Le ore di Michelangelo: tempi del lavoro, notte e vigilantia nella Sagrestia Nuova

This essay explores the Evangelical theme of vigilance in relation tothe meaning and the making of the sculptures in the New Sacristy. Beginningwith Erwin Panofsky and Noé Girardi, the semantics of the night and of time“consuming everything”(Condivi) have always been at the centre of studies onthe New Sacristy (as well as of Michelangelo’s poetic interests, especially in theseries of the so-called“sonetti della notte”). However, the theme of the alterna-tion of the liturgical hours and of nocturnal wake and work in relation not onlyto liturgy, but also to the times of the artist’s work, have been underestimated. Iargue that the focus on the execution and pairing of the four sculptures of theHours, which, at a certain point in the development of the project, probably bet-ween 1524 and 1526, overcame the making of other sculptures that were plan-ned but never executed, is to be understood in relation with both the specificliturgical functions of the Medici funerary chapel dedicated to the Resurrectionof Christ and the work-driven state of constant vigilance as well as the acutesense of the passing of time, which, according to several contemporary sources,characterises Michelangelo’s working habits in several phases of his life. Con-nections with the wider meaning of Michelangelo’s vigilance in an age of reli-gious crisis are offered at the end of the paper.