page_title: Tommaso dei Cavalieri
section_title: Drawings
hierarchical_section_title: Tommaso dei Cavalieri / Relationship with Michelangelo / Drawings
caption_attribution_description: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti The Fall of Phaeton Black chalk, 41,3 x 23,4 cm Royal Library, Windsor
context_page_description: Tommaso dei Cavalieri was an Italian nobleman, who was the object of the greatest expression of Michelangelo's love. Cavalieri was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. The young nobleman was exceptionally handsome, and his appearance seems to have fit the artist's notions of ideal masculine beauty, for Michelangelo described him as "light of our century, paragon of all the world." The two men remained lifelong lovers, and Cavalieri was present at the artist's death.
context_section_description: Michelangelo also sent Cavalieri four highly finished drawings, termed by Johannes Wilde presentation drawings. These were a new kind of drawing, completed works meant as presents, rather than sketches or studies. They, too, were greatly appreciated by Cavalieri, who was very sorry to lend some of them to members of the papal curia. Giorgio Vasari stood on their great originality. The meaning of the drawings is not fully understood, although it is common for scholars to relate them to moralizing themes or ideas about Neoplatonic love.
  Punishment of Tityus  1532  and  Rape of Ganymede  1532
  These two drawings both represent a muscular male attacked by an eagle.  Tityus was the son of a human princess and the god Zeus.  He attempted to rape a goddess and was killed by two of the gods, but his punishment did not end with death; for eternity he was chained to a rock in Hades while two vultures ate his liver, which was considered the seat of the passions.  Zeus lusted after Ganymede, the most beautiful of all humans, and turned himself into an eagle to abduct (or rape) him to serve the god at Mount Olympus. The original drawing is lost and is known today only from copies.
  The Fall of Phaeton   1533
  
  Phaeton was the son of Apollo and nagged his father into letting him drive the chariot of the sun.  He lost control of the fiery horses and Zeus had to destroy the chariot (and kill Phaeton) with a thunderbolt to keep it from destroying the earth.  In Michelangelo's drawing Zeus is riding an eagle as he casts the thunderbolt that overturns the chariot.  The women below are Phaeton's grieving sisters. Three versions of this drawing by Michelangelo survive; this is perhaps the final version that was given to Cavalieri by September 6, 1533, the date of a letter to the artist telling him the drawing had been much admired by illustrious visitors (including the Pope and Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici). On another version of the composition, today in the British Museum, Michelangelo wrote a note to Cavalieri:  "Master Tommaso, if this sketch does not please you, tell Urbino so that I have time to do another by tomorrow evening, as I promised you.  And if you like it and want me to finish it, send it back to me."
  Bacchanal of Children   1533
  
  No written source for this drawing is known; presumably, it was an allegory that would have been familiar to Cavalieri. Frederick Hartt investigated the drawing and stated: " Until a specific text is found,  there would seem to be little point in speculation,  beyond noting that the drawing radiates the irresponsible wildness of certain of Michelangelo's poems. It is perfectly possible that he did not mean us to penetrate its riddles any further." 
  The Dream  1533
  
  This drawing is not directly linked to Cavalieri, but its resemblance to those drawings has suggested to some scholars that it was related to them.  Unlike some of the other drawings, the iconography does not derive from Greek mythology, and its uncertain subject is interpreted as linked with beauty.
caption: Michelangelo, Fall of Phaeton, c. 1533
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