Night (Michelangelo)

Original statue in Florence

File:Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici (casting in Pushkin museum) by shakko 03.jpg

Copy of the statue in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow

Night is a sculpture in marble (155x150 cm, maximum length 194 cm diagonally) by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti, dating from 1526–1531, included in the decoration of the New Sacristy in San Lorenzo, Florence.

It is part of an allegory of the four parts of day, and is situated on the left of the sarcophagus of the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Nemours.

In his poem "L'Idéal" from Les Fleurs du Mal, French Romantic poet Charles Baudelaire references the statue:

Ou bien toi, grande Nuit, fille de Michel-Ange,
Qui tors paisiblement dans une pose étrange
Tes appas façonnés aux bouches des Titans!

Or you, great Night, daughter of Michelangelo,
Who calmly contort, reclining in a strange pose
Your charms molded by the mouths of Titans!
(trans. William Aggeler)