In the history of western art there are but few titans. One of the greatest of all these artists, however, is Michelangelo. He stands before us like a colossus, the range of his work reaching beyond that of any other artist before his time, or since. Famed for his sculptures, it is a lesser known fact that Michelangelo was also a great poet. But a writer of love poetry? How could a man who made the heroic figure of David his exemplar fashion poetry dedicated to a woman? Yet he did so, late in his life, to a widow who was also a fair poet herself. Vittoria Colonna, the marchioness of Pescara (1492-1547), became the unlikely object of his affections when Michelangelo was already sixty-three and she forty-four years of age. Italy’s greatest artist nonetheless discovered something in this woman of mature years that fulfilled all his deepest yearnings. These distinctive poems, however, do not address human love but the theme of divine love itself.
Michelangelo: Poems of Love, translated and with an extensive Introduction from the celebrated writer James Cowan, makes available this unique collection of inspiring writings from one of the world’s greatest artists.
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James Cowan is the author of many books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and philosophy. He is a recipient of the Australian Literary Society’s Gold Medal for his novel A Mapmaker’s Dream, as well as an honorary doctorate in the USA. He holds a Ph.D. for his biography Hamlet’s Ghost. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. James Cowan passed away in 2018.
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