Fundamental to Michelangelo's Paintings is his love of male beauty, which attracted him both aesthetically and emotionally. In part, this was an expression of the Renaissance idealization of masculinity. But in
Michelangelo Paintings there is clearly a sensual response to this aesthetic. Such feelings caused him great anguish, and he expressed the struggle between Platonic ideals and carnal desire in his sculpture, drawing and his poetry, too, for among his other accomplishments Michelangelo Buonarroti was also a great Italian lyric poet of the 16th century.
- Michelangelo Buonarroti - High Renaissance Movement 1475-1564