Michelangelo’s Moses (1513-15), a figure produced for the tomb of Pope Julius II, can be found in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli (“St Peter in Chains”) in Rome. It’s one of Michelangelo’s real masterpieces. The church is a mere five-minute walk from the popular Colosseum, yet not that many people visit it. One of the things I find interesting about this statue is how similar it is in some ways to his earlier and more famous statue of David. This figure, too, looks off into the distance. The part of the story is that Moses has just come down from the mountain (Mount Sinai) with the Ten Commandments tablets, and he sees the Jewish people worshipping the golden calf. His brow is furrowed in anger. Do you see the horns protruding from his head? This is based on a medieval mistranslation of the Old Testament, specifically of the word “rays”, which is quite similar to the Hebrew word for “horns”. Interestingly, by Michelangelo’s time the error had been discovered, but Michelangelo knew that rays “emanating from his brow” would have been pretty hard to sculp, and would have broken off easily, so he went with the horns instead, thinking perhaps that they blended well with Moses‘ curly hair.