A “terrible” beauty: Michelangelo's Moses and the challenge of art - Irene Baldriga 

The artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari used the expression “terribilità” to describe the sense of greatness and the impressive expertise achieved by Michelangelo in his creations. In such a perspective, the statue of Moses can be considered as an absolute example of the challenge between art and nature, where the imitation of reality seems to reach the sense of divine.
Irene Baldriga is an art historian, expert of Renaissance and Baroque art. She is an Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome.