Gherardo Perini was a model for Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

 and came to work for him around 1520. Their love intensified around 1522-1525 and lasted until the mid-1530s.

When Perini failed to show up to his studio

Studio

A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...

, Michelangelo was distraught and stated "I beg you not to make me draw this evening since Perino's now here." On that same page, he draw a naked cherub

Cherub

A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...

 urinating into a vase

Vase

The vase is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents....

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