Night (c1529). Marble. 155 x 150. Night is a sculpture in marble by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti. Dating from 1526-1531, it is part of the decoration of Michelangelo's Sagrestia nuova in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy. Night is part of an allegory of the four parts of day. It is situated on the left of the sarcophagus of the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Nemours. Along with his Dawn, Michelangelo drew from the ancient Sleeping Ariadne for his sculpture's pose. 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 ! In his Life of Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari quotes an epigram by Giovanni Strozzi, written, perhaps in 1544, in praise of Michelangelo's Night: La Notte che tu vedi in sì dolci atti dormir, fu da un Angelo scolpita in questo sasso e, perché dorme, ha vita: destala, se nol credi, e parleratti. Night, which you see sleeping in such sweet attitudes was carved in this stone by an Angel and because she sleeps, she has life.: Wake her, if you don't believe it, and she will speak to you. Michelangelo in 1545-46 responded with another epigram, entitled Risposta del Buonarroto. Speaking in the voice of the statue, it may contain a scathing critique of Cosimo I de' Medici's governance, according to Kenneth Gross: Caro m'è 'l sonno, e più l'esser di sasso, mentre che 'l danno e la vergogna dura; non veder, non sentir m'è gran ventura; però non mi destar, deh, parla basso. My sleep is dear to me, and more dear this being of stone, as long as the agony and shame last. Not to see, not to hear is for me the best fortune.; So do not wake me! Speak softly.