XII. This and the three next sonnets may with tolerable certainty be
referred to the series written on various occasions for Vittoria
Colonna.
XIII. Sent together with a letter, in which we read: _l'aportatore di
questa sarà Urbino, che sta meco_. Urbino was M. A.'s old servant,
workman, and friend. See No. LXVIII. and note.
XIV. The thought is that, as the sculptor carves a statue from a rough
model by addition and subtraction of the marble, so the lady of his
heart refines and perfects his rude native character.
XV. This sonnet is the theme of Varchi's _Lezione_. There is nothing to
prove that it was addressed to Vittoria Colonna. Varchi calls it '_un
suo altissimo sonetto pieno di quella antica purezza e dantesca
gravità_.'
XVI. The thought of the fifteenth is repeated with some variations. His
lady's heart holds for the lover good and evil things, according as he
has the art to draw them forth.
XVIII. In the terzets he describes the temptations of the artist-nature,
over-sensitive to beauty. Michelangelo the younger so altered these six
lines as to destroy the autobiographical allusion.--Cp. No. XXVIII., note.
XIX. The lover's heart is like an intaglio, precious by being inscribed
with his lady's image.
XX. An early composition, written on the back of a letter sent to the
sculptor in Bologna by his brother Simone in 1507. M.A. was then
working at the bronze statue of Julius II. Who the lady of his love
was, we do not know. Notice the absence of Platonic _concetti_.
XXIII. It is hardly necessary to call attention to Michael Angelo's
oft-recurring Platonism. The thought that the eye alone perceives the
celestial beauty, veiled beneath the fleshly form of the beloved, is
repeated in many sonnets--especially in XXV., XXVIII.