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The tomb started out as a very grand structure, but Michelangelo had to redesign it several times. Each time it got smaller and less impressive as Pope Julius changed his mind and money ran low. Michelangelo spent 40 years working on the tomb, on and off, becoming utterly frustrated with the task.


Moses


Pope Julius’s tomb was eventually finished by Michelangelo’s assistants and is now in the church of St Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. The only statue of note is Michelangelo’s Moses.


Subject


Moses is a powerful and majestic figure with a ferocious stare. Holding the tablets with God’s commandments, his face expresses the supreme authority of lawgiver and messenger (Fig. 22.15).


Composition


Well over life size, this superhuman Moses is seated with his body facing forward and his head turned to the left. The left hand is intertwined in the mighty beard. With one leg pulled beneath, he looks strong, tense and ready for instant action.


Painting


Pope Julius and Michelangelo were both proud, obstinate men and their relationship was difficult. The new St Peter’s was costing a fortune and eventually the pope had to divert funds from his tomb and abandon the project. When Michelangelo heard this, he left Rome in a fit of temper.


The Sistine Chapel ceiling


With considerable difficulty, Pope Julius managed to entice him back to Rome in 1508. He offered him the commission of painting the ceiling of the largest chapel in the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel (named after the pope’s uncle, Sixtus IV) (Fig. 22.16).


Michelangelo protested that he was a sculptor and that painting was an inferior art, but he eventually agreed. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel proved to be one of his greatest achievements.


Subject


Fig. 22.15 Moses, 1515, by Michelangelo, marble, tomb of Pope Julius II, St Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. There were to have been four prophets. Moses was the only one that was finished, but the figure has a unity and symmetry that works completely independently.


268 APPRECIATING ART: SECTION 2, PART 3


The subject is from the Book of Genesis, the opening passages of the Bible. It begins with the creation of the world, Adam and Eve and the story of Noah – in other words, the stages of the human race from its beginning to its fall. All around are the prophets and sibyls who foretold the coming of Christ. In the corners are the Ignudi, or idealised nude youths.


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