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Michelangelo's Moses, Rome
Hidden away in the small church of
San Pietro in Vincoli ("St. Peter in Chains") is this masterpiece
by Michelangelo. Part of a commission by Pope Julius II in 1505 for his own
tomb, it wasn't completed until 1545 (nearly 30 years after Julius'
death), wasn't done on anything like the physical scale that Michelangelo
initially envisioned, and the tomb wasn't erected in the Basilica of St. Peter
at the Vatican, as Julius had intended. Instead, it was placed in this small
church which was attended by Julius' family, where even in its reduced
state it dominates the room. Only the figure of Moses was actually carved
by Michelangelo himself; several other pieces that he did for the earlier
plan are now in other locations. And yes, those are horns (based on a
misinterpetation of the Latin translation of Hebrew in the Bible). |
