# Tomb of Galileo [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [FOGGINI, Giambattista]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Marble ## Commentary One of the supreme ironies of the period can be found in Foggini's design for the tomb of Galileo, whose astronomical writings were condemned by the Church under Urban VIII but whose monument borrowed significantly from Algardi's tomb of Leo XI. Galileo's attendant allegories are of course Astronomy and Geometry; these are not cardinal virtues, and despite the monument's presence in the Florentine basilica of Santa Croce, it commemorates the astronomer as a secular saint, showing him gazing to the sky foe scientific rather than religious enlightenment. ## Related artworks - [Battle of Anghiari]() - [Bust of Cardinal Gian Carlo de' Medici]() - [Bust of Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici]() - [Cosimo III de' Medici]() - [Decoration of the Feroni Chapel]() - [Elector Palatine's cabinet]() - [Ferdinando de' Medici]() - [First Mass of St Andrea]() - [Portrait of Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici as a Child]() - [Prie-dieu of the Electress Palatine]() - [Reliquary of St Sigismund \(detail\)]() - [Reliquary of St Sigismund]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()