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The Medici Chapels were built as the personal sepulcher of the Medici family in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Located in front of their residential palace in the Via Larga (presently Via Cavour), San Lorenzo was considered by the Medici as their private church.
In 1520, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (the future pope Clemente VII), together with pope Leo X commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti with the building of the Sagrestia Nuova as the mausoleum for the Medici family. The chapel was to form a pendant to Filippo Brunelleschi's Sagrestia Vecchia. Construction began in March 1520 and was finally completed by Giorgio Vasari in 1546, after Michelangelo had left Florence for Rome in 1534.
The chapel was to hold the tombs of the two "Magnifici" and the two "Capitani": Lorenzo il Magnifico, his brother Giuliano de' Medici, and Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and Giuliano Duke of Nemours (the third son of the Magnifico).
Only the tombs of the Capitani were completed. To the left of the altar is the sepulcher of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino. Michelangelo represented Lorenzo in the act of reflecting. Vasari coined the term of Il Pensieroso (the Thoughtful) for this figure. It later became a symbol of contemplative life. Beneath it, set over the volutes of the sepulcher, are two figures symbolizing Il Crepuscolo (Dusk) and l'Aurora (Dawn).
The sepulcher of Giuliano is placed on the opposite side of the room. Giuliano is represented as the symbol of active life, with the swagger cane in his hand. Below Giuliano's representation are the figures of Il Giorno (Day), in a rebellious gesture, and La Notte (Night).
Michelangelo kept the architecture of the chapel in the Brunelleschi style two-tone, juxtaposing grey stone with white plaster. The art historian Tolnay saw here a subdivision into the three spheres: the lower sphere of Hades, the earthly one, and finally the celestial sphere with the cupola, inspired by the Pantheons. On the other hand, the sepulchers allude to the concept of the soul's deliverance: the figures of Giuliano and Lorenzo are turned towards the contemplation of the divine life incarnated by the Virgin.
Created by Michelangelo in 1521 and placed above the sarcophagus of the two Magnifici, the statue of the Madonna represents the spiritual mainstay of the Chapel. The statues of the two patron saints of the Medici family flank the Madonna: on the right Cosma, created by Montorsoli (1537), and on the left Damiano, by Raffaele da Montelupo (1531).
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