With the famous statue unfinished, Victory forms an interesting footnote in history: left in the artist's studio after his final departure from Florence in 1534, it became the property of his nephew Leonardo Buonarroti, who first tried to sell it in 1544 without obtaining the necessary authorization from his uncle.

Then, at the suggestion of Daniele da Volterra, he tried to place it on Michelangelo's tomb in Santa Croce (1564), but Giorgio Vasari, who was redesigning the church's interior, was against it being used there.

Two early "Captives" originally intended for Julius's tomb ended up in France, while four larger figures, created much later, now in Florence's Accademia, were initially placed in Buontalenti's Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, after the artist's death.

The dating and attribution of the statue to the project of the tomb are based on stylistic elements that link the work to the Captives: the twisting of the body and the vigorous anatomy, as well as comparable proportions.

The surfaces are treated expressively to enhance the contrast between the two figures: the young polished to perfection, the old rough and incomplete, still retaining the compressed boulder-like solidity of the heavy stone from which it was made.