They were presented by Michael Angelo to Roberto degli Strozzi, because, when the sculptor was ill in 1544, Luigi del Riccio, his friend, nursed him and looked after him in the Strozzi Palace.

They were taken to France and offered to the King of France, who gave them to the Connetable de Montmorenci; they were placed by him in Ecouen.

They were bought for the French nation by M.Lenoir when the Republic put them up for sale in 1793.
Four unfinished colossal figures, which still appear to be wrenching themselves from their prison of stone, now lurk in the corners of a repulsive grotto in the Boboli Gardens.

They are supposed to have been also for the Tomb of Julius.

Heath Wilson suggests that they may have been intended for the facade of San Lorenzo.