Michelangelo is known today for his painting in the Sistine Chapel and his rebuilding of the Basilica of St. Peter's in Rome, but he always considered himself first and foremost a sculptor. Yet he was also a prolific writer of sonnets. This lecture will study his sculpture and his sonnets as a means of better understanding both the artist and his works from the optimism of the Pietà and David of his youth, through the frustration of Pope Julius II's tomb to the agonizing Deposition of his later years.