(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)