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Sunday, March 3, 2024

Moses and the Ten Commandments

 

Master Francois, Moses Receiving the Ten Commandments
From The City of God by Saint Augustine of Hippo
French (Paris), c. 1475
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 A 11, fol. 375v

“In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
“I, the LORD, am your God, 
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves 
in the shape of anything in the sky above 
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, 
inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness 
on the children of those who hate me, 
down to the third and fourth generation; 
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation 
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished 
the one who takes his name in vain.

“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work, 
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, 
or your male or female slave, or your beast, 
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, 
the sea and all that is in them; 
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, 
that you may have a long life in the land 
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, 
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, 
nor anything else that belongs to him.”

Exodus 20:1-17 (Gospel for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year B)

 

One of the most important of the documents that have come down to us from the ancient world is the list of actions that we have come to call the Ten Commandments.  They have been a guide for personal activities and for societal laws since they were written down.  There have been other ancient codes that have come down to us from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, but it is this list of prohibitions and recommendations that still has a living presence, like the God whom the book of Exodus claims as its author.

 

Moses Receiving the Ten Commandments
From a Picture Bible
French (Saint-Omer), c. 1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 7r

In some ways it might be said that the Commandments have no relationship with art history, for how do you represent disembodied ideas in a visual format?  However, there is one way in which they have figured, in Christian art at least from the very beginning, in the narrative of how they came to be received by the Israelite people.  I use the word “Israelite” here because at the point that the Commandments appear in the Bible the people are still wandering following their escape from slavery in Egypt.  They are the people descended from Israel, otherwise known as Jacob.  They have not yet settled in the land beyond the Jordan and become “Jews” (the word is derived from the area later known as the kingdom of Judea).  They are still led by Moses.  Indeed, it is Moses’ reception of the Commandments and the community’s acceptance of them that signals the real foundation of what became the Jews.  Their disembodied God and his Commandments set them apart from the other peoples of the Levant.

 

Master of Rohan and Workshop, Moses Receives the Ten Commandments
From De casibus by Boccaccio
French (Paris), First Quarter of the 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 226, fol. 8r

The Commandments in Art

So, it is in the figure of Moses that we can begin to see the Commandments appear in Christian art.  And this happens surprisingly quickly.  There are several images of Moses receiving the Commandments from the hand of God on early Christian sarcophagi in the collection of the Pio-Cristiano Museum of the Vatican Museums.  They date from the fourth century, just shortly after the Edict of Milan (315) guaranteed religious toleration to Christians within the Roman Empire.  These early images are pretty basic and appear within a decorative program that includes many other images reflecting stories from both the Old Testament and the Christian Gospels. 

 

Front of Double Tiered Sarcophagus with Central Shell and Busts
Roman, c. 300-330
Vatican City, Vatican Museums_Pio Cristiano Museum



Detail of the sarcophagus above, showing Moses Receiving the Ten Commandments to the left of the central shell and also showing another favorite Old Testament scene, the Sacrifice of Isaac, to the right.



Two-Tiered Sarcophagus with Shell and Busts
Roman, c. 325-350
Vatican City, Vatican Museums, Museo Pio Cristiano


Detail of the sarcophagus above, also showing Moses Receiving the Ten Commandments to the left of the central shell and the Sacrifice of Isaac on the right.



These straightforward images focus on the figure of Moses receiving the tablets (occasionally a scroll) of the Law from the disembodied hand of God or from a small image of God which emerges from a cloud.  As we will see, this way of telling the story had a long afterlife.  It is, in the main, the approach taken to illustrating this story in the Eastern Church.

 

Moses Receiving the Commandments
Byzantine, 6th Century
Mount Sinai, Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai



Moses Receiving the Commandments
Byzantine, Early 12th Century
Sinai, Monastery of Saint Catherine

However, within a short time this straightforward storytelling was expanded to include additional portions of the Exodus story.  And this too would have a long life in both Eastern and Western Christian art.

 

Simple Storytelling

Master of the  Story of Moses, Moses Receiving the Commandments
Italian, c. 1180
Lucca, Church of San Frediano



Master of the Roman de Fauvel and Workshop, Moses Receiving the Ten Commandments
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1320-1330
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 8, fol. 60v



Michiel van der Borch, God Presents the Ten Commandments to Moses
From a Rhimebible by Jacob van Maerlant
Dutch(Utrecht), 1332
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 B 21, fol. 29v



Lorenzo Ghiberti, Moses on Mount Sinai
Italian, c. 1425-1452
Florence, Baptistery, Eastern Doors, The Gates of Paradise


Joseph von Führich, God Writing the Commandments
Austrian, 1835
Vienna, Belvedere Museum
This composition departs from tradition in a number of ways, especially by showing God in this dynamic pose, clearly derived from Michelangelo's Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel ceiling.



Richard Julius Jungtow, God Presents Moses with the Commandments
From Die Bibel in Bildern
German, 1860
Rome, Biblioteca Hertziana


Telling More than One Part of the Story at Once


The Story of the Ten Commandments
From a Bible, The Ashburnham Pentateuch
Unknown origin, 6th -7th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS NAL 2334, fol. 76r
The story here moves from top to bottom.  At the top Moses prepares to receive the Commandments from God.  In the middle Moses reads the Law to the people at an altar.  In the bottom level we see the tent containing the Commandments in the Ark of the Covenant.




Moses Receives the Commandments from God (top) and Presents Them to the People
From the Vivien Bible
French (Tours), c. 845-851
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 1, fol. 27v




Moses Ascends the Mountain and Receives the Commandments from God
While the People Wait Below
From the Codex Reginensis
Byzantine, c. 10th - 11th Century
Vatican City, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana
MS Reg.gr.1.pt.B, fol. 155v



Moses Is Called by God and Ascends the Mountain to Receive the Commandments
While the People Wait
From the Paris Psalter
Byzantine, c. 940-960
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Grec 139, fol. 422v




Moses Receives the Commandments from God While the People Worship the Golden Calf
From The Munich Golden Psalter
English (Oxford), c. 1200-1225
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
MS Clm 835, fol. 18v 






Moses Receives the Commandments from God, Then Destroys Them in Anger
Because the Israelites Worshipped the Golden Calf
From a Psalter
French (Paris), c. 1270
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 10525, fol. 35v




Master of the Roman de Fauvel
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1300-1325
Parisk Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 156, fol. 31r
There are two scenes here with the same characters.  At the left Moses and Aaron discuss something.  While on the right, Moses (now showing the effects of his contact with the divine) receives the Commandments and Aaron comments.



Other Ways of Depicting the Story

However, not all images of the Ten Commandments are involved in storytelling.  Some are more complicated. 

 

Typology

One way in which our ancestors thought about the world was to search for “types”.  


Moses Receiving the Commandments and Thomas Probing the Wounds of Christ
German (Trier), 10th Century
Berlin, Bode Museum
Both of these images concern the self-revelation of God to human beings, through the Commandments and through touch.




One of the best-known examples of this is the Biblia pauperum in which an image from the life of Christ (Under Grace) is conflated with two other images from the Old Testament, one before the reception of the Commandments (Before the Law) drawn from the Books of Genesis and Exodus and the other after its reception (Under the Law) drawn from the remaining Books of the Old Testament.

 

The Rambures Master, Joseph Thrown into the Well (Before the Law), Jesus Laid in the Tomb (Under Grace) and Jonah Thrown to the Whale (Under the Law)
From a Biblia pauperum
French (Hesdin or Amiens). c 1470
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 A 15, fol. 28


However, there is another work of a similar kind that uses a different set of “types”.  The is the Speculum humanae salvationis (Le Miroir de l'humaine salvation in French).  The incidents chosen for it are different from the Biblia pauperum, although they follow the same idea.  There is also more variation in the episodes that different illustrators chose for these books, within certain limits to be sure.

These works of typology had their heyday in the later medieval period, roughly from the mid-13th century to the beginning of the 16th century, when they collided with the upsets associated with the Reformation, which made that way of viewing the Bible obsolete. 

 These books were intended primarily for a lay audience and those that are extant are usually cheaply made, with inferior illustrations, but there are some notable exceptions which are of high quality.

 

Pentecost, The Tower of Babel, Moses Receiving the Commandments, Elijah Telling the Widow to Fill Her Water Jars (which will become oil)
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Swiss (Basel), Early 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 512, fol. 35v-36r



The Ascension, Jacob's Ladder, Moses Receiving the Commandments, Elijah Telling the Widow to Fill Her Water Jars
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Austrian (Innsbruck), 1432
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de Espana
MS Vitr. 25-7 (olim B. 19), fol. 32v-33r



Pentecost, The Tower of Babel, Moses Receiving the Commandments and Elijah Telling the Widow to Fill Her Water Jars
From a Le Miroir de l'humaine salvation
Flemish, 1455
Chicago, Newberry Library
MS Case 40, pp. 74-75



Circle of the Master of James IV of Scotland, Pentecost, The Tower of Babel, Moses Receiving the Commandments and Elijah Telling the Widow to Fill Her Water Jars
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Flemish, c. 1500
Chantilly, Musée Condé
MS 139, fol. 35v-36r


  

Symbolic

Another way of representing the Commandments is one that I would call symbolic.  These images focus primarily on the Commandments themselves.  Most frequently they are shown as being held by Moses for our consideration, but occasionally the image is focused exclusively on the Commandments.

 

Lorenzo Monaco, Moses
Italian, c. 1408-1410
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



Master of Jacquemart Pilavaine, The Commandments
From Postilla litteralis by Nicolas of Lyra
Flemish (Hainaut), c. 1450-1475
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 128 C 8, fol. 9r



Valentin Bousch, Moses Presenting the Tablets of the Law
French (Lorraine), 1532
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



Michelangelo Buonarroti, Moses
Italian, c. 1542-1545
Rome, Church of San Pietro in Vincoli_



Moses Showing the Tables of the Law with the Ten Commandments in Calligraphy
Flemish, c. 1560-1600
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum



Michael Spiess, Moses
German, 1607
Burg bei Magdeburg, Evangelical Church of Saint Nicolas



Philippe de Champaigne, Moses with the Ten Commandments
Flemish, 1648
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum



Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Moses with the Tablets of the Law
Dutch, 1659
Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin



Melchior Michael Steidlm, Moses
Austrian, 1698
Lambach, Monstery Church of the Assumption



Anton Weidlich, Moses with the Ten Commandments
German, 1751
Egloffstein, Evangelical Parish Church of Saint Bartholomew


Unusual Images

There are also a few images that are unusual.  They may tell the story differently or reduce the figure of Moses receiving the Commandments to an insignificant corner of the work.

 

Moses Receives the Ten Commandmens
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 20090, fol. 75v
This is unusual because it sets the event not in the outdoors on the  holy mountain, but indoors in what could to be a study (in a tent perhaps?), where Moses has apparently been dictating to a secretary.




Master Francois and Workshopm Moses Receives the Ten Commandments and Brings Them to the People
From a Speculum historiale by Vincent of Beauvais
French (Paris), 1463
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 50, fol. 56r
This is the only image I have seen where the effects of Moses' exposure to the glory of God draws a response from the people.  The men and women waiting at the base of the mountain, shield their eyes from the radiance as Moses approaches them.




Jacopo Bassano_Autumn, Moses Receives the Ten Commandments
Italian, c. 1586
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
At the end of the sixteenth century and into the beginning of the seventeenth there was a fashion to produce works of art with religious subject matter i which the religious subject was squeezed into odd spaces or deep in the background.  The Bassano family of painters used this kind of composition in most of their very popular paintings.  In this one the subject of Moses receiving the Commandments is pushed into the far left upper corner, and made so small it is barely visible unless you are looking for it.



Thaddeus Kuntz, Moses on Sinai
Polish, c. 1750-1793
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
In spite of the title this is really an apotheosis of Moses in heaven, the only one I have come across.





A Word About Those Horns

One thing that always merits a mention whenever one is describing images of Moses is the presence of horns on his head.  What are they doing there and what do they mean?  Are they likening Moses to the devil?  Are they an instance of anti-Semitism?  To both these questions the answer is a firm NO.1

The truth is much simpler and has to do with language and translation.  The original Old Testament Scriptures were written in Hebrew.  In the two centuries before the birth of Christ a group of Hebrew scholars in Alexandria, Egypt made a translation from the Hebrew into Greek, the universal language of the time.  It was the version used by most Jews at the time of Jesus.  It is now known as the Septuagint, as the number of translators is traditionally said to be seventy-two.  This was the version of the Old Testament used by the earliest Christians and which continues in use in the Greek speaking Church to this day. 

However, those Christians of the West who spoke and read Latin couldn’t easily use it.  So, at the end of the fourth century Saint Jerome set out to translate the Old Testament from the original Hebrew into Latin, using the Septuagint as a guide.  His translation became known as the Vulgate and was the standard Old Testament Bible in use in western Europe until the sixteenth century. 

Translation can be a real minefield as nuances in the language being translated may not be known to the translator.  Further, over time the meanings of words sometimes change.  This is one of those instances of misunderstanding. 

In Exodus Chapter 34, Moses returns from his second trip to the top of the mountain, where he is shown the glory of God and receives a duplicate set of tablets to replace the originals that Moses destroyed in his anger over the Israelites decision to create the golden idol of a calf to worship when they lost faith in Moses’ return from his first visit. On his second return the Bible says “ As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant* while he spoke with the Lord.  When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him.” (Exodus 34:29-30). 

When translating this passage from the Hebrew, Saint Jerome had to choose what words to use to convey the meaning of some passages.  Since there was no Google Translate in the fourth century, or even a dictionary, Jerome was limited in his word kit to those words he knew or could ask opinions on from those around him.  So, when it came time to translate the passage above, with its reference to the skin of Moses face becoming radiant, he chose a Latin word that indicated a projection from one’s head.  The word was “cornuto”.  However, this word also means “horned”.   This word applies only to the Latin Vulgate translation. 

Therefore, when later western European Christian artists came to illustrate the story of Exodus and Moses reception of the Commandments, they probably read it as the equivalent of saying “As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become horned while he spoke with the Lord.” (Exodus 34:29) 

This simple mistake was probably as puzzling to them as it seems to us.  But, that was what the Vulgate said, so that was what they presented, even by some very great artists. 


I would suggest that a glimpse of this confusion is evident if you look at a series of manuscript images from the West, beginning around the start of the fourteenth century, when the horned Moses was still new.  It appears that the horns arrive, not as springing from the head of Moses, but from a cap that he wears on his head.  Only gradually do the horns move from the cap to spring directly form his scalp.


Moses Receiving the Commandments from God
From a Bible historiale by Vincent of Beauvais
French (Saint-Omer), 14th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Français 152, fol. 58v-a



Moses Receiving the Commandments from God
From a Bible historiale by Vincent of Beauvais
French (Saint-Omer), 14th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Français 152, fol. 60r



Master of Fauvel, Moses Receiving the Commandments from God
From a Bible historiale completee by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1320=1340
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 71 A 23, fol. 62r



Master of the Roman de Fauvel and Workshop
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1320-1330
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 8, fol. 68r



Moses Receives the Law
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1350-1375
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 2, fol. 58r



Master of the Livre du Sacre and Workshop, God Presents the Commandments to Moses
From a Speculum historiale by Vincent of Beauvais
French (Paris), c. 1370-1380
Paris, Biblioteque nationale de FranceF
MS Nouvelle acquisition francaise 15939, fol. 48v



Jean Bondol and Others, Moses Receives the Ten Commandments
From a Grande Bible Historiale Completee by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1371-1372
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 B 23, fol.59v


As the Renaissance and later the Reformation introduced more widely representative textual scholarship and new translations of the Scriptures, the incidence of horns on the head of Moses diminished.  By the seventeenth century, they were entirely gone. Some nineteenth-century artists did add emanations from Moses’ head, but of beams of light, not horns.


Master of Lucon and Workshop, Allegory of Abstinence
From the Livre de bonnes meurs by Jacques Legrand
French (Paris), 1410
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 1023, fol. 20v
Here the projections from Moses' head actually take the form of decorative representations of light, no horns involved.



Master of Jouvenel des Ursins and Workshop, Moses Receives the Commandments
From a Mare historiarum by John of Cologne
French (Anjou), c. 1447-1455
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 4915, fol. 36v
Here the "horns" appear more in the nature of the "horns" of an episcopal miter, turned around.  This is a reminder that it is from the idea of the horn (not the animal kind, but the kind that can be used to send a warning) that that particular item of headgear derives.  Bishops are said to display the "horns" of both Testaments, which are the foundations of the Church.


Guercino, Moses with the Tables of the Commandments
Italian, c. 1625-1626
Rome, Galleria Colonna
There is no hint of horns here.






Valentin de Boulogne, Moses with the Tables of the Law
French, 1628
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
No horns here either, just a suggestion of radiance.




Philippe de Champaigne, Moses and the Commandments
Flemish, c. 1645-1663
Amiens, Musée de PIcardie


John Rogers Herbert, Moses with the Ten Commandments
English, c. 1866-1867
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle



James Tissot, Moses and the Ten Commandments
French, c. 1896-1902
New York, The Jewish Museum
 

M. Duffy, 2024

 

1.      The classic discussion of this issue is Mellinkoff, Ruth.  The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and Thought, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1970.

 

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