Dying Slave

Michelangelo received the commission for the tomb of Pope Julius II (1443–1513) in 1505. The tomb had never been finished, and suffered many modifications during the years. In the first phase it was designed as a grandiose three story monument. The lowest level housing the papal sarcophagus was planned to be surrounded by figures of slaves symbolizing the Liberal Arts. From six slaves executed by Michelangelo for the tomb two are now in the Louvre, Paris and four in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence. The Museum purchased the plaster cast of the Dying Slave in 1908 from August Gerber from Cologne, and the copy was exhibited in the Renaissance Hall in 1909. This plaster cast is exhibited in Kecskemét at the House of Science and Technology since 1976, together with another fourteen plaster casts after Michelangelo’s statues.