The Moses of Michelangelo

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"The Moses of Michelangelo" is a short essay on Michelangelo's masterpiece adorning the tomb of Pope Julius II in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Freud provides a reading of this enigmatic work that has given rise to a number of contradictory interpretations. The essay was first published anonymously in volume 3 of Imago in April 1914, then acknowledged by Freud in 1924 during the publication of volume ten of his collected works in German. In 1927 he added an afterword reaffirming his 1914 interpretation.