Michelangelo “Night” on Giuliano de Medici's Tomb, New Sacristy in Florence

Sculpture - Carrara marble (155 x 150 x 63 cm) 1524-1534

Michelangelo, Night, New Sacristy Medici in Florence

Michelangelo, “Night” Michelangelo's “Night” is on the lid of the sarcophagus of Giuliano de Medici, Duke of Nemours, lying back to back with the “Day” represented by a bearded and powerful man.

One of the peculiarities of this statue lies in the work of marble that Michelangelo polished to make it a quasi-mirror that gives a lunar clarity to the statue.

The “Night” is a young woman, a sleeping athlete.

Her head is supported on her right hand in a position that recalls the ancient representations of Leda or Ariane asleep.

This woman's face is soothed; she's in a deep sleep; she's somewhere else.

Michelangelo, “Night” She wears nocturnal symbols on her forehead; a tiara with two lunar crescents surrounding a star.

Under her foot is a bunch of poppies with sleeping properties.

Between her leg and thigh folded, an owl that seems to be watching for her represents the darkness.

Finally, under her, between her arm and back, Michelangelo sculpted an impressive mask.

A bearded face with empty eyes and a mouth with teeth that snicker, embodying the night's dreams and sensuality.

We can thus see Michelangelo's “Night” as a cosmic symbol of the fruitfulness of the night.

Michelangelo, “Night” The Florentine nobleman, Giovanni di Carlo Strozzi, referring to the then-fashionable notion of talking sculptures, had written a quatrain on this “Night”:

“The night that sleeps here in such a tender sleep,
An angel carved it out of this stone.
In her sleep, she owns life,
If you doubt it, talk to her, she will answer you.”
Giovanni di Carlo Strozzi

According to him, Michelangelo only moderately appreciated this hacked reference of a statue ready to speak.

Even if Strozzi put him in the spotlight in a play on words by saying that an angel had carved it, he slightly sarcastically answered him.

Michelangelo, “Night” An answer from the artist referred to the sad state of the city of Florence after the assault of 1529-1530 and the fall of its Republic.

“Caro me 'l sonno, where the esser di sasso,
Mentor at the danno de la vergogna dura;
Non udir non veder m'è gran ventura;
Però non mi destar, deh, parla basso.”
Michelangelo Buonarroti

“Sleep is dear to me, and even more so to be stone,
As long as ravages and shame endure;
Not hearing, not seeing is my greatest chance,
Don't wake me up, oh! talk low!”
Michelangelo

Michelangelo, “Night”