Accademia Artists | Location | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
Artists Sculptors | Painters | Music
Sculptors Michelangelo | Giambologna
Michelangelo David | Tomb Pope Julius II | Pietà - St. Matthew
Michelangelo's Prisoners of Pope Julius II's Tomb at the Accademia Gallery in Florence in Italy
Bearded Slave Prisoner The four sculptures of Michelangelo below, Atlas, the bearded slave, the awakening of the slave and the young prisoner slave were all destined for the tomb of Pope Julius II, under the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
But this order was not fully honoured either by Julius II or by his heirs. And his tomb, much reduced from the original project, was not installed in St. Peter's Basilica as planned, but in San Pietro in Vincoli.
These four prisoners had lost their primary utility, so Michelangelo asked his nephew to offer them to the Grand Duke of Florence, Cosimo I of Medici, which was done after Michelangelo's death.
These sculptures of prisoners might make you believe that they are not finished; on the contrary, they are in the state in which Michelangelo wanted them to be.
He wanted us to feel these men's disproportionate effort to free themselves from the material that imprisoned them.
Michelangelo « Atlas prisoner » at the Accademia Gallery
Sculpture - Marble (Height 227cm) 1530
Michelangelo « Bearded Slave Prisoner » at the Accademia Gallery
Sculpture - Marble (Height 263cm) 1530
Michelangelo « Awakening Slave Prisoner » at the Accademia Gallery
Sculpture - Marble (Height 267cm) 1530
Michelangelo « Young Slave Prisoner » at the Accademia Gallery
Sculpture - Marble (Height 256cm) 1530
Michelangelo David | Tomb Pope Julius II | Pietà - St. Matthew
Sculptors Michelangelo | Giambologna
Artists Sculptors | Painters | Music
Accademia Artists | Location | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
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