ROCKY'S ITALY: Rome - Michelangelo's "Moses"

After knocking it out of the park with his statue of David, Michelangelo received the phone call from the newly elected Pope Julius II, who wanted Michelangelo to come to Rome and to design and carve a tomb for him. A tomb of modest dimensions, only 28 feet tall, only 36 feet wide, four-sided, freestanding, and the intention was to place it directly above the tomb of Saint Peter and below the dome of the Basilica of Saint Peter. And I always imagined Michelangelo salivating as he held that receiver in hand. The Pope was hoping for 40 over life-size statues to adorn his tomb. And so Michelangelo immediately set off for Carrara and began the quarrying of 100 tons of stone, which he sent to Rome and began the project. But then the Pope whimsically changed his mind and asked Michelangelo to hold off on the tomb and to dedicate himself to the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Four and a half years later, after the completion of the ceiling, Michelangelo would finally set himself down to work on this tomb and would carve three statues. The slaves that are currently in the Louvre in Paris, and the Moses, which is located here in the Church of Saint Peter in Chains in Rome. So just as Michelangelo was making some headway on the tomb, Pope Julius II passes away. And we have a dead Pope and no place to bury him. And so Michelangelo feels this sense of But instead is interrupted by Pope Julius's successor, who is Leo X. And so Michelangelo abandons the tomb project. And in fact, for the next 33 years, this project would torment him as the descendants of Pope Julius II would sue Michelangelo for breach of contract. And finally, in 1546, Michelangelo would provide them with sculptures, but not the 40 that were originally planned, but three. And the most important of those sculptures was the only one carved by Michelangelo, and that is his Moses. The statue of Moses had been sitting in Michelangelo's studio, finished for nearly 30 years. And when it was finally delivered, it was not placed on a tomb in the Basilica of Saint Peter, but instead in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains. And instead of being placed high up on the tomb, it became the central piece because essentially it was the only one by Michelangelo. And the sculpture is really one of Michelangelo's most sensational. It gets a lot less attention than the Pietà and the David, mainly because of its setting. But if you look closely at the statue, what you'll see is that same Michelangelo sense of power and of what we call tedebilità. The figure of Moses in this dramatic contrapposto, his body turning to the left, but with his right hand he pulls back that heavy beard. You can see the tablets there under his right arm, and the most compelling feature of the statue, the horns that are evident on Moses' head. Horns which allude to the rays of light described in the Bible as coming out of Moses' head when he came down from Mount Sinai. And Michelangelo cleverly translating those rays of light into horns that we see on the statue. And so the statue of Moses, perhaps not as famous as the Pietà or the David, but by no means less extraordinary.