Atlas Slave

In 1585, some 20 years after Michelangelo died, this figure and three others like it were set into the corners of an artificial cave in the Boboli Gardens, the Grotta Grande that the architect Bernardo Buontalenti was building for Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici. Among the grotto's dripping stucco rocks, half-carved marble looked almost natural, and the four stayed there until 1909. They had been carved as captives for the tomb of Pope Julius II and were never used. This one is known as Atlas, after the Titan forced to carry the sky, because his bent arm seems to prop up the rough mass above him. His head has not come out of that mass yet. Down his flank you can still see the flat, squared sides of the original block. Copies now fill the corners of the grotto.