View Article: Michelangelo Speaks

	Michelangelo Speaks
	written by leahs2 / 10.13.2005

Two Michelangelo sculptures

1 of 1

Assignment

http://www.angelo.edu/faculty/rprestia/1301/images/IN327Moses.jpg

Moses

http://www.stuardtclarkesrome.com/CHRIST.JPG

Risen Christ

Our traveler enters San Pietro in Vincoli on a sunny Roman afternoon. As her eyes adjust to the darkness, Moses emerges before her, his beard rolling down his superhuman body. She finds a corner from which she can carefully watch the story of the statue unfold. Moses appears massive in the center of Michelangelo’s work, flanked in symmetria by Leah and Rachel. Each figure has its own sway in focal direction and arrested motion. Moses is turning his head and part of his body to look out in Leah’s direction while his arms remain towards Rachel holding something. She looks closer and realizes that in Moses’ arms are small, thin tablets protected by his massive body. While a passer-by might not notice them, her gut whispers that in Michelangelo’s mind, the tablets are the essence of the sculpture. Like a public secret, the tablets are visibly displayed yet hidden in their spatially modest magnitude. She sees Moses guard them and as she sits in the dark corner it dawns on her that Michelangelo, in a similar form, is shrouding these mystical Judaic artifacts.

Later in the day our traveler rushes into Santa Maria Sopra Minerva to escape the rain. She wanders to the back of the church and comes upon the more subtle “Risen Christ.” Similar to Moses, the head of Christ is turned away from the holy object of import. Both men display their twisting muscles of marble but Christ’s naked body is more human, easier for her to see as a compatriot. The cross is fully displayed – half her attention goes to Christ’s figure and the other half to the cross. The transept of the cross lines up directly above Christ’s head to overshadow him. He holds it upright with his hands, supporting it, while simultaneously being sheltered by it.

She exits the church to a rainbow soaring across the Roman sky.

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