The Dying Slave - After Michelangelo - Terracotta

The Dying Slave, painted by Michelangelo for the tomb of Pope Julius II between 1513 and 1516, depicts a young man caught in the moment of surrender. His body adopts a marked contrapposto: one leg bears the weight while the other bends, creating an expressive imbalance. The torso arches in a twist, and the raised arm accentuates the spiraling line of the figure. The tilted head and closed eyes suggest a gradual loss of vital force. In this unstable posture, muscular power contrasts with the idea of falling and death. The work thus appears profoundly ambivalent, combining ideal beauty and human suffering, in a poignant tension between flesh and soul, between bodily submission and spiritual elevation.

The original marble work, which remained unfinished, was presented to Francis I and is now in the collections of the Louvre Museum.

A large terracotta cast (1.10 m).
Italian work, circa 1900.
Good overall condition.