Sculptural and architectural ensemble by Michelangelo
You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Italian. (January 2021)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consideradding a topic to this template: there are already 261 articles in themain category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Tomba di Giulio II]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template{{Translated|it|Tomba di Giulio II}} to thetalk page.
TheTomb of Pope Julius II is a sculptural and architectural ensemble byMichelangelo and his assistants, originally commissioned in 1505 but not completed until 1545 on a much reduced scale.[1] Originally intended forSt. Peter's Basilica, the structure was instead placed in the church ofSan Pietro in Vincoli on theEsquiline inRome after the pope's death. This church was patronized by theDella Rovere family from which Julius came, and he had been titular cardinal there. Julius II, however, is buried next to his uncle Sixtus IV in St. Peter's Basilica, so the final structure does not actually function as a tomb.
Hypothetical reconstruction of the first project for the tomb of Julius II (1505) according to a new interpretation by Adriano Marinazzo (2018).[2]
As originally conceived, the tomb would have been a colossal structure that would have given Michelangelo the room he needed for his superhuman, tragic beings. This project became one of the great disappointments of Michelangelo's life when the pope, for unexplained reasons, interrupted the commission, possibly because funds had to be diverted forBramante's rebuilding of St. Peter's.[3] The original project called for a freestanding, three-level structure with some 40 statues. After the pope's death in 1513, the scale of the project was reduced step-by-step until, in April 1532,[4][unreliable source?] a final contract specified a simple wall tomb with fewer than one-third of the figures originally planned.[5]
The most famous sculpture associated with the tomb is thefigure ofMoses, which Michelangelo completed during one of the sporadic resumptions of the work in 1513.[citation needed] Michelangelo felt that this was his most lifelike creation. Legend has it that upon its completion he struck the right knee commanding, "now speak!" as he felt that life was the only thing left inside the marble. There is a scar on the knee thought to be the mark of Michelangelo's hammer.
1505 – Julius commissions a tomb from Michelangelo, who spends eight months choosing marble atCarrara.[6] Sometime during construction, however, Michelangelo and the Pope have a quarrel, causing Michelangelo to leave Rome for his safety.[7]
1508[citation needed] –Donato Bramante, apparently jealous of Michelangelo's commission, used Michelangelo's absence to convince the Pope that it is bad luck to have his tomb built during his own lifetime, and that Michelangelo's time would be better spent on theSistine Chapel ceiling in theVatican Palace. He, along with Michelangelo's other rivals, thought that Michelangelo would be unable to complete the massive ceiling project and thus be humiliated and leave Rome.[8]
1512 – With his decoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling complete, Michelangelo resumed work on the tomb. Between 1512 and 1513 he completed three sculptures for the project: theDying andRebellious Slaves (now in theLouvre, Paris) andMoses (retained in the final design).[citation needed]
1513 – Julius died in February 1513. A new contract was drawn up on 6 May which specified a wall tomb. On 9 July Michelangelo contracted a stonemason, Antonio del Ponte a Sieve, to execute the architectural elements of the tomb's lower register, which can be seen in the final design.[9] A large, ruined drawing attributed to Michelangelo survives from this phase of the project, in theKupferstichkabinett in Berlin; a more legible facsimile by his pupil Jacomo Rocchetti is also in the same collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a drawing of the tomb from this period.[10] Though no longer for a free-standing monument, the project in fact became more ambitious both in terms of size and the complexity of its iconography.[11]
1516 – Michelangelo agrees to a new contract with Julius's heirs, who demand the completion of the project.
1532 – Michelangelo signs a second new contract, which involves a wall-tomb.
1542 – Michelangelo begins the wall-tomb after negotiating final details with Julius's grandson.
1545 – The final tomb, more properly a funerary monument because Julius II is not interred there, is completed and installed in San Pietro in Vincoli; it includes Michelangelo'sMoses along withLeah andRachel (probably completed by Michelangelo's assistants) on the lower level, and several other sculptures (definitely not by Michelangelo) on the upper level.
The statues of theDying Slave and theRebellious Slave were finished but not included in the monument in its last and reduced design.[13] They are now in theLouvre. Another figure intended for Pope Julius' tomb isThe Genius of Victory, now in thePalazzo Vecchio in Florence. Other sculptures for the tomb were theYoung Slave, theAtlas Slave, theBearded Slave and theAwakening Slave. The sculptures of Rachel and Leah, allegories of the contemplative and the active life, were executed byRaffaello da Montelupo, a pupil of Michelangelo. The other sculptures are by less experienced pupils.
Frommel, Christoph Luitpold, Maria Forcellino, Claudia Echinger-Maurach, Antonio Cassanelli, Roberto Jemolo, Forcellino, Antonio, Cassanelli, Roberto, and Jemolo, Andrea.Michelangelo's Tomb for Julius II : Genesis and Genius. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016.
Tononi, Fabio, “Aesthetic Response to the Unfinished: Empathy, Imagination and Imitation Learning”,Aisthesis: Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell’estetico, 13: 1 (2020), pp. 135–153.
.jpg)
![The Genius of Victory (1527–1530)[14]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aFirenze.Palvecchio.500.Michelangelo2.JPG)
Media related toGrave for Julius II by Michelangelo Buonarroti at Wikimedia Commons