These two figures, together with Dawn and Twilight on Lorenzo’s tomb, have an allegorical meaning which must be read in the light of Michelangelo’s own life history.  “Life is a dream between two slumbers; sleep is death’s twin-brother; night is the shadow of death; death is the gate of life—­such is the mysterious mythology wrought by the sculptor."[31]

[Footnote 31:  Symonds, in Renaissance in Italy:  the Fine Arts.]

The work on the Medicean tombs covered a period of about twelve years.  During this time the Medici family passed through varying fortunes, and in consequence the fate of the tombs, and indeed that of the sculptor himself, hung in the balance.  Florence became weary of tyranny and rose in a revolution which drove the Medici from the city in 1527.

[Illustration:  TOMB OF GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI. Church of S. Lorenzo, Florence.]

Success was of short duration:  the republic soon “found herself standing out against a world of foes,” the Pope, Clement VII. (himself a Medici), “threatening fire and flame,” and all the Medici family “getting ready to return in double force.”  The Florentines prepared to fight for their liberty, and Michelangelo was found among the patriots.  No sense of personal gratitude to the Medici could shake his love of liberty.  He forsook the monuments and turned his skill to the fortification of the city.

For eleven months Florence was besieged, and in the end the city was captured.  The Medici returned conquerors.  Mercenaries now broke into the houses, killing the best citizens.  Had not Michelangelo been in hiding, he too would have perished.  But the Pope could not afford to lose his best sculptor, and, calling him forth from his hiding-place, again set him to work in the Medici chapel.  It is not strange that the sculptor’s proud spirit rebelled at having to work on that which was to honor the enemies of his beloved Florence.

Thus it was that his sculpture told the story of “the tragedy of Florence:  how hope had departed, how life had become a desert, and how it was hard to struggle with waking consciousness, but good to sleep and forget—­nay, best of all, to be stone and feel no more.”

The old writer Vasari, who was once a pupil of Michelangelo, and tells us many anecdotes of the sculptor, relates that when the statue of Night was first shown to the public, it called forth a verse from a contemporary poet (Giovan Battista Strozzi).  This is the verse:—­

    “Night in so sweet an attitude beheld
    Asleep, was by an angel sculptured
    In this stone; and sleeping, is alive;
    Waken her, doubter; she will speak to thee."[32]

To this Michelangelo replied in the following lines:[33]—­

    “Welcome is sleep, more welcome sleep of stone
    Whilst crime and shame continue in the land;
    My happy fortune not to see or hear;
    Waken me not;—­in mercy whisper low."[32]