AFTER MICHELANGELO

The present bronze is copy of the marble original sculpted by Michelangelo (1475-1564) for the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours. The funerary moment was one of two commissioned for the Sagrestia Nuova, Basilica of San Lorenzo, intended by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici and Pope Leo X to serve as the Medici family's mausoleum. The second monument belonged to the tomb of Giuliano's brother, Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino and together the portrait monuments served to portray the leading figures as the Renaissance archetypes of the active and reflective man, respectively.