Home > Auction >  paintings, furniture and works of art, jewellery, sculptures, bronzes >  Lot.479 Buonarotti, Michelangelo (after). Caprese 1475 - 1564 Rome, Italy or France, 19th century L. 65 cm. Allegory of day and night. After the figures on the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici from the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence. Bronze, dark patinated. Figures lying on volute arches, rectangular bases with leaf branch applications, lion heads and ornamentation on plastic claw feet at the front and slender feet with peg knobs at the back. L. ber. In 1520 Michelangelo Buonarotti was commissioned by Pope Leo X (born in 1475 as Giovanni de' Medici) to build the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo. In addition to building the church, he also designed the entire architectural sculpture, including the two famous tombs of the brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. Both tombs consist of three figures, each with two deities or allegories at the feet of the deceased in an idealized representation. The allegory of the night on the tomb of Giuliano is represented by a female figure with an owl, the male figure as counterpart as an allegory of the day.