Moses Redivivus. Michelangelo and the Tomb of Julius II

Abstract

Recent studies have made it possible to review the history of the Tomb of Julius II as a parallel elaboration of different, even conflicting, ideas. This essay attempts to show how the centrality of the figure of Moses, evident in the final solution of San Pietro in Vincoli, is an element already considered by Michelangelo, albeit in a different form, in the first design of the work forty years earlier. It also attempts to trace this 'mosaic' idea of the tomb back to the context of Julius II and the relations between Michelangelo and Machiavelli documented in 1506. The essay also proposes a return to the traditional dating of the statue to 1514-1516, as opposed to recent proposals to date the Moses much later, to 1532 or even 1542. Finally, it interprets this 'mosaic' idea of the tomb, which celebrates the deceased pope as a revived Moses, as metaphorical for Michelangelo's naturalism and an idea of art as creation.