The vigorous giant, just rising to his work, looks over his shoulder at the bright sun.

The rough chiselling of the face suggests already the dazzle of the light in his eyes; how he tears his right hand as yet half stone from out his stony breast! With his left hand behind his back he appears to count the quattrini of his wage; this action of the thumb placed on the second finger is Michael Angelo's favourite one for the hand; it may be seen many times in this chapel alone.

The shortness of the feet in the figure of Day appears to be due to a miscalculation as to the size of the block; but, perhaps, had the head and torso been thinned down in the finishing they would have been correct in proportion.

At the same time, the feet are finished most carefully and beautifully, and are so true that photographs of them look almost like photographs from the finest of living models.
[Image #41] NIGHT THE NEW SACRISTY OF SAN LORENZO, FLORENCE (_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_) How much has been written about the Night and her meanings! We have good proof that her maker intended her to have some of these many meanings in the reply of Michael Angelo to Giovan Battista Strozzi's complimentary verses:-- La Notte, che tu vedi in si dolci atti Dormire, fu da un Angelo scolpita In questo sasso, e perche dorme ha vita; Destala, se no'l credi, e parleratti.
The Night, that thou seest, so sweetly sleeping, Was by an angel carved in the rude stone, Sleeping, she lives, if thou believ'st it not, Wake her, and surely she will answer thee.
The reply of Michael Angelo is in a much higher vein, and teaches us to look to a far different aim in his work than the mere form represented:-- Grato m'e 'l sonno e piu l'esser di sasso; Mentre che 'l danno e la vergogna dura Non veder, non sentir m'e gran ventura; Pero non mi destar; deh! parla basso! Dear is my sleep, more dear to be but stone; Whilst deep despair and dark dishonour reign Not to hear, not to feel is greatest gain; Then wake me not; speak in an undertone.
No one ever before gave such tragic beauty to the worn and tired figure of a woman who has lived through her many days of toil and suffered many labours.

It is believed by a medical authority that the master meant the statue to represent rest after a labour, but it is rather the nightmare-troubled sleep of a tired woman, whose beautiful firm hips and worn breasts prove her to have bravely met and passed through many cares, and suckled many children.