Moses

Michelangelo received the commission for the tomb of Pope Julius II (1443–1513) in 1505. The tomb had never been finished, and suffered many modifications during the years. In the first phase it was designed as a grandiose three story monument. The figure of Moses was executed for the second project (1513) of the tomb, and was planned for the second level, finally being completed only in 1542. Now the statue of Moses is housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, where the completed elements and sculptures of the Pope Julius’s tomb were assembled. The Museum purchased the plaster cast of the Moses in 1906 from August Gerber from Cologne, and the copy was exhibited in the Renaissance Hall in 1909. This plaster cast is exhibited in Kecskemét at the House of Science and Technology since 1976, together with other fourteen plaster casts after Michelangelo’s statues.