Tombs of Antonio del Monte
by AMMANATI, Bartolomeo, Marble
In 1550 Giovan Maria del Monte was elected Pope as Julius III. He commissioned Vasari for a commemorative chapel in San Pietro in Montorio to house a pair of tombs, for the Pope’s uncle, Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte, and for Fabiano del Monte. Vasari designed the Cappella del Monte under the supervision of Michelangelo, the sculptor of the tombs was Ammanati. The arrangement, with allegorical statues (Religion, Justice) standing in the niches over each effigy, recumbent below, is closer to Ammanati’s own earlier monument to Nari than to the design that had been supplied by Vasari.