tour 21 of 24
Michelangelo's drawings
The Fall of Phaeton by Michelangelo, a black chalk over stylus drawing
Michelangelo made this study in black chalk for
Tommaso de'Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman with whom he
fell in love during an extended trip to Rome in 1532. He also
expressed his feelings for Tommaso - who was forty years his junior
- in poetry and letters. That Michelangelo was homosexual is now
almost universally acknowledged, but opinion remains divided over
whether he ever expressed these desires
physically.
Love's
destructive power is symbolised by Phaeton falling to his death
after losing control of the chariot of the sun, borrowed from his
father Apollo. He was hit by a deadly lightning bolt from Jupiter,
who is shown astride an eagle at the top of the drawing. Below him,
his grief-stricken sisters are transformed into poplar trees.
Michelangelo's identification with the plunging figure of
Phaeton, punished for aspiring to his father's divine
realm, is echoed in his poetry, which frequently equates love with
fire and burning.
The study
is inscribed at the bottom with a note written in
Michelangelo's hand: 'Messer Tommaso, if this
sketch does not please you, say so to Urbino in time for me to do
another tomorrow evening, as I promised you; and if it pleases you
and you wish me to finish it, send it back to me'. Urbino
was Michelangelo's servant Francesco d'Amadore, who
took the drawing to Tommaso.