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.  But these attributes are doubtful, and will be criticised in their proper place and time.  Suffice it now to say that Vasari reports, beside the Moses, Victory, and two Captives at the Louvre, eight figures for the tomb blocked out by Michelangelo at Rome, and five blocked out at Florence.

Continuing the history of this tragic undertaking, we come to the year 1516.  On the 8th of July in that year, Michelangelo signed a new contract, whereby the previous deed of 1513 was annulled.  Both of the executors were alive and parties to this second agreement.  “A model was made, the width of which is stated at twenty-one feet, after the monument had been already sculptured of a width of almost twenty-three feet.  The architectural design was adhered to with the same pedestals and niches and the same crowning cornice of the first story.  There were to be six statues in front, but the conquered provinces were now dispensed with.  There was also to be one niche only on each flank, so that the projection of the monument from the wall was reduced more than half, and there were to be only twelve statues beneath the cornice and one relief, instead of twenty-four statues and three reliefs.  On the summit of this basement a shrine was to be erected, within which was placed the effigy of the Pontiff on his sarcophagus, with two heavenly guardians.  The whole of the statues described in this third contract amount to nineteen.”  Heath Wilson observes, with much propriety, that the most singular fact about these successive contracts is the departure from certain fixed proportions both of the architectural parts and the statues, involving a serious loss of outlay and of work.  Thus the two Captives of the Louvre became useless, and, as we know, they were given away to Ruberto Strozzi in a moment of generosity by the sculptor.  The sitting figures detailed in the deed of 1516 are shorter than the Moses by one foot.  The standing figures, now at S. Pietro in Vincoli, correspond to the specifications.  What makes the matter still more singular is, that after signing the contract under date July 8, 1516, Michelangelo in November of the same year ordered blocks of marble from Carrara, with measurements corresponding to the specifications of the deed of 1513.