[The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti by John Addington Symonds]@TWC D-Link book
The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti

CHAPTER IV
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Near him is a female figure, and the two figures grouped upon the left angle seem to be both female.

To some extent these statues bear out Vasari's tradition that the platform in the first design was meant to sustain figures of the contemplative and active life of the soul--Dante's Leah and Rachel.
This great scheme was never carried out.

The fragments which may be safely assigned to it are the Moses at S.Pietro in Vincoli and the two bound captives of the Louvre; the Madonna and Child, Leah and Rachel, and two seated statues also at S.Pietro in Vincoli, belong to the plan, though these have undergone considerable alterations.

Some other scattered fragments of the sculptor's work may possibly be connected with its execution.

Four male figures roughly hewn, which are now wrought into the rock-work of a grotto in the Boboli Gardens, together with the young athlete trampling on a prostrate old man (called the Victory) and the Adonis of the Museo Nazionale at Florence, have all been ascribed to the sepulchre of Julius in one or other of its stages.


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