AFTER MICHELANGELO: A 19TH CENTURY ALABASTER FIGURE OF LORENZO DUKE OF URBINO

AFTER MICHELANGELO: A 19TH CENTURY ALABASTER FIGURE OF LORENZO DUKE OF URBINO

poised in reflection and seated on a rectangular plinth, raised on a grey veined stepped plinth base,

58cm high

Footnotes:

This finely carved alabaster figure depicts Lorenzo de'Medici, Duke of Urbino, after Michelangelo's marble original. The tomb was created by Michelangelo for the Sacrisity of San Lorenzo and known as the Capitani. Lorenzo is on the left of the altar and was defined by Vasari as Il Pensieroso (the thoughtful), as opposed to the more active figure of Guiliano. Lorenzo leans on a moneybox as an allusion to the merchant status and wealth of the Medici family, and the Roman armour that he wears refered to the Roman citizenship that he had gained in 1513 just seven years before Michelangelo began the tomb in 1520.The figure of Lorenzo (1492-1519) is seated in a niche above his tomb on which recline allegorical figures of Dawn and Dusk.