There are places that act as lighthouses in navigation in bad weather that we have had to overcome at the present. Recently I was in Roma, dedicating one of the mornings to visit again the church San Pietro in Vincoli to admire the moisés de Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Summer sculpture It was made between 1513 and 1536, centered on the biblical figure of Moses, who is represented in both Jewish and Christian collective belief as the legislator of the Hebrew people, bearer of the Tables of the Law.
Moses is the author of Pentateuchthe Log Hebrew, the books of the Bible that contain the Law, called Law of Moses and is also the founder of oral transmission or Mishnah. In Jewish tradition it is called Moshe Rabbenu: Moses our teacher. But not only for Judaism and Christianity is he a fundamental character, in the Koran, Moses is cited one hundred and thirty-six times, as the prophet who heard directly from God, which is why they call him word of God. In all Abrahamic or monotheistic religions, Moses is a central figure as a prophet and lawgiver. Christian exegetes interpreted Moses as the savior who prefigured the advent of the redeeming Christ.
Returning to the work, it cannot be isolated from that opera of operas that is the biblical drama. In the second book, the Exodus, which narrates the flight from Egypt of the Jews guided by their liberator, is the scene that inspired Michelangelo. Having spent three months of painful journey through the desert, the migrants arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the prodigy occurs in which Moses meets God and is given the Tables of the Law. When he descended to share with his people such portents, he warns that in his absence intrigue and distrust reign among his followers, who have created an idol, a golden calf to which, in the midst of anarchy, they worship.
When detailing the moisés, we observe the leader of Israel holding the Tables of the Law tightly under his right arm, taking his seat in disgust at seeing his people given over again to idolatry and superstition. The sculptor masterfully translates the indignation that invades him, by managing to project the great tension that his figure presents and even more, that of his face about to explode in anger. The protuberance of the veins and the tension in the muscles of the arms and legs anticipate the impulse to get up and angrily tear the Tablets of the Law to pieces, an action that he will execute when he stands up in fury. The sculpture summarizes the moment in which an indignant man observes with rage and contempt the stupidity of those in whom he has placed his trust and care. It is a face that is about to vigorously rebuke those who observe it. It is a sacred anger, because it comes from encountering nothing less than God and receiving from him the laws for the survival of his people.
It is a sublime sculpture, it is a rock that speaks. Among the various interpretations of this work and the force that emanates when contemplating it, I refer to the singular analysis of the Austrian psychoanalyst and philosopher Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), entitled moisésoriginally published in 1914 in the magazine Imago, Austria. In this essay Freud expresses a mixture of admiration and reverence for the work. Here I copy several significant extracts: “I have always tried to hold the angry gaze of the biblical hero, and on some occasions I have slipped fearfully into the darkness inside the church, as if I myself belonged to those whose eyes glare; to that rabble, incapable of remaining faithful to any conviction, who did not want to wait or trust, and they rejoiced loudly at once again obtaining the illusion of the idol.” Freud described the work as enigmatic and in trying to understand it, he dedicates most of the text to putting together a whole collection of judgments about the meaning of the sculpture, even devoting half of the essay to the description of the hand gestures and the arrangement of the legs: “(…) The left leg appears already thrown back, and the right one advanced, immediately, Moses will stand up angrily, the psychic energy will go from sensation to will, the right arm will move, the tables of the Law will fall to the ground and rivers of blood will wash away the disgrace of apostasy…”
“(…) This is not yet the moment of tension of what happened. The emotional pain still dominates, being almost paralyzing.” In the fourteen pages of the essay, Freud shares his impressions at all times: “I remember my disappointment when on previous visits to the church of San Pietro in Vincoli I sat before the statue, expecting to see it rise violently, throw the boards to the ground and He vented his anger. None of this happened, on the contrary, the stone became more and more still; A sacred, almost overwhelming calm emanated from it and I necessarily felt that something was represented there that could remain immutable, that that Moses would remain there eternally sitting and angry. In the end, the father of Psychoanalysis reaches a conclusion about the sculptor’s intention: “Michelangelo creates the figure of a passionate guide of Humanity, who, aware of his divine legislative mission, encounters the incomprehensible resistance of humanity. followers of him. To characterize such a man of action, the only skillful means was to make visible the energy of his will, and this was possible by means of the intuitive representation of a movement that penetrated the apparent serenity, as manifested in the turning of the head. , muscle tension and the position of the left leg. The effects of anger, contempt and pain reach a sublime human expression, without which it would be impossible to intuit the nature of such a superman. What Michelangelo has created is not a historical image, but a type of character of unsurpassed energy.”
About the sacred fear that instills Moisés, They say that the brotherhood of artisans who were working on the construction of the mausoleum of Julius II in San Pietro in Vincoli heard voices coming from the place where the sculpture was located, observing that when he finished his work, Michelangelo addressed words of admiration to Moses. , revering him as he left without turning his back on him. That morning, moments before finishing my visit to the church, I heard a stooped old professor instructing a swarm of students say as he pointed to the sculpture: “If this titan were to rise, the incoherence of the world would break into pieces.”
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