Journey to Matelda: Desire and Power in the Earthly Paradise

Abstract

In 1548, Michelangelo Buonarroti sent to Florence for safekeeping several contracts among which he included “a treasured letter” from Count Alessandro of Canossa in which the count had referred to him as “parente honorando.” Alessandro had indeed written to Michelangelo addressing him as a kinsman, even inviting him to Rome to see “la vostra casa,” but their family relation was a complete fabrication on the part of the count and both men were aware the claim was false.1 Presumably the count was keen to draw the increasingly prominent artist into his family tree, while for Michelangelo, who had spent his life tormented by his tenuous class status, tangible evidence acknowledging him as a member of a family descended from the celebrated Countess Matilde of Canossa was invaluable.2 He took advantage of the opportunity afforded him by the count to have his personal history rewritten accordingly, in the biography composed by Ascanio Condivi but heavily influenced by the artist himself: