Michelangelo Moses

The story of Moses is one of the most central in the Bible, full of drama and miracles. As the leader of his people, Moses wanders in the desert for 40 years on his way from Egypt to the Promised Land. God also gives him two tablets with the 10 commandments that people must follow, and which Swedish school students were also taught back in the 1960s.

Michelangelo's Moses shows the mighty man as a prophet in colossal format with the tablets of the law under his arm. Two horn-like shapes grow out of his head, which should actually be interpreted as a symbol of the bright light that was said to radiate from his face. In Michelangelo's rendering, Moses is not only a spiritually powerful prophet, but also physically muscular.

Moses was carved in marble in the 1510s, as one of more than 40 planned figures to adorn Pope Julius II's gigantic mausoleum. But of this great imagined work, only a fraction was actually carried out, which can be seen today in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.

The large plaster cast in the upper hall of the Art Academy was made in Rome in the middle of the 1800th century. Interest in the Italian Renaissance was great during the 1800th century both among artists, researchers and the general public. The Academy of Arts then owned 10 plaster casts by Michelangelo in its collection, four of which are today scattered in the hall and library.