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Church of Saint Peter (San Pietro) in Vincoli, Rome, 1515 A.D.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), born in Tuscany and educated in Florence, undertook his most ambitious work in Rome for Julius II, a warrior pope whose terrible temper did not exclude a sensitivity to art. He commissioned Michelangelo to sculpt his tomb of which the statue of Moses is the summary of the entire monument. We see Moses with the Tables of the Law that contain the ten Commandments on his right hand. He looks irately at the Jews after coming down from Mt. Sinai and finding them worshipping the Golden Calf – the false idol they had made. His left hand, veins throbbing, muscles tense, appears to be holding back from violent action. The extraordinary force of this figure, the tension in the veins and muscles, the posture and the furious expression, have rightly made this Moses one of the most admired masterpieces of all time. The horns represent the "rays of light" that were seen around Moses' face after his meeting with God on Mt Sinai.
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