[2] Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time.

Some interpretations of the sculpture including Freud note a demotic force, but also as a beautiful figure, with an emotional intensity as God's word is revealed.

Seated in a serious attitude, he rests with one arm on the tablets, and with the other holds his long glossy beard, the hairs, so difficult to render in sculpture, being so soft and downy that it seems as if the iron chisel must have become a brush.

The beautiful face, like that of a saint and mighty prince, seems as one regards it to need the veil to cover it, so splendid and shining does it appear, and so well has the artist presented in the marble the divinity with which God had endowed that holy countenance.

"[4] The English translation of Sigmund Freud's "The Moses of Michelangelo" also provides a basic description of the sculpture: "The Moses of Michelangelo is represented as seated; his body faces forward, his head with its mighty beard looks to the left, his right foot rests on the ground, and his left leg is raised so that only the toes touch the ground.

Moses's vitality has made this work popular since the 16th century; according to Vasari, Rome's Jewish population adopted the statue as their own.

Its power must have something to do with the rendition of things that should be impossible to depict in stone; most quirkily, the beard – so ropy and smoky, its coils gave fantastic, snaking life.

We have seen how many of those who have felt the influence of this statue has been compelled to interpret it as representing Moses agitated by the spectacle of his people fallen from grace and dancing round an idol.

In his first transport of fury, Moses desired to act, to spring up and take vengeance and forget the Tables; but he has overcome the temptation, and he will now remain seated and still, in his frozen wrath and his pain mingled with contempt.

The lines of the face reflect the feelings which have won the ascendancy; the middle of the figure shows the traces of suppressed movement, and the foot still retains the attitude of the projected action.

[5]Another view, put forward by Malcolm Macmillan and Peter J. Swales in their essay, "Observations from the Refuse-Heap: Freud, Michelangelo's Moses, and Psychoanalysis",[7] relates the sculpture to the second set of Tables and the events mentioned in Exodus 33 and 34.

"[7]: 78–79  They further argue that both Paul and Moses experienced God directly, an idea and pairing that were important to the Florentine Neo-Platonists, a group that the authors view both Michelangelo and Pope Julius II as being akin to.

[14] Some modern scholars contend that medieval theologians believed that Jerome had intended to express a glorification of Moses' face, by his use of the Latin word for "horned.

[18] The statue is argued by art historian Jennifer Koosed as being the culmination of the horned Moses tradition, mixing animal and human qualities to present the divine.

[20] In 1931, Vojislav Veljković [sr], a former Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, known as "the father of the Yugoslav golden Dinar", and an avid art collector, petitioned Pope Pius XI to use the lost-wax method to have bronze casts of 21 of Michelangelo's original sculptures, including Moses, produced.

The Pope's approval was granted on the condition that Veljković would fashion a suitable space with a climate control system that would ensure the internal temperature would be kept within one degree Celsius throughout the year, thus preventing deformation of the bronze over time.

Veljković initiated the construction a modern exhibition pavilion in the courtyard of his family house in Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, resulting in the first private museum in Southeast Europe.

[21] Once the Pope approved the petition, the Paris foundry Susse Frères was commissioned to produce the casts, and the certificates of authenticity were issued by the Vatican.

The building was first given as an atelier to Moše Pijade, then to the sculptor Sreten Stojanović, and eventually converted to a shoe and leather storage by the Municipality of Savski Venac.