential in the perception of Michelangelo as the Christian artist par excellence. Nevertheless, with the advent of the XIX century, the image of the ‘divine’ artist cracked to reveal a hidden, more private side that drew him closer to the human, rather than to God. The publication of the original version of his Rime — previously manipulated by Michelangelo the Younger, the artist’s nephew, to preserve his uncle’s reputation — showed a different person, driven by earthly passions and desires that brutally and unapologetically made him fall for his muses, chief among these Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. My contribution aims to analyze some of the Rime that Michelangelo dedicated to the beloved man, reading Neoplatonic and Petrarchist images as actual bearers of homosexual desire.