Montorsoli “St Cosmas” and Raffaello da Montelupo “St Damian”, New Sacristy in Florence

Saint Damian

Raffaello da Montelupo “Saint Damian”

Sculpture - Carrara marble (320 x 65 cm) 1533-1534

Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli “Saint Cosmas”

Sculpture - Carrara marble (322 x 64 cm) 1533-1534

The saints Cosmas and Damian placed on the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Guiliano de Medici, who died respectively in 1492 and 1478, are the holy protectors of the Medici family.

They were sculpted by Michelangelo's collaborators and students.

Giovan Angelo da Montorsoli carved saint Cosmas while Raffaelo da Montelupo carved the saint Damian according to Michelangelo's projects.

Michelangelo wrote these verses about the double grave of the two brothers:

“La fama tiene gli epitafi a giacerere;
Non va né inanzi né indietro,
Perché sono morti, e el loro operare è fermo.”
Michelangelo Buonarroti

Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, saint Cosmas, New Sacristy Medici in Florence

Saint Cosmas That can be translated as:

“Fame engraves the epitaphs of the recumbents;
They do not move forward or back down,
Because they are dead, and their work has stopped.”

The faces of the statues of the two dukes, Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici, are directed towards these two saints, who are represented in an attitude of the supplication of the Virgin who sits between them.

They beg her to intercede with God on behalf of the two young dukes to open the doors of heaven for them.

The positioning of the three statues on the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano shows that the intercession role of the two saints and the Virgin concerns just as much the two brothers who lie under them.

Saint Cosmas

Saint Damian