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A third contract for a still smaller Julian monument had been drawn up in 1516, for which he probably began the four Slaves: Atlas, Bearded Slave, Awakening Slave, and Young Slave (all in Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence).
It was under the Medici that Bernardo Buontalenti incorporated the four Slaves from the abandoned Julius tomb into the rough masonry of a grotto in the Boboli Gardens in Florence (replicas in situ). Seemingly growing from the rock, the figures served as witty representations of the transformation of nature into artifice.
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