How does this artwork elucidate its History?
1505 – Julius commissions a tomb from Michelangelo, who spends eight months choosing marble at Carrara. Sometime during construction, however, Michelangelo and the Pope have a quarrel, causing Michelangelo to leave Rome for his safety.
1508 – Donato Bramante, apparently jealous of Michelangelo's commission, used Michelangelo's absence to convince the Pope that it is bad luck to have his tomb built during his own lifetime, and that Michelangelo's time would be better spent on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican Palace. He, along with Michelangelo's other rivals, thought that Michelangelo would be unable to complete the massive ceiling project and thus be humiliated and leave Rome.
1512 – With his decoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling complete, Michelangelo resumed work on the tomb. Between 1512 and 1513 he completed three sculptures for the project: the Dying and Rebellious Slaves (now in the Louvre, Paris) and Moses (retained in the final design).
1513 – Julius died in February 1513. A new contract was drawn up on 6 May which specified a wall tomb. On 9 July Michelangelo contracted a stonemason, Antonio del Ponte a Sieve, to execute the architectural elements of the tomb's lower register, which can be seen in the final design. A large, ruined drawing attributed to Michelangelo survives from this phase of the project, in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin; a more legible facsimile by his pupil Jacomo Rocchetti is also in the same collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a drawing of the tomb from this period.  Though no longer for a free-standing monument, the project in fact became more ambitious both in terms of size and the complexity of its iconography.
1516 – Michelangelo agrees to a new contract with Julius's heirs, who demand the completion of the project.
1520s – Michelangelo carves The Genius of Victory and four unfinished Slaves (now in the Accademia, Florence).
1532 – Michelangelo signs a second new contract, which involves a wall-tomb.
1542 – Michelangelo begins the wall-tomb after negotiating final details with Julius's grandson.
1545 – The final tomb, more properly a funerary monument because Julius II is not interred there, is completed and installed in San Pietro in Vincoli; it includes Michelangelo's Moses along with Leah and Rachel (probably completed by Michelangelo's assistants) on the lower level, and several other sculptures (definitely not by Michelangelo) on the upper level.
Sistine Chapel Rachel The Genius of Victory Carrara Michelangelo Dying Sistine Chapel ceiling San Pietro in Vincoli Vatican Palace Moses Rome Accademia Bramante Louvre Kupferstichkabinett Donato Bramante Leah Rebellious Slave