Der rebellische Sklave

This was meant to stand at the tomb of a pope. In 1505 Julius the Second hired Michelangelo to build him a colossal mausoleum with some 40 figures, and the young sculptor started carving captives like this one to line its base. Then the pope pulled him off to paint the Sistine ceiling, the money and the plan kept shrinking, and by Julius's death in 1513 the vast tomb had collapsed into a fraction of itself. The bound figures were never used. Michelangelo eventually gave this one and its companion away to a Florentine friend who had sheltered him, and they drifted to France, where they have been in the Louvre for two centuries. The twisting body strains against a cord across the chest, a captive turning as if to break free, one of the few figures Michelangelo brought close to finished before the whole project fell apart.