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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 4: Michelangelo- Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect and Poet
- Who was Michelangelo?
- Michelangelo and his early drawings
- Pietà (marble sculpture)
- Michelangelo's David and the Florentine Republic
- Unfinished business—Michelangelo and the Pope
- Moses (marble sculpture)
- Moses (marble sculpture)
- Carving marble with traditional tools
- Slaves (marble sculptures)
- Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Studies for the Battle of Cascina and the Creation of Adam
- Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
- Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
- Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel
- Last Judgment (altar wall, Sistine Chapel)
- Studies for the Last Judgment and a late crucifixion drawing
- Michelangelo, Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)
- Laurentian Library
- Replicating Michelangelo
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Moses (marble sculpture)
Michelangelo, Moses, marble, ca. 1513-15 (San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker.
Usually considered unfinished, these sculptures were originally intended for
Usually considered unfinished, these sculptures were originally intended for
the tomb of Pope Julius II. According to the Louvre, the artist gave the marbles
to Roberto Strozzi who presented them to the King of France.
. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.Want to join the conversation?
- Yeah, Why does he have horns? It makes no sense, I mean it's not said anywhere that he had HORNS.(27 votes)
- Actually in the Vulgate translation of the Bible, Jerome mistranslates the Hebrew text and gives Moses horns. See the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_(Michelangelo) description section.
(33 votes)
- Atthey say that Michelangelo has "other responsibilites," and thus was unable to complete the tomb for Julius II. Wasn't it true that it was more of a conspiracy by possibly Bramante to pull the sculptor Michelangelo away from this prestigious project and force him to become a painter in the Sistene Chapel, where so many had failed before? 3:52(10 votes)
- I have read that Bramante and Raphael were involved.(2 votes)
- How was Michael Angelo able to show emotion in the face of Moses?(5 votes)
- Michaelangelo was an amazing sculpter, he was able to sculpt almost every aspect of the visible human body. He might have used a model for the sculpture, but tweaked a few things.(6 votes)
- What is a contrapasto? Sorry if I spelled that wrong.(3 votes)
- The information in this wikipedia entry may be useful
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapposto
Contrapposto is an Italian term that means counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs.(8 votes)
- I've heard this resembles Julius II. Is it a literal portrait or does it just reflect his powerful personality?(6 votes)
- Why didn't the pope let Michelangelo make it bigger?(3 votes)
- Well, the statue of the Moses is already enormous. It is 8 feet sitting down, so you can imagine how big it would be standing up. Plus, Michaelangelo had to make other statues beside the Moses to place on the tomb.(2 votes)
- How do we know that it's Rachel and Leah on either side of Moses? And why would Michelangelo include them?(2 votes)
- They were part of the later contract with the Pope's heirs, and are thought to represent the active and the contemplative life.(3 votes)
- Was saint peter a slave? Why would his relic be chains?(2 votes)
- No, not a slave, a prisoner. "The Apostle Peter was jailed in Jerusalem, shackled in an iron chain for preaching about Jesus. The night before his trial, St. Peter was said to have been released from the chain by an angel and led out of the prison. Today, the chain is housed in a reliquary under the main altar in the San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) basilica in Rome. Legend says that when the Empress Eudoxia gave the chain to Pope Leo I, he held them next to the chains from Peter's first imprisonment in the Mamertime Prison in Rome and the two chains miraculously fused together."
Source: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1983194_1983193_1983130,00.html(2 votes)
- why was moses made and what does it portray ?(2 votes)
- It's not so much a portray, it's a symbolic representation. That is not the same thing.(1 vote)
- Why didn't his apprentices finish it for him. Isn't that what would happen.(1 vote)
- I think apprentices can't work without the direction of the master.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(calming piano music) - [Dr. Steven] We're in the
church of San Pietro in Vincoli, St. Peter in Chains in Rome, looking at the tomb of the Pope Julius II. - [Dr. Beth] One of
Michelangelo's biographers referred to this project
as the tragedy of the tomb and that's because it just
went on and on and on. - [Dr. Steven] Julius II
commissioned Michelangelo to produce a tomb of
an unprecedented scale. He wanted as many as 47
over life sized figures. - [Dr. Beth] And a multi
storied free standing structure. It was very common for
rulers to plan their tombs before their death and so Julius II wasn't
doing anything unusual, but Julius was a very ambitious pope. - [Dr. Steven] He was
known as the Warrior Pope and actually led military
campaigns to reclaim lands that had once been
controlled by the church. He also was responsible for the building of the new St. Peter's Basilica. - [Dr. Beth] And that was the destination for this tomb originally. It wasn't supposed to be here, a church that was actually
associated with Julius' family so Michelangelo impresses everyone with his sculpture of David and he gets called to
Rome by Pope Julius II and this is the first
project the pope gives him. - [Dr. Steven] This is a wall tomb and it's much smaller than
what was originally envisioned. In addition, there is only
one large scale figure by Michelangelo and that
is the central figure, the figure of Moses. - [Dr. Beth] Two other figures
were completed for the tomb, but those are in the Louvre, the dying slave and the rebellious slave. - [Dr. Steven] And those were
to be two of many figures of the male nude known as The Slaves or the Bound Figures. And in the academy in Florence, there are actually a number
of unfinished sculptures that Michelangelo had originally
intended for this tomb. - [Dr. Beth] There is some confusion about exactly what Michelangelo meant by these slaves or captives. One of his biographers
offered the interpretation that these represent the arts, the arts of for example painting,
sculpture and architecture that Julius II was such a great patron of that would be captive
because of Julius II's death. - [Dr. Steven] A kind of
mourning, a kind of agony that they had lost their
greatest benefactor. - [Dr. Beth] There were Herm figures. There were figures of Victory
that were meant for the tomb. There were also supposed
to be seated figures in addition to Moses of Paul and of the active and contemplative life so this is an incredibly ambitious tomb. - [Dr. Steven] But most importantly, Michelangelo was to produce
a portrait of Julius II, an effigy, and it's
interesting that Michelangelo actually avoided sculpting
that particular figure and instead focused on the
Old Testament Prophet Moses. - [Dr. Beth] When you
sculpt someone's tomb, the most important figure would
be a portrait of that person whose tomb it is but
typical for Michelangelo, he's much more interested
in the human body than he is in capturing the likeness of an individual person. - [Dr. Steve] And here in
the representation of Moses, we see Michelangelo's interest
in power of the human body, but also his interest
in the interior self. - [Dr. Beth] Power is a
really good word here. This is a seated figured. Sitting is not a very active pose, but Michelangelo has filled this figure with energy and drama and tension. - [Dr. Steven] Look at the
way his left foot pushes back as if he's gonna propel himself up. Look at the latent power in
those arms and those legs. I don't think I've ever seen a figure that has more potential energy. - [Dr. Beth] As he
pulls his left leg back, his hips shift naturally
in that direction, but his shoulders turn slightly
in the opposite direction, activating the figure,
giving it a spiral tension and then his head shifts
in the opposite direction, but the beard pulls again opposite to the direction of the head and so each part of the
body moves in opposition to the part next to it. - [Dr. Steven] The opposition
is wonderfully clear in that his focus is to the left. He's looking into the
distance and remember, this would have been some
15 feet off the ground. - [Dr. Beth] And we would
have been looking up at him, very different than the way
we're looking at him today, but it's that gaze. Just like with his figure of the David, we have a sense of the
presence of something that Moses is looking out to. - [Dr. Steven] So what is that? - [Dr. Beth] One interpretation
is that Moses is looking at the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. He's come down from receiving
the Ten Commandments from God. - [Dr. Steven] Moses is the
great symbol of monotheism, but the Israelites have reverted to the polytheism of Ancient Egypt. - [Dr. Beth] So perhaps that is the focus of that very angry gaze, although there is also a sense that the tablet seem to be slipping from between his torso and his arm and so there is a question of what moment this is in the narrative. This problem pinning
down what moment this is or what the captives or slaves represent, this is not unusual for Michelangelo. - [Dr. Steven] He may not be representing a specific moment, he may be creating a distillation, a figure that can represent the continuity of that story overtime. - [Dr. Beth] One art historian
has talked about the ways that perhaps Michelangelo
in Moses and in The Slaves and in other work is in interested
in this idea of binding, of releasing the figure
from within the stone. This is a theme in Michelangelo's work and even that drapery
that goes over the knee gives us a sense of uncovering, of removing something to
find something underneath which is the process of carving stone. - [Dr. Steven] It's
important to remember also that the horns at the top of Moses' head would only just be visible if we were looking up at the figure as opposed to across the figure. - [Dr. Beth] We recognize
figures by their attributes and the horns were an attribute of Moses and this comes from a
mistranslation from the Hebrew word for rays of light and traditionally, Moses just became
represented with these horns. Michelangelo is very
excited to work on the tomb. It's an enormous commission for the pope with close to 50 figures. Michelangelo spends much of 1505 actually quarrying the marble so he's really invested in this project, but Pope Julius II takes him
off the project for the tomb and asks him to paint the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which Michelangelo does
reluctantly at first, but Michelangelo through
paint explores the male nude which will become so
important when he returns to the subject of the
tomb of Pope Julius II. - [Dr. Steven] In the end, Moses became the central
figure in the tomb for Julius, but it's important to remember
that the tomb that we see now is just a shadow of Julius
II's initial ambitions. (calming piano music)