The Transfiguration of Death -- The Medici Chapel

Today we visited the Medici chapel, just behind San Lorenzo church. It was freezing as we went into the marble crypt for our lecture, but it was beautiful and worth staying for as long as we did.
Michelangelo's reclining figures "Dawn and Twilight" are placed on top of the sarcophagus of Lorenzo dei Medici. Allegory was very much part of the Renaissance intellectual enterprise;these figures are no exception and are symbolic of life and death.
Opposite "Dawn and Twilight" are "Day and Night" on the sarcophagus of Giuliano dei Medici. These figures represent the human soul.
shown: "Day and Night"