MOSES by Michelangelo: commentary and analysis
He Moses by Michelangelo It is one of the best-known sculptural works of one of the great geniuses of the Renaissance. A Renaissance sculpture from the Cinquecento from the beginning of the 16th century that constitutes the work in which the concept of “terrible” typical of this complete artist.
The Moses is part of a large monumental complex designed as the tomb of Pope Julius II. The death of the Father left the project unfinished, with only some parts preserved, such as the Moses or the slave series. Moses would be the central figure of the tomb and is located in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.
In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you the commentary and analysis of Michelangelo's Moses so you can identify and classify this iconic work of Renaissance sculpture.
Michelangelo's Moses was commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1505 as part of his tomb. The original project was not as we see it today. A free-standing tomb had been designed with four facades and more than forty statues, located under the dome of Saint Peter's in the Vatican. This great project was diminished due to lack of financial means and the death of the Pope. That is why only this Moses and several statues of slaves were carved, leaving some unfinished.
Art scholars point out that this sculpture of Moses could be a idealized portrait of the artist himself and even of Pope Julius II himself as spiritual leader of the Church. Thus, having chosen the episode prior to an outburst of anger at the sin of the calf is a symbol of the fusion of the contemplative and active that was supposed to be typical of the pontiff and that was the ideal presented by the philosophy of Plato.
The author is Michelangelo Buonarotti, one of the great figures of the Renaissance, specifically from the Italian Cinquencento. A genius who, like Leonardo da Vinci, was a humanist and multifaceted artist, his talent being great in disciplines such as architecture, sculpture, painting and poetry. He was greatly influenced by Hellenistic sculpture and, in general, by the classical ideal of beauty.
A style that evolved from those more serene classical forms of his youth to more vigorous and expressive forms like this Moisés, now precedent of Mannerism and Baroque and influenced by sculptures such as Laocoon and his sons. A Hellenistic sculpture discovered during the Renaissance and a revolution for the artists of the time for breaking with those patterns of serenity attributed to classical sculpture.
Here you can learn about other most notable works of Michelangelo. And here we discover a analysis of the David by Michelangelo, another of the most important sculptures of the Renaissance artist.
