AB XIII, 111 Sonnet and selfportrait

This illustrious sheet, containing a sonnet and a selfportrait of the artist, was directed by Michelangelo to his friend Giovanni, identified with the Pistoiese academic Giovanni di Benedetto. There were the years in which Michelangelo is constantly busy in the vault’s decoration of the Sistine and this composition, explained by the caricatural sketch at the side, shows the discomfort of the artist obliged to maintain the arduous position represented, in order to paint the frescoes on the ceiling. We know from the biographers that the effort to make the works of the Sistine had caused to Michelangelo several health problems.