Young Slave 1523

Michelangelo carved this marble sculpture in the first half of the 16th century. He was commissioned to create a series of similar sculptures to decorate the tomb of Pope Julius II. The figure's struggle to escape the stone could be interpreted as a symbol of the human soul's struggle to free itself from the constraints of the material world. But we also know that Michelangelo conceived of the Pope's tomb on an epic scale that it was never realised. So, to what extent does the cultural and institutional context in which the sculpture was made determine how we interpret its form? Is the figure’s unfinished state a reflection of an inner struggle or the constraints of artistic production? By examining the archival documents that detail the commission and the artist’s intentions, we can gain a deeper understanding of the complex social and institutional forces that shaped Michelangelo's work.