Michelangelo carved the Moses circa 1515. Dimensions of Moses: 92.5 in. height; width at base at front 37.5 in. Depicting Moses with 'horns' was a convention of Christian iconography, and probably due to a mistranslation of a biblical description of rays of light radiating from his head.

Sandro Fancelli, Raffaello da Montelupo, Tommaso di Pietro Boscoli, Jacopo del Duca helped complete the sculpture. The arrangement seen today in San Pietro is a fragment of the original plan. The four Slaves are now in the Accademia, Florence and two Captive figures are in the Louvre, Paris. "The seemingly perfect match between an ambitious pontiff and an ambitious artist was disastrous for Michelangelo's career in one respect: until 1545 his life was dominated by repeated failures to complete the Julian monument, what Condivi called 'the tragedy of the tomb'." Julius II is actually buried in St. Peter's under a simple slab.