Skip to main content

Primary sourcePainting1532

The Punishment of Tityus

Michelangelo · 1532

A finished presentation drawing by Michelangelo given to the young nobleman Tommaso de' Cavalieri, showing the mythical giant Tityus tortured by a vulture.

A gift drawing from Michelangelo expressing his close personal attachment to Tommaso de' Cavalieri.

Ask Michelangelo Buonarroti about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Pencil or charcoal drawing on pale paper in a light frame: a muscular nude male figure lies on rocky ground, face turned away, with an eagle or large bird with spread wings and a beak pecking at his torso. Rocks and a rough landscape fill the background.
Michelangelo, The Punishment of Tityus, 1532. Royal Collection.

About this source

What it is

Made around 1532, this drawing by Michelangelo depicts the mythical giant Tityus chained to a rock while a vulture-like bird attacks him, a punishment in which his liver is eternally devoured and regrown. It is held in the Royal Collection. Michelangelo gave it, along with similar finished drawings, to Tommaso de' Cavalieri, a young Roman noble who became his close friend from 1532 until Michelangelo's death.

Why it matters

Unlike his working sketches, this was a complete gift-drawing, part of a group scholars read as expressing Michelangelo's intense attachment to Cavalieri, to whom he also wrote many letters and sonnets. Some historians see homoerotic meaning in the myth chosen; others think the drawings were teaching exercises, since the back of the sheet was reworked, possibly by Cavalieri himself.

Look closer

  • Why might Michelangelo have chosen this particular myth to give to a friend?
  • What clues suggest the drawing may have also been used to teach drawing?
  • How do historians disagree about what this gift reveals?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Michelangelo Buonarroti on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Michelangelo Buonarroti sources

Meet the AI Michelangelo Buonarroti →
Full-length white marble statue of a nude young male figure standing in contrapposto, one hand raised to his shoulder, the other at his side, set on a rough base within a domed, pale-walled room.Sculpture

Primary source

David

Michelangelo · 1501-1504

A printed plate, numbered 106, in a bound album showing an engraved elevation of a wall tomb with architectural niches, statues, reclining figures, a central arched niche with a seated figure, and a circular medallion at top. Handwritten German caption below reads Entwurf für ein medicäisches Doppelgrab (Orig. in d. Albertina).Artifact

Primary source

Elevation of a Planned Double Tomb for the Magnifici, Medici Chapel

unbestimmt

Wide view of the painted Sistine Chapel ceiling: a grid of framed panels with figures, nude and draped, with pendentives and lunettes in the corners, painted in warm earthy tones.Painting

Primary source

Sistine Chapel ceiling

Michelangelo · 1508-1512

Michelangelo's fresco The Last Judgment on a wall. Christ sits at center in a blue halo surrounded by nude figures. Angels blow trumpets above, the dead rise from the ground, and figures fall into a boat and down toward hell at the bottom.Painting

Secondary source

The Last Judgment

Michelangelo · 1536-1541

Engraved reproduction plate, page numbered 25, of Michelangelo's seated marble statue of Moses in an ornate architectural niche. Moses has a long flowing beard and horns, holds his beard with one hand, and rests on a pedestal inscribed with Latin text. Pencil caption at lower left reads S. Pietro in Vincoli.Photograph

Secondary source

Statue of Moses by Michelangelo, San Pietro in Vincoli

unbestimmt

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Michelangelo Buonarroti now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions