Skip to main content

Secondary sourceSculpture1600

Tomb of Michelangelo Buonarroti

Giorgio Vasari · 1600

The marble tomb monument designed by Giorgio Vasari for Michelangelo in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.

This tomb, designed decades after his death, enshrines Michelangelo's memory as a Florentine artistic hero.

Ask Michelangelo Buonarroti about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Marble tomb monument in a church with a bust of a man on a sarcophagus, three seated allegorical marble figures, a bronze-toned plaque with Latin inscription, and a painted fresco backdrop with cherubs and a red drape.
Giorgio Vasari (designer), Tomb of Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1600. Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.

About this source

What it is

This tomb monument was designed by Giorgio Vasari around 1600 for Michelangelo Buonarroti, and stands in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. It includes a bust of Michelangelo, three seated allegorical marble figures, and a Latin inscription.

Why it matters

The tomb reflects Florence's claim on Michelangelo after his body was brought back from Rome, where he died, to be buried in his native city. Designed by Vasari, who also wrote an influential biography of Michelangelo, the monument shows how later generations wanted to honour and remember the artist as a Florentine hero.

Look closer

  • Why might Florence have wanted Michelangelo's body returned rather than leaving him buried in Rome?
  • What do the allegorical figures on the tomb suggest about how Michelangelo was remembered?
  • How does a tomb like this shape the way later generations think about a person, compared to their actual life?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Michelangelo Buonarroti on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Michelangelo Buonarroti sources

Meet the AI Michelangelo Buonarroti →
Full-length white marble statue of a nude young male figure standing in contrapposto, one hand raised to his shoulder, the other at his side, set on a rough base within a domed, pale-walled room.Sculpture

Primary source

David

Michelangelo · 1501-1504

A printed plate, numbered 106, in a bound album showing an engraved elevation of a wall tomb with architectural niches, statues, reclining figures, a central arched niche with a seated figure, and a circular medallion at top. Handwritten German caption below reads Entwurf für ein medicäisches Doppelgrab (Orig. in d. Albertina).Artifact

Primary source

Elevation of a Planned Double Tomb for the Magnifici, Medici Chapel

unbestimmt

Wide view of the painted Sistine Chapel ceiling: a grid of framed panels with figures, nude and draped, with pendentives and lunettes in the corners, painted in warm earthy tones.Painting

Primary source

Sistine Chapel ceiling

Michelangelo · 1508-1512

Michelangelo's fresco The Last Judgment on a wall. Christ sits at center in a blue halo surrounded by nude figures. Angels blow trumpets above, the dead rise from the ground, and figures fall into a boat and down toward hell at the bottom.Painting

Secondary source

The Last Judgment

Michelangelo · 1536-1541

Engraved reproduction plate, page numbered 25, of Michelangelo's seated marble statue of Moses in an ornate architectural niche. Moses has a long flowing beard and horns, holds his beard with one hand, and rests on a pedestal inscribed with Latin text. Pencil caption at lower left reads S. Pietro in Vincoli.Photograph

Secondary source

Statue of Moses by Michelangelo, San Pietro in Vincoli

unbestimmt

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Michelangelo Buonarroti now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions