Freud - Complete Works (476 page)

  
¹
His first essays were published in German
between 1874 and 1876.

  
²
Cf. the illustration.

The Moses Of Michelangelo

2855

   We now quite clearly perceive the
following things: the thumb of the hand is concealed and the index
finger alone is in effective contact with the beard. It is pressed
so deeply against the soft masses of hair that they bulge out
beyond it both above and below, that is, both towards the head and
towards the abdomen. The other three fingers are propped upon the
wall of his chest and are bent at the upper joints; they are barely
touched by the extreme right-hand lock of the beard which falls
past them. They have, as it were, withdrawn from the beard. It is
therefore not correct to say that the right hand is playing with
the beard or plunged in it; the simple truth is that the index
finger is laid over a part of the beard and makes a deep trough in
it. It cannot be denied that to press one’s beard with one
finger is an extraordinary gesture and one not easy to
understand.

   The much-admired beard of Moses
flows from his cheeks, chin and upper lip in a number of waving
strands which are kept distinct from one another all the way down.
One of the strands on his extreme right, growing from the cheek,
falls down to the inward-pressing index finger, by which it is
retained. We may assume that it resumes its course between that
finger and the concealed thumb. The corresponding strand on his
left side falls practically unimpeded far down over his breast.
What has received the most unusual treatment is the thick mass of
hair on the inside of this latter strand, the part between it and
the middle line. It is not suffered to follow the turn of the head
to the left; it is forced to roll over loosely and form part of a
kind of scroll which lies across and over the strands on the inner
right side of the beard. This is because it is held fast by the
pressure of the right index finger, although it grows from the left
side of the face and is, in fact, the main portion of the whole
left side of the beard. Thus, the main mass of the beard is thrown
to the right of the figure, whereas the head is sharply turned to
the left. At the place where the right index finger is pressed in,
a kind of whorl of hairs is formed; strands of hair coming from the
left lie over strands coming from the right, both caught in by that
despotic finger. It is only beyond this place that the masses of
hair, deflected from their course, flow freely once more, and now
they fall vertically until their ends are gathered up in
Moses’ left hand as it lies open on his lap.

The Moses Of Michelangelo

2856

   I have no illusions as to the
clarity of my description, and venture no opinion whether the
sculptor really does invite us to solve the riddle of that knot in
the beard of his statue. But apart from this, the fact remains that
the pressure of the
right
index finger affects mainly the
strands of hair from the
left
side; and that this oblique
hold prevents the beard from accompanying the turn of the head and
eyes to the left. Now we may be allowed to ask what this
arrangement means and to what motives it owes its existence. If it
was indeed considerations of linear and spatial design which caused
the sculptor to draw the downward-streaming wealth of hair across
to the right of the figure which is looking to its left, how
strangely unsuitable as a means does the pressure of a single
finger appear to be! And what man who, for some reason or other,
has drawn his beard over to the other side, would take it into his
head to hold down the one half across the other by the pressure of
one finger? Yet may not these minute particulars mean nothing in
reality, and may we not be racking our brains about things which
were of no moment to their creator?

   But let us proceed on the
assumption that even these details have significance. There is a
solution which will remove our difficulties and afford a glimpse of
a new meaning. If the
left
side of Moses’ beard lies
under the pressure of his
right
finger, we may perhaps take
this pose as the last stage of some connection between his right
hand and the left half of his beard, a connection which was a much
more intimate one at some moment before that chosen for
representation. Perhaps his hand had seized his beard with far more
energy, had reached across to its left edge, and, in returning to
that position in which the statue shows it, had been followed by a
part of his beard which now testifies to the movement which has
just taken place. The loop of the beard would thus be an indication
of the path taken by this hand.

The Moses Of Michelangelo

2857

   Thus we shall have inferred that
there had been a retreating motion of the right hand. This one
assumption necessarily brings others with it. In imagination we
complete the scene of which this movement, established by the
evidence of the beard, is a part; and we are brought back quite
naturally to the hypothesis according to which the resting Moses is
startled by the clamour of the people and the spectacle of the
Golden Calf. He was sitting there calmly, we will suppose, his head
with its flowing beard facing forward, and his hand in all
probability not near it at all. Suddenly the clamour strikes his
ear; he turns his head and eyes in the direction from which the
disturbance comes, sees the scene and takes it in. Now wrath and
indignation lay hold of him; and he would fain leap up and punish
the wrongdoers, annihilate them. His rage, distant as yet from its
object, is meanwhile directed in a gesture against his own body.
His impatient hand, ready to act, clutches at his beard which has
moved with the turn of his head, and presses it between his thumb
and palm in the iron grasp of his closing fingers. It is a gesture
whose power and vehemence remind us of other creations of
Michelangelo’s. But now an alteration takes place, as yet we
do not know how or why. The hand that had been put forward and had
sunk into his beard is hastily withdrawn and unclasped, and the
fingers let go their hold; but so deeply have they been plunged in
that in their withdrawal they drag a great piece of the left side
of the beard across to the right, and this piece remains lodged
over the hair of the right under the weight of one finger, the
longest and uppermost one of the hand. And this new position, which
can only be understood with reference to the former one, is now
retained.

   It is time now to pause and
reflect. We have assumed that the right hand was, to begin with,
away from the beard; that then it reached across to the left of the
figure in a moment of great emotional tension and seized the beard;
and that it was finally drawn back again, taking a part of the
beard with it. We have disposed of this right hand as though we had
the free use of it. But may we do this? Is the hand indeed so free?
Must it not hold or support the Tables? Are not such mimetic
evolutions as these prohibited by its important function? And
furthermore, what could have occasioned its withdrawal if the
motive which made it leave its original position was such a strong
one?

   Here are indeed fresh
difficulties. It is undeniable that the right hand is responsible
for the Tables; and also that we have no motive to account for the
withdrawal we have ascribed to it. But what if both difficulties
could be solved together, and if then and then only they presented
a clear and connected sequence of events? What if it is precisely
something which is happening to the Tables that explains the
movements of the hand?

The Moses Of Michelangelo

2858

   If we look at the drawing in Fig.
4 we shall see that the Tables present one or two notable features
hitherto not deemed worthy of remark. It has been said that the
right hand rests upon the Tables; or again that it supports them.
And we can see at once that the two apposed, rectangular tablets
stand on one corner. If we look closer we shall notice that the
lower edge is a different shape from the upper one, which is
obliquely inclined forward.

The upper edge is straight, whereas the lower
one has a protuberance like a horn on the part nearest to us, and
the Tables touch the stone seat precisely with this protuberance.
What can be the meaning of this detail?¹ It can hardly be
doubted that this projection is meant to mark the actual top side
of the Tables, as regards the writing. It is only the top edge of
rectangular tablets of this kind that is curved or notched. Thus we
see that the Tables are upside-down. This is a singular way to
treat such sacred objects. They are stood on their heads and
practically balanced on one corner. What consideration of form
could have led Michelangelo to put them in such a position? Or was
this detail as well of no importance to the artist?

  
¹
Which, by the way, is quite incorrectly
reproduced in a large plaster cast in the collection of the Vienna
Academy of Fine Arts.

The Moses Of Michelangelo

2859

   We begin to suspect that the
Tables too have arrived at their present position as the result of
a previous movement; that this movement was a consequence of the
change of place of the right hand that we have postulated, and in
its turn compelled that hand to make its subsequent retreat. The
movements of the hand and of the Tables can be co-ordinated in this
way: at first the figure of Moses, while it was still sitting
quietly, carried the Tables perpendicularly under its right arm.
Its right hand grasped their lower edge and found a hold in the
projection on their front part. (The fact that this made them
easier to carry sufficiently accounts for the upside-down position
in which the Tables were held.) Then came the moment when
Moses’ calm was broken by the disturbance. He turned his head
in its direction, and when he saw the spectacle he lifted his foot
preparatory to starting up, let go the Tables with his hand and
plunged it to the left and upwards into his beard, as though to
turn his violence against his own body. The Tables were now
consigned to the pressure of his arm, which had to squeeze them
against his side. But this support was not sufficient and the
Tables began to slip in a forward and downward direction. The upper
edge, which had been held horizontally, now began to face forwards
and downwards; and the lower edge, deprived of its stay, was
nearing the stone seat with its front corner. Another instant and
the Tables would have pivoted upon this new point of support, have
hit the ground with the upper edge foremost, and been shattered to
pieces. It is
to prevent this
that the right hand retreated,
let go the beard, a part of which was drawn back with it
unintentionally, came against the upper edge of the Tables in time
and held them near the hind corner, which had now come uppermost.
Thus the singularly constrained air of the whole - beard, hand and
tilted Tables - can be traced to that one passionate movement of
the hand and its natural consequences. If we wish to reverse the
effects of those stormy movements, we must raise the upper front
corner of the Tables and push it back, thus lifting their lower
front corner (the one with the protuberance) from the stone seat;
and then lower the right hand and bring it under the now horizontal
lower edge of the Tables.