One cannot help but approach Michelangelo's Moses, in the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli, with anything less than reverence. Reverence for the work, reverence for the sculptor and reverence for the mighty subject. Moses sits enthroned, clasping the stone tablets: muscular, commanding, heroic and (maybe) just a little bit angry. After all, he had just hiked down after spending 40 days on Mount Horeb. While he was gone, his people hadn't been minding the store. In fact, they were dancing and celebrating around a golden calf—and Moses was not happy.
In 1505, thirty year old Michelangelo Buonarroti had been commissioned to design and execute the grand tomb of (the still living) Pope Julius II. Moses was to sit up high, opposite St. Paul—the two men surrounded by an additional 45 massive, marble sculptures. Michelangelo started with Moses. Julius, however, soon put a pause on the project, perhaps to re-direct funds to the re-building of the Basilica of Saint Peter by the architect Bramante. (Bramante demolished much of the earlier, 1200 year old St. Peter's, which was highly controversial at the time. That said, the current Saint Peter Basilica is a wonder to behold.) Over the subsequent years, Michelangelo worked intermittently on Moses while completing other work. Legend tells us that when Michelangelo completed the sculpture (in 1515), he slapped Moses's right knee and commanded the marble, "Now, speak!"
Julius died (in 1513), Michelangelo had gotten busy, and the money never materialized. So Julius's monument-to-end-all-monuments was much delayed and much down-sized. Michelangelo resumed work on the tomb nearly four decades later (from 1542 to 1545). In the re-designed monument, Moses remains front-and-center, though much lower than originally intended. And the monument was moved into San Pietro in Vincoli., the church of Julius's della Rovere family. In the end, Pope Julius II was entombed in Saint Peter Basilica, next to his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV (not in Michelangelos's monument). Not far form Michelangelo's Moses, notable relics are displayed under the altar of San Pietro in Vincoli: two pairs of ancient chains which had once bound Saint Peter. One chain is from when he had been held captive in Jerusalem, and the other while he was imprisoned in Rome (before his martyrdom).
One cannot help but notice a pair of horns growing out of Moses's head. This has spawned awkward arguments amongst art historians for many centuries. Such horns had been an ancient and medieval artistic convention in many earlier depictions of Moses. Some have reasoned that the word for "radiant beams of light" (karan) emanating from Moses's head (from the Hebrew Scripture) may have been mis-translated by Saint Jerome into "horns of light" (keren) in the Fourth Century. Anti-semites conflated Jews with horned devils—and it only got more widespread after Michelangelo's time. Another argument holds that Michelangelo originally intended for the sculpture to be placed on a twelve foot high platform. In such a case, the horns would not be visible to the viewers below—only the light bouncing off of them, an illuminating corona around Moses's head. Yes, Michelangelo lived in bigoted times. (It seems we still do.) And I'd prefer that the horns had never been included. But I don't believe that Michelangelo was expressing anti-semitism. Most of his works depicted—rather, glorified—Jewish kings, prophets and other heroes of the Old Testament (in stone and in paint). None of these renderings were horned. His most famous works—the Virgin Mary, young King David, the Risen Christ, the Old Testament slaves, the prophets of the Sistine Chapel—were all Jews, rendered with reverence (and without horns). I believe that Michelangelo was simply attending to the contemporary artistic convention of depicting Moses in the way people would recognize him. I also believe that the argument will continue-on, well into the future.
The sculpture pictured here, made in the Twenties, is made of cast and fired porcelain, finished with a metallic bronze glaze. The bronze finish—with touches of verdigris—is wonderfully rich. Perhaps this sculpture was first purchased as a cherished souvenir during someone's early 20th Century visit to Rome—after seeing Michelangelo's magnificent sculpture. Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome souvenir.
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