Like the artist's Rachel, it was part of the final, 1542–1545 design for the tomb of Pope Julius II in San Pietro in Vincoli, on which it still remains.

With Michelangelo's Rachel, the statue of Leah completed the decoration of the last version of the funeral monument of Pope Julius II in 1542–1545, a troubled work to which the artist dedicated almost 40 years.

A month after, Michelangelo contracted Raffaello da Montelupo to bring the five remaining statues of the tomb to completion, including Leah and Rachel.

Leah, the Biblical heroine, is represented as a Roman matron, in classical dress and holding a mirror (which would recall the virtue of Prudence) or a diadem, through which runs her long braid of hair.

According to Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi, Leah is an allegory for an "active life," based on a passage from Dante or Diputatione Camaldulenses by Cristoforo Landino.