LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Michelangelo Buonarroti: Tombs
built 630 days ago
By 1520 funding was discontinued for the San Lorenzo facade, but Michelangelo remained occupied with other projects for this church. The commission for a sacristy (1519-1534) for San Lorenzo included plans for Medici family tombs. As did many of Michelangelo's designs, this one went through numerous changes before it was executed, but in the end it consisted of two large wall tombs facing each other across a high, domed room. One was intended for Giuliano de' Medici (duke of Nemours), the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent; the other for Giuliano's nephew Lorenzo (di Piero) de' Medici (duke of Urbino). Michelangelo conceived of the two tombs as representing opposite types: Giuliano symbolized the active, extroverted personality, Lorenzo , the contemplative, introspective one. He placed nudes representing Day and Night beneath Giuliano; nudes representing Dawn and Dusk beneath a seated Lorenzo.
Source:
As soon as the ceiling was completed in 1512, Michelangelo returned to the tomb of Julius and carved for it (1513-1514) the Moses (S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome) and two Slaves (Louvre, Paris), using the same types he employed for the prophets and their attendants painted in the Sistine ceiling. The Moses seems to represent a final synthesis of all those variants, although it is more restrained owing to the sculptural medium. It was meant to be placed above eye level, and some of its dramatic force would probably have been mitigated when seen from the intended distance. Julius's death in 1513 halted the work on his tomb.
Source:
Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in the small village of Caprese, near Sansepolcro, but was essentially a Florentine, maintaining a deep attachment to Florence, its art, and its culture throughout his long life. He spent the greater part of his adulthood in Rome, in the employment of the popes; ... he left instructions that he be buried in Florence, and his body was placed there in the church of Santa Croce. The tomb erected there was designed by his biographer Giorgio Vasari; it features allegories of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture mourning Michelangelo’s death.
Source:
Michelangelo originally intended for the piece to be placed within a shallow niche, and accordingly, he polished to a smooth finish all the surfaces that would have been visible and gave meticulous care to the drapery. This high degree of finish is rarely present in Michelangelo's work, and so probably reflects the tastes of the patron, a French cardinal who had commissioned the sculpture to be placed on his tomb. Michelangelo returned to the theme of the Pietà late in his life, in two of his most personal expressions: the Florentine Pietà (1547?-1555, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence), which he meant to have placed on his own tomb, and the Rondanini Pietà (1555-1564, Castello Sforzesco, Milan), a work that remained unfinished when he died.
Source:
The slaves were designed as part of the initial project for the tomb (in 1505), and Michelangelo began to carve them in 1513 when a second project was developed. A fourth, less grandiose project, elaborated after the pope's death, saw them rejected for financial reasons. Julius II, who had dreamed of a freestanding mausoleum at Saint Peter's in Rome, was buried in San Pietro in Vincoli in a wall tomb, albeit one adorned with Michelangelo's famous Moses (a contemporary of the slaves). Despite being unfinished, the two great marbles were already admired. Michelangelo donated them to the Florentine exile Roberto Strozzi, who presented them to the French king.
Source:
After the ceiling was completed in 1512, Michelangelo returned to the tomb of Julius and carved a Moses and two Slaves. His models were the same physical types he used for the prophets and their attendants in the Sistine ceiling. Julius's death in 1513 halted the work on his tomb.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Tombs