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The marble candlesticks upon the altar of the chapel are of different
marble from the altar on which they stand, and appear to be of an earlier
date. The grotesques on the bases are of good design, and the drill holes
of the marble cutting are simply left to tell their story of how the work
was done, instead of being cut away and hidden as in later work. May they
not have been designed in Michael Angelo's time, possibly for the brackets
on the cornice of the panelling behind the tombs? On the altar is the
inscription:
PAULUS V. PONT. MAX.
MDCX.
The figures of Giuliano and Lorenzo are perfectly finished; they cannot be
regarded as portraits, but as symbols. The armour of the warrior Giuliano
is magnificently designed, and must have been founded upon some antique
example. The grotesque upon the breastplate is not unlike a grotesque in a
similar place upon an antique marble bust in the Naples Museum. The
helmeted Lorenzo, Il Penseroso, broods over what might have been, had he
acted his part in Florence. Under his elbow rests a box of peculiar
design, possibly the representation of a political instrument used in the
offices of his family's unwise government. The unfinished head of Day is
an example of how the master appears to complete his work from the first
stroke of his chisel. The vigorous giant, just rising to his work, looks
over his shoulder at the bright sun. The rough chiselling of the face
suggests already the dazzle of the light in his eyes; how he tears his
right hand as yet half stone from out his stony breast! With his left hand
behind his back he appears to count the quattrini of his wage; this action
of the thumb placed on the second finger is Michael Angelo's favourite one
for the hand; it may be seen many times in this chapel alone.
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