The ''Atlas Slave'' is a 2.77m high marble statue by
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
, dated to 1525–1530. It is one of the 'Prisoners', the series of unfinished sculptures for the
tomb of Pope Julius II
The Tomb of Pope Julius II is a sculptural and architectural ensemble by Michelangelo and his assistants, originally commissioned in 1505 but not completed until 1545 on a much reduced scale. Originally intended for St. Peter's Basilica, the str ...
. It is now held in the
Galleria dell'Accademia
The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, or "Gallery of the Academy of Florence", is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture ''David (Michelangelo), David''. It also has other sculptures by Mic ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
.
History
Before the end of the first project for
tomb of Pope Julius II
The Tomb of Pope Julius II is a sculptural and architectural ensemble by Michelangelo and his assistants, originally commissioned in 1505 but not completed until 1545 on a much reduced scale. Originally intended for St. Peter's Basilica, the str ...
(1505), a series of sculptures was planned for the lower part of the mausoleum. This series, the 'Prisoners', would be a number of larger-than-life statues chained up in various poses representing prisoners leaning on the pillars and
herms Herms is a surname and given name. Notable people with the name include:
*George Herms (born 1935), American artist
* René Herms (1982-2009), German middle-distance runner
*Herms Niel
Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock (17 April 1888 – 16 ...
which flanked the niches. As they were coupled with each niche (featuring images of Winged Victory), there were originally supposed to be sixteen or twenty sculptures. In later plans, this number was reduced to twelve (during the second project in 1513), eight (third project, 1516) and in the end perhaps as low as four (sometime during the fourth or fifth project in 1526 and 1532), before the sculptures were definitively removed from the final project plans in 1542.
The first sculptures in the series, of which there remain traces in Michelangelo's papers, are the two ''Prisoners'' of Paris, who (since the 19th Century) have come to be known as the "Slaves": the ''
Dying Slave
The ''Dying Slave'' is a sculpture by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Created between 1513 and 1516, it was to serve with another figure, the '' Rebellious Slave'', at the tomb of Pope Julius II. It is a marble figure 2.15 metres (7 ...
'' and the ''
Rebellious Slave
The ''Rebellious Slave'' is a 2.15m high marble statue by Michelangelo, dated to 1513. It is now held in the Louvre in Paris.
History
The two "slaves" of the Louvre date to the second version of the tomb of Pope Julius II which was commissio ...
'', both carved in Rome around the year 1513.
See also
*
List of works by Michelangelo
The following is a list of works of painting, sculpture and architecture by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Lost works are included, but not commissions that Michelangelo never made. Michelangelo also left many drawings, sketches, and ...
External links
accademia.org*http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/catalogo/scheda.asp?nctn=00281982&value=1
*
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Tomb of Pope Julius II
Sculptures by Michelangelo
Marble sculptures in Italy
16th-century sculptures
Unfinished sculptures
Sculptures of the Galleria dell'Accademia
Nude sculptures in Italy