Portrait of Bia de' Medici
Painting by Bronzino
The Portrait of Bia de' Medici is a tempera on wood painting by the Italian Mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino, dating to around 1542 and now in the Uffizi in Florence. For a long time it was displayed in the Tribuna at the heart of the museum, but since 2012 it has been moved to the "sale rosse" of the Nuovi Uffizi. A second portrait, by Pontormo, has also been argued to show Bia de' Medici, but this identification is disputed.
Description.
After her death, many art historians believe her father commissioned a posthumous painting of his illegitimate daughter by Agnolo Bronzino, which often is regarded as one of his finest works. The work is and was painted in tempera on wood. The painting is on display in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
Bronzino shows the child half-length and sitting on a chair, similar to the pose in his "Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi" – a rigid official pose offset by some hints of hand movement, as if the character was about to get up, along with an intense but emotionless gaze straight at the viewer. The face is lit and highlighted by the blue background, whilst the cold light and absence of any strong chiaroscuro effect accentuates the smoothness of the subject's complexion and idealises her features.
Bia has her hair parted in the middle of her forehead and a falling bob, with two carefully tied braids framing the face. She wears pearl earrings, a gold chain with a pendant or medallion with her father's profile on it, emphasizing her bond with her father. The medallions portrait of her father is modeled after a portrait of Cosimo by Pontormo and then made into a medallion by Domenico di Poli. The appearance of the medallion in the portrait helped to identify the subject as a daughter of Cosimo.
She also wears a sumptuous dress, made of blue satin with puffy sleeves, produced in the silk factories Cosimo was setting up in Florence at the time. With her right hand she is fiddling with the end or tassel of a golden chain or belt around her waist.
The portrait would have hung in the family's private rooms as a reminder to them of the dead child and an inspiration and guide on the path to salvation. As art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues, Bronzino painted the child with a halo effect, in "light-emitting white satin and pearls" as a metaphor for both her purported name "Bianca," which means "white" and her childish innocence. "Like (Petrarch's) 'Laura,' the posthumous "Bia" is a riveting emanation from Heaven who bestows purifying grace on the beholder," Langdon wrote in the 2004 collection "The Cultural World of Eleanora Di Toledo".
Identification.
Until 1893 it was thought to represent Maria de' Medici, the younger legitimate sister of Bia and that the name "Bia" was a contraction or nickname of Maria. This was until the Italian painter, restorer and art historian Cosimo Conti found archival evidence for the existence for a daughter of Cosimos by the name of Bia.
Some other researchers like Maike Vogt-Lüerssen however argues the viewpoint held previously that the portrait actually depicts Bia's younger, legitimate half sister, Maria de' Medici. Vogt-Lüerssen says in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the subject of the portrait was identified as Maria until the 1950s and the pearls depicted in the portrait were a common symbol of the Medicis, often worn by legitimate female members of the house. Such pearl necklaces were a common fashionable accessory for women of the Italian nobility.
Vogt-Lüerssen believes that the child depicted in a famous portrait by Pontormo with Maria Salviati is actually Bia, her eldest granddaughter, because group portraits in that era depicted family members with close blood relationships and Salviati's two younger granddaughters, Maria and Isabella, were too young at Salviati's death to be the 5- or 6-year-old girl in the portrait.
Other equally credible identifications for the child in the Pontormo painting have also been put forth, such as Giulia de' Medici, the daughter of Cosimo de Medicis predecessor. After her father Alessandro de' Medicis assassination his daughter was put in the care of Maria Salviati.
Influence.
Regardless of which Medici daughter it depicts, the painting has continued to inspire modern artists. American sculptor Joseph Cornell's 1948 sculpture "Medici Princess" incorporates Bronzino's portrait of the girl. The sculpture, one of a series depicting members of the Medici family, shows an enameled reproduction of Bronzino's portrait in a dark wooden box, behind a blurred, deep blue glass pane. On either side of the main portrait are smaller vignette reproductions of the same portrait, behind glass as well. Below the girl's image, in a pull-out drawer, are a feather and a floor plan of the palace in Florence that was once her home. The sculpture, which is owned by a private collector, was on display during a recent retrospective of Cornell's work originating with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Isabella de Borchgrave recreated Bia de Medici in paper.
The portrait of Bia has also been recreated (wearing a scuba diving mask) by the street artist Blub in Lerici and Ravenna.
Bia de' Medici.
Bia de' Medici, (c. 1536 – 1 March 1542) was the illegitimate daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, born before his first marriage.
The identity of Bia's mother is not known, but Cosimo I was likely no older than sixteen when he fathered her. According to Edgcumbe Staley's "The Tragedies of the Medici", some stories said the girl's mother was a village girl from Trebbio, where the Medicis had built one of their first villas, while others said she was a gentlewoman from Florence. Only Cosimo I and the girl's paternal grandmother, Maria Salviati, knew the identity of the girl's mother, but Salviati refused to reveal it, though she did acknowledge Bia was the daughter of Cosimo.
Staley wrote that the little girl was called La Bia, short for "Bambina" ("little girl" or "baby"). The name might also have been short for Bianca or perhaps a classical name, deriving from Pallas' daughter. Staley wrote that her father's new wife, Eleonora di Toledo, refused to tolerate her presence in the palace after their marriage, so Cosimo sent her off to the Villa di Castello, her paternal grandmother's chief residence north of Florence. However, other more reliable reports indicate that her stepmother "brought her up very lovingly." Her paternal grandmother supervised the nurseries for all of the children of Cosimo I. All of them, not only Cosimo's illegitimate daughter, spent most of their time at the Villa di Castello and were raised by nurses, with minimal day-to-day contact with their parents, though both Cosimo and Eleonora heard reports of their progress and offered directions for their education, their living arrangements, and the clothing they wore. Bia shared her nursery with Giulia de' Medici, the illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, who was close to her in age. She grew into a high-spirited, loving little girl who kept her grandmother and nurses entertained with her antics. Bia's father adored his first-born child, and her paternal grandmother, Maria Salviati, said the little girl "was the comfort of our court, being so very affectionate."
Both Bia and her cousin Giulia contracted a fast-moving fever in February 1542, from which Giulia recovered but Bia did not. Cosimo I received almost daily reports of Bia's worsening condition from his mother, Maria Salviati. The child grew weaker between 25 February and 28 February and finally died on 1 March 1542. She was buried in the Medici family crypt in San Lorenzo.
When her legitimate half-sister Isabella de' Medici was born six months after her death, her father rejoiced to have another daughter. Contemporaries who might normally have consoled him on his wife's failure to present him with a second son instead congratulated him on her birth, knowing how he had grieved for the loss of Bia. "(I) congratulate you on the beautiful baby girl God has conceded to you in recompense for the one he has taken to join him in paradise," wrote Paolo Giovio after the birth of Isabella. A comparison of portraits of Bia and Isabella reveal that, had she lived past early childhood, Bia likely would have closely resembled her half-sister Isabella, who shared her reddish-blonde hair, brown eyes, and dainty features.
Pontormo painting.
In a portrait by Pontormo, the child's identification, according to the Walters Art Museum and scholarship sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities is likely to be Giulia de' Medici. However, Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argues in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the child in the portrait with Maria Salviati is actually Salviati's granddaughter Bia de' Medici. She believes that the child does not resemble the known portrait of an adult Giulia de' Medici and that the relationship between Maria Salviati and Giulia was not close enough to have warranted a portrait. Most group portraits were of family members with close blood ties.
Some art historians once identified the child as a young Cosimo I de' Medici, but it is now generally accepted to be Giulia. The child in the portrait appears to be a little girl, rather than a boy, and her expression is anxious. Maria Salviati, who is dressed soberly as befitted a widow, is seen sheltering the vulnerable child against her side. Art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues that the girl's demeanor in the portrait is different than would have been expected for the child Cosimo, whose family anticipated his role as a strong leader from his earliest days. It would have been to Cosimo I's advantage to commission a portrait depicting his mother as an exemplary widow, affectionately bringing up the orphaned daughter of Cosimo I's predecessor. The child's full lips, round nose, and curly reddish hair also bear little resemblance to known portraits of Cosimo as a child, though they do to portraits of the young Alessandro. Other girls of about the right age who were at court during this period also do not resemble the child in the portrait. The portrait might be one of the first in Renaissance-era Europe of a girl of presumed African and European ancestry. This painting is in the permanent collection of The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
The portrait has also been identified with other women, such as Isabella or Maria.

Uffizi
Art museum in Florence, Italy
The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given to the city of Florence under the famous "Patto di famiglia" negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress. The Uffizi is one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1769 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.
History.
The building of the Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici as a means to consolidate his administrative control of the various committees, agencies, and guilds established in Florence's Republican past so as to accommodate them all in one place, hence the name , "offices". The construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti; it was completed in 1581. The top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests and included their collection of Roman sculptures.
The "cortile" (internal courtyard) is so long, narrow, and open to the Arno at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe. Vasari, a painter, and architect as well, emphasized its perspective length by adorning it with the matching facades' continuous roof cornices, and unbroken cornices between storeys, as well as the three continuous steps on which the museum fronts stand. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns of the Loggiato are filled with sculptures of famous artists in the 19th century.
The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. The project was intended to display prime artworks of the Medici collections on the piano nobile; the plan was carried out by his son, Grand Duke Francesco I. He commissioned the architect Buontalenti to design the Tribuna degli Uffizi that would display a series of masterpieces in one room, including jewels; it became a highly influential attraction of a Grand Tour. The octagonal room was completed in 1584.
Over the years, more sections of the building were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculptures collected or commissioned by the Medici. For many years, 45 to 50 rooms were used to display paintings from the 13th to 18th century.
Modern times.
Because of its vast collection, some of the Uffizi's works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the museum's exhibition space some 6,000 metres2 (64,000 ft2) to almost 13,000 metres2 (139,000 ft2), allowing public viewing of many artworks that had usually been in storage.
The Nuovi Uffizi (New Uffizi) renovation project which started in 1989 was progressing well from 2015 to 2017. It was intended to modernize all of the halls and more than double the display space. A new exit was also planned and the lighting, air conditioning and security systems were updated. During construction, the museum remained open, although rooms were closed as necessary with the artwork temporarily moved to another location. For example, the Botticelli rooms and two others with early Renaissance paintings were closed for 15 months but reopened in October 2016.
Over two million visitors visited the Uffizi in 2016, making it the most visited art gallery in Italy. At peak periods (particularly in July), waiting times for entry can be up to five hours. Advance tickets can be bought online, to significantly reduce the waiting time. In 2018 a revised ticketing system was introduced to reduce queuing times to just minutes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was closed for 150 days in 2020, and attendance plunged by 72 percent to 659,043. Nonetheless, the Uffizi was twenty-seventh in the list of most-visited art museums in the world in 2020. Works from the Uffizi gallery collection are now available for remote viewing on Google Arts and Culture. The museum reopened in May 2021 following a renovation that included an addition of 14 new rooms and a display of additional 129 artworks, with the museum attempting to give more voice to historically under-represented groups including women and people of color.
Incidents.
On 27 May 1993, the Sicilian Mafia carried out a car bomb explosion in Via dei Georgofili which damaged parts of the palace and killed five people. The blast destroyed five pieces of art and damaged another 30. Some of the paintings were fully protected by bulletproof glass. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, which have since been restored, although its frescoes were damaged beyond repair.
On 22 July 2022, members of the climate activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) glued themselves to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli's "Primavera" demanding an end to fossil fuel usage. The painting was undamaged.
On 13 February 2024, members of Ultima Generazione glued images of flooding in Tuscany in 2023 to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in protest over the Italian government's inaction on climate change. The painting was undamaged and the images were removed.
Key works.
The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the "Arrotino", the "Two Wrestlers", "Venus de' Medici", and the "Bust of Severus Giovanni".
References.
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Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici
Painting by Titian
The Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici is an oil on canvas portrait of Ippolito de' Medici by Titian, from 1532–1533. It is held now in the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence. He appears dressed in a Hungarian outfit.
History and description.
Ippolito de' Medici, son of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, and nephew of Pope Clement VII, was appointed a cardinal at the age of 18, but as he matured he realized that he was more inclined to war than to Church affairs. This is evident in the current portrait that Titian painted of him in 1533, possibly in Bologna, as reported by Giorgio Vasari, or in Venice, as a source found in 2000 would testify.
The protagonist appears dressed as a Hungarian horseman, in memory of his exploits in Vienna during the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529 and during the liberation of Hungary, when he was in command of four thousand musketeers. From Vasari it is also known that Ippolito had a second and smaller portrait of himself made by Titian, in armor, which didn't survive.
Against a dark background, the extraordinary accords of dark reds, purples and amaranths highlight the perfectly illuminated face, where the expression of Ippolito seems to have something of confidence and cruelty, suitable for a young leader. With a warlike attitude, he holds the baton of command, while his left hand rests on the hilt of his sword.
The portrait was used as a model for various printed reproductions. Since 1716 it has been registered at Pitti, where it passed through various rooms before arriving at the Mars room, where it still hangs.
References.
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Sagrestia Nuova
Chapel in San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy
The Sagrestia Nuova, also known as the New Sacristy and the Medici Chapel, is a mausoleum that stands as a testament to the grandeur and artistic vision of the Medici family. Constructed in 1520, the mausoleum was designed by the Italian artist and architect Michelangelo. Situated adjacent to the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy, the Sagrestia Nuova forms an integral part of the museum complex known as the Medici Chapels.
History.
Background.
The death of two scions of the Medici family, Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours (in 1516), and Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (in 1519), had deeply embittered Pope Leo X, the brother of Giuliano and uncle of Lorenzo, who wanted to ensure that they obtained a princely burial. It was also suggested by their cousin Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII), commissioning Michelangelo's project for the façade for Basilica di San Lorenzo, engaging the artist in a new project for the basilica. The church had been the burial place of the Medici family for a century, but at the time there were no spaces available in which to create a new monumental complex: the historic family chapel, the Old Sacristy, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello, was a composition of sober and measured balance, to which no other decoration could be added without compromising the whole. The crypt, where some family members are buried, did not satisfy the clients' wishes for splendor and celebration. Not even for Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano de' Medici had a worthy burial been prepared. There was a need to create a new environment as a resting place for the two "dukes" (or "captains") and the two "magnificents".
Design.
Michelangelo was chosen for the construction, allowing him to recover from the impasse on the façade project, the contract for which was definitively terminated in March 1520. The exact contracting document for the Medici Chapel is not known, but from other documents and letters it is clear that in March work on a new chapel had been started.
During the design phase, Michelangelo thought of various solutions before choosing the version implemented. The question was how to arrange the four sepulchres in relation to the available space, with the altar and the entrance. The first idea was for tombs placed at the corners leaning against the walls (March 1520), but on 23 October 1520 Michelangelo presented Cardinal Giulio with a project with an aedicula in the center containing the tombs. A drawing was provided on 21 December 1520. The artist therefore abandoned the scheme of the tombs in the center, opting to arrange them against the walls and studying variants with single or double burials, until he arrived at a defined project with single tombs for the dukes in the side walls and double ones for the magnificents on the wall opposite the altar. Only those of the dukes were finally completed. In 1521 Pope Leo died and work was interrupted.
Second stage.
With the election of Clement VII in 1523, in December of that year the artist returned to the works at San Lorenzo. It was thought to house the tombs of Pope Leo and, at the time, of Clement VII in the Sacristy, but the idea was soon abandoned in favor of the choir of San Lorenzo. In the end, however, both were buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.
In the spring of 1524, Michelangelo was working on the clay models for the sculptures and in the autumn the marbles arrived from Carrara. Between 1525 and 1527 at least four statues were completed (including the "Night" and the "Dawn") and four others were already defined with the models.
In 1526, the first tomb was walled up, that of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino. On 17 June, the artist sent a letter to Rome in which he wrote: "I work as hard as I can, and in fifteen days I'll get the other captain started, then I'll be left, of matters of importance, only and four figures. The four figures on the cassoni, the four figures on the ground, which are Rivers, and two captains and Our Lady going to the tomb at the head, are the figures I would like to make with my own hand: and of these there are six begun, and the courage is enough for me to do them in the right time and partly do the others that don't matter so much". It is therefore understood that in addition to the extant sculptures, four river allegories were also envisaged (the rivers of Hades, or perhaps the rivers under Medici rule) lying at the foot of the tombs; the only surviving work that relates to these is the model of the "River God" in the collection of the Casa Buonarroti.
Interrupting and resuming jobs.
With the heavy blow received by Pope Clement during the Sack of Rome in 1527, the city of Florence rebelled against the Medici rule, driving out the little loved duke Alessandro de' Medici. Michelangelo, despite being linked to the Medici by working relationships since his youth, blatantly sided with the republican faction, actively participating, as person in charge of the fortifications, in the defense measures against the siege of the city in 1529–1530. When the Florentines were defeated Michelangelo fled the city, but was declared a rebel and presented himself voluntarily to avoid more serious punitive measures. Clement VII's pardon was not long in coming, provided that the artist immediately resume work in San Lorenzo where, in addition to the Sacristy, the project for a monumental Laurentian Library had been added five years earlier. It is clear how the pope was moved by the awareness of his not being able to renounce the only artist capable of giving shape to the dreams of glory of his dynasty, despite his ingratitude towards and betrayal of the Medici.
In April 1531, work resumed on the Sacristy and by the summer two more statues had to be completed and a third started. It is also known that the Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, was executed between 1531 and 1534, while the Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, was given to Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli in 1533 for finishing. In that same period the artist was preparing two allegorical statues, the "Heaven" and the "Earth", which were to have been sculpted by Niccolò Tribolo and placed in the niches on the sides of Giuliano's tomb; these however remained empty. Two more evidently had to be planned for the tomb of Lorenzo.
The Florentine works by now proceeded ever more slowly because in those same years Michelangelo was also working, in addition to the library, on the tomb of Julius II, for which he was preparing the "Slaves". Michelangelo, not happy with the city's political climate, took the opportunity to take new assignments in Rome and left Florence, in 1534, never setting foot there again.
In 1559, on the initiative of Cosimo I de' Medici, the chapel was arranged according to the project by Giorgio Vasari. Although an entire wall with the tomb of the "Magnificent" was missing and the river deities, statues, stuccoes and frescoes required by the contract had yet to be created, the Sacristy was considered completed.
Architecture.
Lantern.
The lantern at the top of the dome is made out of marble and has an "...unusual polyhedron mounted on the peak of the conical roof".
The lantern holding up the orb helps to accentuate the height and size of the chapel, which is fairly small. The lantern is slightly less than seven meters tall and "...is equal to the height of the dome it surmounts". The lantern metaphorically expresses the themes of death and resurrection; it is where the soul could escape and go from "...death to the afterlife".
Sculptures.
Embedded in the two side walls are the monumental tombs of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino. Initially up to five sculptures per tomb were to be carved, but the number was ultimately reduced to three. For the funerary monuments on both sides of the chapel, Michelangelo created the "Allegories of Time", which symbolize the triumph of the Medici family over the passage of time. The four Allegories are placed above the sepulchres, at the feet of the dukes. The elliptical line on which they rest is an invention by Michelangelo that anticipates the curves of the Baroque, as in the staircase of the Laurentian Library. For the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, he chose the "Day" and the "Night" for that of Lorenzo the "Dusk" (or "Twilight") and the "Dawn". The four Rivers, never executed, were also intended to recall the permanent and unstoppable flow of time.
All the Allegories are characterized by stretching and twisting and appear "unfinished" in some parts. Particularly beautiful are the emblematic position of the "Day", turned from the back which shows only the mysterious expression of the eyes in a barely sketched face, or the body of the "Night" which perfectly represents abandonment during sleep. In the Renaissance, especially in environments influenced by the Florentine Neoplatonism of Marsilio Ficino, the "Night" rediscovers its attributes of Primordial Mother and is associated with the figure of Leda. The position of the goddess, with her head bowed, expresses the kinship of the "Night" with the melancholic temperament. The owl and the poppies are symbols of "Death" and "Sleep", the twin sons of "Night". According to the doctrines of Orphism and Pythagoreanism, Leda and the "Night" are the personification of a double theory of death, according to which joy and pain coincide.
As for the portraits of the dukes, Michelangelo sculpted them seated in two niches above their respective tombs, facing each other, both dressed as Roman leaders. These sculptures, with attention to the smallest details, are idealized and do not reproduce real features, but nonetheless have a strong psychological character (Giuliano sitting in a proud posture with the baton of command is more haughtier and decisive, while Lorenzo, in a thoughtful pose, is more melancholic and meditative). A popular tradition tells that someone criticized the lack of resemblance of the portrait to the true features of Giuliano; Michelangelo, aware that his work would be handed down over time, replied that in ten centuries no one would be able to notice. Giuliano personifies active life, one of the two roads that lead to God. His scepter alludes to royal power, characteristic of those born under the sign of Jupiter. The coins are a symbol of magnanimity and indicate that the active man loves to "expend" himself in action. Lorenzo, known by the name "pensive", represents the contemplative attitude. The shadowed face recalls the "facies nigra" of Saturn, protector of melancholics. The forefinger on the mouth traces the saturnine motif of silence. The reclining arm is an iconographic tope of the melancholy mood. The closed casket resting on a leg is an allusion to parsimony, a typical quality of saturnine temperaments.
Side tombs.
In a statement in the biography of Michelangelo that was published in 1553 by his disciple, Ascanio Condivi, and largely was based on Michelangelo's own recollections, Condivi gives the following description of the sculptures on the two Medici tombs: "The statues are four in number, placed in a sacristy... the sarcophagi are placed before the side walls, and on the lids of each there recline two big figures, larger than life, to wit, a man and a woman; they signify Day and Night and, in conjunction, Time which devours all things… And in order to signify Time he planned to make a mouse, having left a bit of marble upon the work (which [plan] he subsequently did not carry out because he was prevented by circumstances), because this little animal ceaselessly gnaws and consumes just as time devours everything”.
"Night".
Night is a sculpture in marble (155x150 cm, maximum length 194 cm diagonally) by Michelangelo Buonarroti. Dating from 1526 to 1531, it is part of the decoration of the New Sacristy and part of an allegory of the four parts of a day. It is situated on the left of the sarcophagus of the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Nemours.
Along with his "Dawn", Michelangelo drew from the ancient "Sleeping Ariadne" for his sculpture's pose.
In his poem "L'Idéal" from "Les Fleurs du Mal", French Romantic poet Charles Baudelaire references the statue:
"Ou bien toi, grande Nuit, fille de Michel-Ange",
"Qui tors paisiblement dans une pose étrange"
"Tes appas façonnés aux bouches des Titans"!
Or you, great Night, daughter of Michelangelo,
Who calmly contort, reclining in a strange pose
Your charms molded by the mouths of Titans!
In his Life of Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari quotes an epigram by Giovanni Strozzi, written, perhaps in 1544, in praise of Michelangelo's "Night":
"La Notte che tu vedi in sì dolci atti"
"dormire, fu da un Angelo scolpita"
"in questo sasso e, perché dorme, ha vita":
"destala, se nol credi, e parleratti".
Night, whom you see sleeping in such sweet attitudes
was carved in this stone by an Angel
and although she sleeps, she has life:
wake her, if you don't believe it, and she will speak to you.
Michelangelo responded in 1545–46 with another epigram, entitled "Risposta del Buonarroto" ("Buonarroto's response"). Speaking in the voice of the statue, it may contain a scathing critique of Cosimo I de' Medici's governance, according to Kenneth Gross:
"Caro m'è 'l sonno, e più l'esser di sasso",
"mentre che 'l danno e la vergogna dura";
"non veder, non sentir m'è gran ventura";
"però non mi destar, deh, parla basso".
My sleep is dear to me, and more dear this being of stone,
as long as the agony and shame last.
Not to see, not to hear [or feel] is for me the best fortune.;
So do not wake me! Speak softly.
"Dawn".
Dawn is a sculpture by Michelangelo, executed for the chapel. It is 6 feet and 8 inches in length. Along with his "Night", Michelangelo drew from the ancient "Sleeping Ariadne" for his sculpture's pose. This was in turn influential on Benvenuto Cellini's "Diana of Fontainebleau".
"Dusk".
Dusk is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, datable to 1524–1534. It is paired with "Dawn" on the tomb of Lorenzo II de' Medici.
Among the various iconographic meanings proposed, the statue is seen as an emblem of the phlegmatic temperament or of the elements of water or earth. Michelangelo's study for "Dusk" is known for exemplifying his style of striking, unfinished drawings.
Tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giuliano de' Medici.
The main wall of the chapel is unfinished. Against it is the sepulchre with the mortal remains of Lorenzo the Magnificent (died in 1492) and his brother Giuliano (killed during the Pazzi Conspiracy in 1478), surmounted by three sculptures. In the center is Michelangelo's statue of "Madonna and Child" (known as the "Medici Madonna"), completed in 1521. The Madonna is flanked by the two patron saints of the Medici family: on the right "Saint Cosmas", executed by the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli in 1537, and on the left "Saint Damian", by the sculptor and architect Raffaello da Montelupo in 1531, who began working with Michelangelo on the Sagrestia Nuova at an early age. Cosmas and Damian, who were physicians ("medici"), hold their doctor's boxes of salves and nostrums. "Saint Cosmas" is also attributed to Montelupo, together with Montorsoli, another assistant to Michelangelo, after a model by the master.
The three statues were later placed by Giorgio Vasari on a simple marble chest housing the remains of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de' Medici, for whom there was never the time to build a larger monumental tomb.
Graffiti.
On the walls of the scarsella is a series of graffitied figures and architectural motifs, referring to Michelangelo's assistants. A trap door in the room to the left