He was an accomplished poet

Although Michelangelo is primarily remembered as a sculptor, he was also a renowned writer in his day. Over the course of his career, he wrote hundreds of sonnets and madrigals, frequently noting accidental lines of poetry while he hammered away at statues in his studio. Over 300 poems were written by Michelangelo during his lifetime. He dedicated the majority of his magnificent sonnets to Vittoria Colonna, a close friend.

In his poems, Michelangelo makes heavy use of wordplay and discusses a variety of topics, including sex, age, and his overactive bladder (he laments having a "drippy duct compelling me awake too early"). Although none of these writings were officially published during his lifetime, they were widely read by Rome's literati in the 16th century, and some of them were even set to music.