PRISONER OR SLAVE
# 63
Homage to Michelangelo. Together with other four statues - “The Awakening Slave”,“The Young Slave”,“The Bearded Slave” and “The Atlas (or Bound)” - are known as The Prisoners. Their fame is due above all to their unfinished state. They are some of the finest examples of Michelangelo’s habitual working practice, referred to as “non-finito” (or incomplete), magnificent illustrations of the difficulty of the artist in carving out the figure from the block of marble and emblematic of the struggle of man to free the spirit from matter. Two additional, superb Slaves, the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave (both ca.1510-13), are now displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Giorgio Vasari explains in the “Lives of the Artists” how they ended up in France: “in Rome, he (Michelangelo) finished entirely with his own hand two of the captives, divinely beautiful figures, and other statues, than which none better have ever been seen. But in the end, they were never placed in position, and those captives were presented by him to Ruberto Strozzi, when Michelagnolo happened to be lying ill in his house: these captives were afterward sent as presents to King Francis, and they are now at Ecouen in France”.
Beautiful work!
Work in marble dust, with patina of ageing
H. 24½" W. 6" D. 7"¾ Wt. 30¾ lb
# 63
THE REBELLIOUS SLAVE
Work in marble dust, with patina of ageing
H. 24½" W. 6" D. 7"¾ Wt. 30¾ lb
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