Gherardo Perini

Gherardo Perini was a model for Michelangelo and came to work for him around 1520.

When Perini failed to show up to his studio, Michelangelo was distraught and stated "I beg you not to make me draw this evening since Perino's not here." On that same page, he drew a naked cherub urinating into a vase.

Scholar Robert Clements believes that their affair was homosexual and points to the verse written to Perini, "I had always thought I could come to term with love, Now I suffer, and you see how I burn."

References in Michelangelo's poetry

Perini was mentioned in Michelangelo's poem G.36. In first line of the poem, Michelangelo states that "Over here it was that my love stole from me." In the third line of the poem it says: "Here with his beautiful eyes he promised me help." This is in reference to Michelangelo expecting him to love him back. In the fourth line he further states "he stole it back." This is Michelangelo lamenting the loss of Perini as his lover. Furthermore, Michelangelo was so captivated by him, that in the first line of the second quatrain he states "he bound me and here released me" and follows in the next line stating "For myself I wept here, and with infinite sorrow" and finally stating in the final line "He who stole myself from me and never turned back." Sonnet 36, left unfinished, sums up the relationship between Michelangelo and Perini. It is a standard set of antitheses commonly used to define tue ultimately unsatisfactory completion of a love