Angel with Candlestick

This magnificent sculpture was executed as one of six that were to adorn the tomb of Pope Julius II, a project Michelangelo never completed. The marble sculpture appears to depict Moses with horns on his head, though some modern artists and historians claim that there were never intended to be horns. The depiction of a horned Moses was the normal medieval Western depiction of Moses, based on the description of Moses’ face as “cornuta” (“horned”) in the Latin Vulgate translation of Exodus.

The torso of Michelangelo’s River God (c. 1526– 27), once bright white but long since mellowed to the silvery grey of driftwood, is an almost talismanic presence at the beginning of this exhibition, the third and final part of the Palazzo Strozzi’s reassessment of Mannerism. Made not from marble, but from clay mixed with plant and vegetable fibres, earth and sand, this preliminary model lies capsized somewhat, its position dictated by its precarious physical condition, all in disconcerting contrast to the exalted name of its maker.