A Religious Transformation
In this paper, I will be examining the evident shift away from Catholicism and towards Protestant ideas found within the poetry of Michelangelo Buonarroti. In Michelangelo’s early years, the developing artist associated himself with the Catholic household of the powerful Medici and was even forcibly employed by Pope Julius II to work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Authoritative figures such as these served as early influences to Michelangelo’s spiritual life. As Michelangelo’s work grew in popularity, he continued to have close ties in the Catholic church, however, he met other religious scholars from outside of the rigid hierarchy. In the 1530’s while in Rome, Michelangelo engaged with an aristocratic woman named Vittoria Colonna, a reflective and religious poet. The contemporary-thinking Vittoria and spiritually conflicted Michelangelo shared an intellectual rapture which persisted until the death of Vittoria in 1547. Through their philosophical and spiritual discussions, Vittoria invoked a change in Michelangelo’s spirituality and introduced him to the Protestant values later observed in his sonnets. Through Michelangelo’s poetry, a transformation is evident as he ages, from Catholic to Protestant principles.
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Catholicism asserts that works are held to a higher importance than faith. As a result, indulgences are necessary debts paid to the church to relieve a soul from purgatory. Traces of the notion of purgatory circulate throughout Michelangelo’s earlier poetry, especially in his 61st sonnet, where Michelangelo ponders: “if [the soul] can outlast winter and