THE LAW-GIVER :

Moses, Michelangelo (1513-16) (Jonathan Jones, June 8, 2002, The Guardian)

Artist: 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 paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling and to sculpt his tomb.

Subject: Moses, the law-giver, who led the Jews out of Egypt and brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai.

Distinguishing features: Its power must have something to do with the rendition of things that should be impossible to depict in stone; most quirkily, the beard - so ropy and smoky, its coils given fantastic, snaking life. But where others might astonish us with technique, Michelangelo goes beyond this, leading us from formal to intellectual surprise, making us wonder why Moses fondles his beard, why Michelangelo has used this river of hair - in combination with the horns that were a conventional attribute of Moses - to give him an inhuman, demonic aspect.

Who knew Moses had horns? Posted by Orrin Judd at September 8, 2002 8:33 AM