Literature Art Michelangelo's statue of Moses (1513-1515), in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is one of the most familiar statues in the world. The horns the sculptor included on Moses' head are the result of a mistranslation of the Hebrew Bible into the Latin Vulgate Bible with which Michelangelo was familiar. The Hebrew word taken from "Exodus" means either a "horn" or an "irradiation." Experts at the Archaeological Institute of America show that the term was used when Moses "returned to his people after seeing as much of the Glory of the Lord as human eye could stand," and his face "reflected radiance." In early Jewish art, moreover, Moses is often "shown with rays coming out of his head." Another author explains, "When Saint Jerome translated the Old Testament into Latin, he thought no one but Christ should glow with rays of light – so he advanced the secondary translation.
Cultural portrayals and references
Moses
Moses | Cultural portrayals and references
Michelangelo's statue of Moses Michelangelo's statue of Moses . Michelangelo's statue of Moses (1513-1515), in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is one of the most familiar statues in the world. Michelangelo's statue of Moses (1513-1515), in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is one of the most familiar statues in the world.
who provides the voice of mr smithers on the simpsons
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Harry Shearer
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where was he born?
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Los Angeles
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what else were his professions other than being a voice artist?
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He is also an actor, comedian, writer, musician, radio host, director and producer.
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to which radio network was he a host?
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National Public Radio
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what sort of shows has he hosted?
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He was host of the public radio comedy/music program "Le Show".
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has the show faced any criticism?
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Yes, Wisconsin Public Radio cancelled "Le Show"; Shearer claimed WPR was "displeased with the political content of the broadcast".
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what is the music segment of the show about?
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"An eclectic mix of mysterious music" is how KCRW describes the music played between other segments on the program. Frequently played tracks are from musicians like Johnny Adams, Astral Project, Marcia Ball etc.
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what were some of the films in which he has acted?
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"This Is Spinal Tap", "The Truman Show" and "A Mighty Wind"
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what religious analogy does the second movie have?
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Christof represented Jesus as an "off-Christ" ("Christ-off") or Antichrist, - the megalomaniacal Hollywood producer is compared to Lucifer; conversation between Truman and Marlon at the bridge can be compared to one between Moses and God in the Book of Moses.
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in what way is a comparison made to utopia?
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Parallels can be drawn from Thomas More's 1516 book "Utopia", in which More describes an island with only one entrance and only one exit.
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who is the former biblical character involved in conversation with god specified above?
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He is the most important prophet in Judaism, and an important prophet in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and a number of other Abrahamic religions.
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how was he related to founding fathers of us?
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They chose the symbol of Moses leading the Israelites to freedom as a seal that would clearly represent a symbol for the new United States; also inscribed the words of Moses on the Liberty Bell: "Proclaim Liberty thro' all the Land to all the Inhabitants thereof." (Leviticus 25)
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has he abolished slavery?
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Historian Gladys L. Knight describes how leaders who emerged during and after the period in which slavery in the United States was legal often personified the Moses symbol. when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 after the passage of the amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery, Black Americans said they had lost "their Moses".
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what does justin martyr say about him?
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He Moses to be "more trustworthy, profound and truthful because he is "older" than the Greek philosophers."
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can you mention some of his portrayals in other art forms?
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Literature Art Michelangelo's statue of Moses (1513-1515), in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is one of the most familiar statues in the world. The horns the sculptor included on Moses' head are the result of a mistranslation of the Hebrew Bible into the Latin Vulgate Bible with which Michelangelo was familiar. The Hebrew word taken from "Exodus" means either a "horn" or an "irradiation." Experts at the Archaeological Institute of America show that the term was used when Moses "returned to his people after seeing as much of the Glory of the Lord as human eye could stand," and his face "reflected radiance." In early Jewish art, moreover, Moses is often "shown with rays coming out of his head." Another author explains, "When Saint Jerome translated the Old Testament into Latin, he thought no one but Christ should glow with rays of light – so he advanced the secondary translation.
Moses | Cultural portrayals and references
Strabo, a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, in his "Geography" (c. 24 CE), wrote in detail about Moses, whom he considered to be an Egyptian who deplored the situation in his homeland, and thereby attracted many followers who respected the deity. He writes, for example, that Moses opposed the picturing of the deity in the form of man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was an entity which encompassed everything – land and sea: In Strabo's writings of the history of Judaism as he understood it, he describes various stages in its development: from the first stage, including Moses and his direct heirs; to the final stage where "the Temple of Jerusalem continued to be surrounded by an aura of sanctity." Strabo's "positive and unequivocal appreciation of Moses' personality is among the most sympathetic in all ancient literature." His portrayal of Moses is said to be similar to the writing of Hecataeus who "described Moses as a man who excelled in wisdom and courage." Egyptologist Jan Assmann concludes that Strabo was the historian "who came closest to a construction of Moses' religion as monotheism and as a pronounced counter-religion." It recognized "only one divine being whom no image can represent...
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Strabo
In remembrance of the rod with which Moses performed his miracles every Isis temple in Egypt has preserved a rod—Isis symbolizing the earth which Moses struck with his rod" The record closes with a description of the personality of Moses: "He was eighty-nine years old when he delivered the Jews; tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified."
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Artapanus of Alexandria
He describes Moses as 80 years old, "tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified." Some historians, however, point out the "apologetic nature of much of Artapanus' work," with his addition extra-biblical details, as with references to Jethro: the non-Jewish Jethro expresses admiration for Moses' gallantry in helping his daughters, and chooses to adopt Moses as his son.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Artapanus
The Christian saint and religious philosopher Justin Martyr (103–165 CE) drew the same conclusion as Numenius, according to other experts. Theologian Paul Blackham notes that Justin considered Moses to be "more trustworthy, profound and truthful because he is "older" than the Greek philosophers." He quotes him:
Moses | Justin Martyr
Strabo, a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, in his "Geographica" (c. 24 CE), wrote in detail about Moses, whom he considered to be an Egyptian who deplored the situation in his homeland, and thereby attracted many followers who respected the deity. He writes, for example, that Moses opposed the picturing of the deity in the form of man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was an entity which encompassed everything – land and sea: In Strabo's writings of the history of Judaism as he understood it, he describes various stages in its development: from the first stage, including Moses and his direct heirs; to the final stage where "the Temple of Jerusalem continued to be surrounded by an aura of sanctity." Strabo's "positive and unequivocal appreciation of Moses' personality is among the most sympathetic in all ancient literature." His portrayal of Moses is said to be similar to the writing of Hecataeus who "described Moses as a man who excelled in wisdom and courage." Egyptologist Jan Assmann concludes that Strabo was the historian "who came closest to a construction of Moses' religion as monotheistic and as a pronounced counter-religion." It recognized "only one divine being whom no image can represent...
Moses | Strabo
The Jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria (2nd century BCE), portrayed Moses as a cultural hero, alien to the Pharaonic court. According to theologian John Barclay, the Moses of Artapanus "clearly bears the destiny of the Jews, and in his personal, cultural and military splendor, brings credit to the whole Jewish people." Artapanus goes on to relate how Moses returns to Egypt with Aaron, and is imprisoned, but miraculously escapes through the name of YHWH in order to lead the Exodus. This account further testifies that all Egyptian temples of Isis thereafter contained a rod, in remembrance of that used for Moses' miracles.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Artapanus
The earliest visual depiction of the "Finding" is a fresco in the Dura-Europos synagogue, datable to around 244, a unique large-scale survival of what may have been a large body of figurative Jewish religious art in the Hellenized Roman imperial period. This part of a composite image shows several episodes from the childhood of Moses (only the left end illustrated here) and displays both Midrashic details in the narrative and visual borrowings from the iconography of classical paganism. Six of the 26 frescos in the synagogue have Moses as their main subject. There are a few illustrations in much later medieval Jewish illuminated manuscripts, mostly of the Haggadah, some of which seem to share an iconographical tradition going back to Late Antiquity.
Finding of Moses | Jewish art and traditions
Few can resist the impression of a real mind, real emotions, in the figure that glares from his marble seat. Today, he glares at the tourists who mob the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. He outfaces them, just as he outfaced Sigmund Freud, who spent three weeks in 1913 trying to figure out the sculpture's emotional effect. 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.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Description
However, writer J. Stephen Lang points out that Jerome's version actually described Moses as "giving off hornlike rays," and he "rather clumsily translated it to mean 'having horns.'" It has also been noted that he had Moses seated on a throne, yet Moses was never given the title of a King nor ever sat on such thrones.
Moses | Cultural portrayals and references
They began to slide down and were in danger of being broken. This brought him to himself. He remembered his mission and for its sake renounced an indulgence of his feelings. His hand returned and saved the unsupported Tables before they had fallen to the ground. In this attitude, he remained immobilized, and in this attitude, Michelangelo has portrayed him as the guardian of the tomb. As our eyes travel down it, the figure exhibits three distinct emotional strata. 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.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Interpretations
This is followed in Sebastian Bourdon's painting of 1650, with two male swimmers. Italian paintings more often show female swimmers, or at least females who have landed and are drying themselves after handing the baby to the princess, as in Sebastiano Ricci, Salvator Rosa, Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, as well as a painting in the Rijksmuseum by Paulus Bor and Cornelis Hendriksz Vroom from the 1630s, and Poussin's 1651 composition. The only painting of the subject from Rembrandt's studio shows several naked women who have apparently just come out of the water, bringing the basket.
Finding of Moses | Jewish art and traditions
But this interpretation had to be given up, for it made us expect to see him spring up in the next moment, break the Tables and accomplish the work of vengeance. Such a conception, however, would fail to harmonize with the design of making this figure, together with three (or five) more seated figures, a part of the tomb of Julius II. We may now take up again the abandoned interpretation, for the Moses we have reconstructed will neither leap up nor cast the Tables from him. What we see before us is not the inception of violent action but the remains of a movement that has already taken place.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Interpretations
The work was executed for Philip the Bold in a style combining the elegance of International Gothic with a northern realism, but with a monumental quality unusual in either. It was carved from stone quarried in Asnières, near Dijon, and consisted of a large crucifixion scene or "Calvary", with a tall slender cross surmounting a hexagonal base which was surrounded by the figures of the six prophets who had foreseen the death of Christ on the Cross (Moses, David, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel and Isaiah). Standing on slender colonnettes on the corners between these prophets are six weeping angels. All the figures, including the lost Calvary group, were painted and gilded by Jean Malouel, and some of this paint remains.
Well of Moses | Creation
The Jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria (2nd century BCE), portrayed Moses as a cultural hero, alien to the Pharaonic court. According to theologian John Barclay, the Moses of Artapanus "clearly bears the destiny of the Jews, and in his personal, cultural and military splendor, brings credit to the whole Jewish people." Artapanus goes on to relate how Moses returns to Egypt with Aaron, and is imprisoned, but miraculously escapes through the name of YHWH in order to lead the Exodus. This account further testifies that all Egyptian temples of Isis thereafter contained a rod, in remembrance of that used for Moses' miracles.
Moses | Artapanus
He describes Moses as 80 years old, "tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified." Some historians, however, point out the "apologetic nature of much of Artapanus' work," with his addition of extra-biblical details, such as his references to Jethro: the non-Jewish Jethro expresses admiration for Moses' gallantry in helping his daughters, and chooses to adopt Moses as his son.
Moses | Artapanus
The sculpture of Mary and the Child stood on an ornamental console, made up of an almost full-fledged figure of Moses emerging from the flames of a burning bush. Unlike the figure of the Beautiful Madonna, the sculptor did not show Moses in full form. It is also not a bust, the sculpture reaches hip height. The prophet is portrayed as a person of a mature age, with his head firmly leaning down, with wrinkles on his cheeks and forehead, and eyebrow arches and orbits strongly highlighted. In contrast to the highly sophisticated figure of the Madonna, the figure of Moses was shaped more realistically, in a stylized way, the artist carved wavy strands of hair on the head, chin and cheeks.
Beautiful Madonna of Toruń | Appearance
The basket, usually with a rounded shape, is more common in Christian art (at least in the Western Church), and the ark more so in Jewish and Byzantine art; it is also used in the Islamic miniature described below. In all traditions most depictions show a stretch of open river with few reeds, and the vessel is sometimes seen drifting along in the flow. Exceptions are many 19th-century depictions, and some in late medieval manuscripts of the Bible Moralisée type. The less common preceding scene of Moses being left in the reeds is formally called The Exposition of Moses. In some depictions this is shown in the distance as a subsidiary scene, and some cycles, mostly illustrating books, show both scenes.
Finding of Moses | Visualizing the biblical account
Chenephres in the meantime died from elephantiasis [comp. Ex. R. i. and Targ. Yer. to Ex. ii. 23]—a disease with which he was the first to be afflicted—because he had ordered that the Jews should wear garments that would distinguish them from the Egyptians and thereby expose them to maltreatment [this is characteristic of the age in which it was written]. The sufferings of Israel then caused God to appear to Moses in a flame bursting forth from the earth [not from the bush!], and to tell him to march against Egypt for the rescue of his people. Accordingly he went to Egypt to deliberate with his brother Aaron about the plan of warfare, but was put into prison.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Artapanus of Alexandria
Aaron appears paired with Moses frequently in Jewish and Christian art, especially in the illustrations of manuscript and printed Bibles. He can usually be distinguished by his priestly vestments, especially his turban or miter and jeweled breastplate. He frequently holds a censor or, sometimes, his flowering rod. (See at Wikimedia Commons.) Aaron also appears in scenes depicting the wilderness Tabernacle and its altar, as already in the third-century frescos in the synagogue at Dura-Europos in Syria. An eleventh-century portable silver altar from Fulda, Germany depicts Aaron with his censor, and is located in the Musée National de l’Age Médiévale in Paris.
Aaron | Art history
This is also how he appears in the frontispieces of early printed Passover Haggadot and occasionally in church sculptures. Aaron has rarely been the subject of portraits, such as those by Anton Kern [1710–1747] and by Pier Francesco Mola [c. 1650]. Christian artists sometimes portray Aaron as a prophet (Exod. 7:1) holding a scroll, as in a twelfth-century sculpture from the Cathedral of Noyon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and often in Eastern Orthodox icons. Illustrations of the Golden Calf story usually include him as well—most notably in Nicolas Poussin's "The Adoration of the Golden Calf" (ca.
Aaron | Art history
According to Naphthali Wieder, it was because Christians interpreted prayer with outspread hands as referring to the crucifixion of their Messiah that Jews abandoned this prayer posture, which had previously been Jewish tradition. Justin Martyr interpreted as foreshadowing the shape of the execution cross the episode in the Book of Exodus 17:8-13. The text says that Moses "raised" (ירים, ἐπῆρεν in the Greek Septuagint translation) his hands, without specifying in what way they were raised; but Justin uses a more specific expression to describe the posture of Moses, saying that he "spread out his hands on both sides" (τὰς χεῖρας ἑκατέρως ἐκπετάσας).
Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross | For outstretched arms of victim
Medieval depictions are sometimes found in illuminated manuscripts and other media. The incident was regarded as a typological precursor of the Annunciation, and sometimes paired with it. This probably accounts for it being represented as a faded fresco on the rear wall in the "Annunciation" by Jan van Eyck in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. It might also be regarded as prefiguring "the reception of Christ by the community of the faithful", the Resurrection of Jesus, and the escape from the Massacre of the Innocents by the Flight into Egypt. The princess was often seen allegorically as representing the Church, or earlier the Gentile Church.
Finding of Moses | Medieval
The Biblical character Moses is discussed or alluded to in surviving works by a number of Judeo-Hellenic or Judeo-Roman authors, including Eupolemus, Artapanus, Josephus, and Philo, as well as the non-Jewish Hellenistic authors discussed in the main article "Moses". Owing to the contact of the Jews with the Greeks in Alexandria, Moses was made the subject of many legends, and in many respects lifted to supernatural heights. This is in contrast to the Torah, which represents Moses as the greatest of all prophets, to whom the Lord made Himself known face to face (Deut. xxxiv. 10; comp. Num. xii. 7), and who, when descending Mount Sinai, had a beam of light coming off his face which so filled the people with awe that they could not look at him (Ex.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Introduction
Other works include the so-called "Sister of the Golden Haggadah" manuscript, and the (Christian) Pamplona Bibles. By contrast, the 18th-century Venice Haggadah has been influenced by local Christian depictions, and shows a clothed princess on land. A different tradition is first found in Josephus, who was read by Poussin and influenced his treatment of this and other biblical scenes. His account of the finding has the princess "playing by the river bank" and spotting Moses being "borne down the stream". She "sent off some swimmers" to fetch him. Thus in Poussin's 1638 "Finding" in the Louvre a burly male emerges from the water with the child and basket, a detail sometimes copied by other painters.
Finding of Moses | Jewish art and traditions
The draperies fall in graceful folds, the muscles of the arms and bones of the hands are of such beauty and perfection, as are the legs and knees, the feet were adorned with excellent shoes, that Moses may now be called the friend of God more than ever, since God has permitted his body to be prepared for the resurrection before the others by the hand of Michelangelo. The Jews still go every Saturday in troops to visit and adore it as a divine, not a human thing." The English translation of 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 (Michelangelo) | Description
Upon his return from Italy late 1950s, Moudaress abandoned the traditional practices of painting prevalent in Syria at the time, and began to develop a technique drawn from the primitive and ancient arts of his country. In his expressionistic idiom reality is mixed with fiction. The heroes are taken both from the present and from ancient civilisations, and are both nameless peasants and legendary figures. Their square-shaped heads recall those of Assyrian statuary, and those of the figures in Palmyrene frescos, and also of early Christian iconography. These characters are enriched with warm and vibrant colours and executed in a variety of ways, sometimes with dense application of paint, sometimes scratched, or stippled, or with the addition of sand.
Fateh Moudarres | Return to Syria
W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916), and Cecil B. DeMille's "Cleopatra" (1934) and "The Ten Commandments" (1956) (in 1968 Mario Amaya published an article in "The Sunday Times" entitled "The Painter who Inspired Hollywood").
The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting) | Reception
Aside from a reference to Cicero, Moses is the only non-Greek writer quoted in the work, contextually he is put on a par with Homer, and he is described "with far more admiration than even Greek writers who treated Moses with respect, such as Hecataeus and Strabo.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Longinus
The other two figures are of Noah who is holding a model of the ark while David seems to be holding nothing due to the disappearance of the harp, yet he can still be identified by his character. Figures are well rendered but the lower part of the seat in each figure seems to be incomplete. Moses and the prophet are seated in antique chairs that have an “X” form. It should also be noted that the prophet’s scroll held a quotation, which has been lost. (Mitchell 1921, 157-58) (Myers & Copplestone 1985, 351-352, 369-377)
Nicholas of Verdun | Two Bronzes
The fresco portrays the last episode in Moses' life, in two sectors: a foreground one including two scenes, and a background one, with three further scenes and, on the right, a landscape. Moses is always recognizable through his yellow garments and the green cloak, as in the rest of the cycle. The artist made an extensive use of gold painting. On the background Moses, on the Mount Nebo, receives by an angel the command baton, which gives him the authority to lead the Israelites towards the Promised Land. Below, Moses descends from the mountain with the baton in his hand, similarly to Cosimo Rosselli's "Descent from Mount Sinai" nearby.
Testament and Death of Moses | Description
However, we cannot know from only Artapanus' account the extent to which this religious syncretism existed in the minds of other Jews or Egyptians writing or living at this time. Although Artapanus credits Moses with the foundation of the animal cults, he also claims that the "consecrated animals" were destroyed during the crossing of the Red Sea. This suggests that, according to Artapanus, Moses' contributions to Egyptian society were ultimately less important than the original purpose of this folk hero: to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
Artapanus of Alexandria | Works and portrayal of Moses
There is general scholarly consensus that Artapanus used the Septuagint as a framework for his historical narrative, liberally manipulating its stories to create his own unique account. He describes the Egyptian adventures of the three major Jewish patriarchs, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, depicting them as heroes responsible for many of the cultural innovations of the ancient Near East. According to Artapanus, Abraham taught an Egyptian pharaoh the science of astrology, while Moses bestowed many “useful benefits on mankind” by inventing boats, Egyptian weapons, and philosophy. (Eusebius, PrEv 9.27.4) He also recounts that the Greeks called Moses Musaeus and that he taught Orpheus, who was widely considered to be the father of Greek culture.
Artapanus of Alexandria | Works and portrayal of Moses
Jewish textual traditions elaborate on the text in "Exodus" in various ways, and it has been argued that some of these details can be detected in Christian as well as Jewish art. One Jewish tradition was that Pharaoh's daughter, identified as Bithiah, was a leper, who was bathing in the river to cleanse herself, seen as a ritual purification for which she would be naked. As at Dura-Europos, Jewish depictions often include her, and sometimes other women, standing naked in the river. According to Rabbinic tradition, as soon as the princess touched the ark carrying Moses she was healed. The earliest surviving Christian depiction is a fresco of the 4th century in the Catacomb of Via Latina, Rome.
Finding of Moses | Jewish art and traditions
There are several short cycles in luxury manuscripts of the Bible Moralisée and related types, some of which give the story more than one image. The depiction in the 12th-century English Eadwine Psalter has a naked female swimmer in the water, holding the empty ark with one hand, while a clothed female with her feet in the water holds out the baby to the princess, who reclines on a bed or litter. This is part of some 11 scenes of the life of Moses. This may relate to the Jewish visual traditions covered below. The artist of a French Romanesque capital has enjoyed himself showing the infant Moses threatened by crocodiles and perhaps hippos, as often shown in classical depictions of the Nile landscape.
Finding of Moses | Medieval
Despite the lack of biblical references or historical records, for two millennia a wide range of depictions of Jesus have appeared, often influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts. As in other Christian art, the earliest depictions date to the late second or early 3rd century, and are primarily found in Rome. In these early depictions, Jesus is usually shown as a youthful figure without a beard and with curly hair, sometimes with different features from the other men in the scenes, e.g. his disciples or the Romans. However bearded depictions also appear from very early on, perhaps drawing on an existing stereotype from the Greek world of the appearance of the many itinerant charismatic philosophers.
Race and appearance of Jesus | Artistic portrayals
Non-biblical writings about Jews, with references to the role of Moses, first appear at the beginning of the Hellenistic period, from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE. Shmuel notes that "a characteristic of this literature is the high honour in which it holds the peoples of the East in general and some specific groups among these peoples." In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic historians Artapanus, Eupolemus, Josephus, and Philo, a few non-Jewish historians including Hecataeus of Abdera (quoted by Diodorus Siculus), Alexander Polyhistor, Manetho, Apion, Chaeremon of Alexandria, Tacitus and Porphyry also make reference to him. The extent to which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources is unknown.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Moses in Hellenistic literature
He added that, when Moses relaxed some element of "this posture imitating the cross" (τοῦ σχήματος τούτου τοῦ τὸν σταυρὸν μιμουμένου), the people were defeated, but when Moses maintained it, the people prevailed "on account of the cross" (διὰ τοῦ σταυροῦ); he attributed this effect not to the prayer of Moses but to the fact that Moses "was forming the sign of the cross" (τὸ σημεῖον τοῦ σταυροῦ ἐποίει).
Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross | For outstretched arms of victim
His feet were like burnt bronze glowing in a furnace (...) His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance" (Revelation 1:12–16, NIV). Use in art of the Revelation description of Jesus has generally been restricted to illustrations of the book itself, and nothing in the scripture confirms the spiritual form's resemblance to the physical form Jesus took in his life on Earth. Exodus 20:4–6 "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" is one of the Ten Commandments and except for minor exceptions made Jewish depictions of first-century individuals a scarcity. But attitudes towards the interpretation of this Commandment changed through the centuries, in that while first-century rabbis in Judea objected violently to the depiction of human figures and placement of statues in Temples, third-century Babylonian Jews had different views; and while no figural art from first-century Roman Judea exists, the art on the Dura synagogue walls developed with no objection from the Rabbis early in the third century.
Depiction of Jesus | Before Constantine
His right arm links the Tables of the Law with something that looks like a book in the right palm of his hand with a portion of his beard; his left arm lies in his lap." Jonathan Jones of the English newspaper, "The Guardian", provides another description: "Moses's right hand protects the stone tablets bearing the Commandments; his left hand, veins throbbing, muscles tense, appears to be holding back from the violent action. When he came down from Mount Sinai, Moses found his people worshipping the Golden Calf - the false idol they had made. His anger defies the prison of stone, the limits of the sculptor's art.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Description
Moses also appears in other religious texts such as the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), Midrash (200–1200 CE), and the Qur'an (c. 610–53). The figure of Osarseph in Hellenistic historiography is a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers against the pharaoh and is finally expelled from Egypt, changing his name to Moses.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Moses in Hellenistic literature
"Moses" is constructed from various, interlocking geometric forms. The sculpture is fundamentally abstract, and it changes substantially as a viewer walks around it—there is no clear “front” or “back.” The work’s title does evoke a certain anthropomorphism, however. Smith often titled his sculptures based on the images they triggered in his imagination. This sculpture’s forms summoned for him an image of the Hebrew prophet Moses holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments in upraised arms. "Moses" was singled out for mention in a review of the Museum of Modern Art’s 1998 Tony Smith retrospective, for which the Toledo Museum of Art lent its edition of the sculpture.
Moses (1968) | Description
Focusing predominantly on landscapes, Moses incorporates a high degree of abstraction in his technique, but refuses to fully abandon representational painting. Profoundly influenced by his time in Asia, Moses incorporates Japanese aesthetics into his work.
Forrest Moses | Artistic Style
Philo also shows familiarity with these legends; he refers to the beauty of the babe Moses (l.c. i. 3) and mentions the fact that the princess, being childless, contrived to make Moses appear as her own child (i. 4-5). Moses' education in science, art, and philosophy, however, is ascribed to Egyptian masters (i. 6); he was grieved by the sufferings of his Hebrew brethren, many of whom died an untimely death and did not have even seemly burial (i. 7); his prophetic powers were attested at the Red Sea when the Egyptian dead were cast up by the waves and were actually seen by the Israelites, as Moses had announced (iii.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Philo
Non-biblical writings about Jews, with references to the role of Moses, first appear at the beginning of the Hellenistic period, from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE. Shmuel notes that "a characteristic of this literature is the high honour in which it holds the peoples of the East in general and some specific groups among these peoples." In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic historians Artapanus, Eupolemus, Josephus, and Philo, a few non-Jewish historians including Hecataeus of Abdera (quoted by Diodorus Siculus), Alexander Polyhistor, Manetho, Apion, Chaeremon of Alexandria, Tacitus and Porphyry also make reference to him. The extent to which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources is unknown.
Moses | Hellenistic literature
The modern scholarly consensus is that the figure of Moses is a mythical figure, and while, as William G. Dever writes, "a Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in the southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century B.C.", archaeology cannot confirm his existence. Certainly no Egyptian sources mention Moses or the events of Exodus–Deuteronomy, nor has any archaeological evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the central figure. The story of his discovery picks up a familiar motif in ancient Near Eastern mythological accounts of the ruler who rises from humble origins.
Moses | Historicity
The Finding of Moses, sometimes called Moses in the Bullrushes, Moses Saved from the Waters, or other variants, is the story in chapter 2 of the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible of the finding in the River Nile of Moses as a baby by the daughter of Pharaoh. The story became a common subject in art, especially from the Renaissance onwards. Depictions in Jewish and Islamic art are much less frequent, but some Christian depictions show details derived from extra-biblical Jewish texts. The earliest surviving depiction in art is a fresco in the Dura-Europos synagogue, datable to around 244 AD, whose motif of a "naked princess" bathing in the river has been related to much later art.
Finding of Moses | Introduction
"Moses" is a black, painted steel sculpture that stands 11'6" (h) x 15' (w) x 7'4" (d). Like many of Tony Smith's large sculptures, "Moses" was developed with geometric and mathematical principles in mind. It is a monumental sculpture with tilting faces and extending branches. In fact, the sculpture appears different when viewed from every vantage point. Similar to other sculptures by Smith, Moses mixes anthropomorphism (human scale and characteristics) with geometry. Smith named the sculpture for the Hebrew prophet Moses, as depicted in the painting by Rembrandt. The two vertical arms of the sculpture evoke the religious scene of Moses holding the tablet of the Ten Commandments in his outstretched arms.
Moses (3/3) | Description
Although some historians believe that Jerome made an outright error, Jerome himself appears to have seen "qeren" as a metaphor for "glorified", based on other commentaries he wrote, including one on Ezekiel, where he wrote that Moses' face had "become 'glorified', or as it says in the Hebrew, 'horned'." The Greek Septuagint, which Jerome also had available, translated the verse as "Moses knew not that the appearance of the skin of his face was glorified." In general medieval theologians and scholars understood that Jerome had intended to express a glorification of Moses' face, by his use of the Latin word for "horned." The understanding that the original Hebrew was difficult and was not likely to mean "horns" persisted into and through the Renaissance.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Horns
Moses ( ; c. 1513–1515) is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. 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.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Introduction
In the medieval Christian art, Judah Maccabee was regarded as one of the heroes of the Old Testament. He figures in a tenth-century illustrated manuscript "Libri Maccabaeorum". The late medieval French artist Jean Fouquet painted an illustration of Judah triumphing over his enemies for his famous manuscript of Josephus. Rubens painted Judah Maccabee praying for the dead; the painting illustrates an episode from 2 Maccabees 12:39–48 in which Judah's troops find stolen idolatrous charms on the corpses of Jewish warriors slain on the battlefield. He therefore offers prayers and an expiatory sacrifice for these warriors who have died in a state of sin.
Judas Maccabeus | Visual arts
The earliest known version of the standard depiction is in an apse mosaic at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt, dating to the period of (and probably commissioned by) Justinian the Great, where the subject had a special association with the site, because of the meeting of Christ and Moses, "the 'cult hero' of Mount Sinai". This very rare survivor of Byzantine art from before the Byzantine iconoclasm shows a standing Christ in a mandorla with a cruciform halo, flanked by standing figures of Moses on the left with a long beard, and Elijah on the right. Below them are the three disciples named as present in the Synoptic Gospels: Saints Peter, James, son of Zebedee and John the Evangelist.
Transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art | Iconography
Although Jerome completed the Vulgate in the late 4th century, the first known applications of the literal language of the Vulgate in art are found in an English illustrated book written in the vernacular, that was created around 1050: the Aelfric Paraphrase of the Pentateuch and Joshua. For the next 150 years or so, evidence for further images of a horned Moses is sparse. Afterward, such images proliferated and can be found, for example, in the stained glass windows at the Chartres Cathedral, Sainte-Chapelle, and Notre Dame, even as Moses continued to be depicted many times without horns. In the 16th century, the prevalence of depictions of a horned Moses steeply diminished.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Horns
It is as though the controlling influence had proceeded downwards from above. No mention has been made so far of the left arm, and it seems to claim a share in our interpretation. The hand is laid in the lap in a mild gesture and holds as though in a caress the end of the flowing beard. It seems as if it is meant to counteract the violence with which the other hand had misused the beard a few moments ago. Another view, put forward by Malcolm MacMillan and Peter Swales in their essay entitled "Observations from the Refuse-Heap: Freud, Michelangelo's Moses, and Psychoanalysis", relates the sculpture to the second set of Tables and the events mentioned in Exodus 33 and 34.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Interpretations
The fresco shows several episodes of Moses' youth, taken from Exodus. It parallels the fresco on the opposite wall, also by Botticelli, which depicts "the Temptations of Jesus". The frieze has the inscription . On the right is Moses killing the Egyptian who had harassed a Hebrew, and fleeing to the desert (a parallel with the episode of Jesus defeating the Devil). In the next episode Moses fights the shepherds who were preventing Jethro's daughters (including his future wife, Zipporah) to water their cattle at the pit, and then takes the water for them. In the third scene, in the upper left corner, Moses removes his shoes and then receives from God the task to return to Egypt and free his people.
Youth of Moses | Description
Similarly, Artapanus credits Moses with the division of Egypt into 36 nomes as well as the successful conquest of Ethiopia, two accomplishments traditionally attributed to the Egyptian folk hero Sesostris. Throughout the narrative Artapanus insists that the public loved these Jewish figures for their impressive innovations and achievements. In fact, he remarks that the Ethiopians went so far as to circumcise themselves out of admiration for Moses. While some of Artapanus’ history clearly references accounts in Genesis and Exodus, such as his description of the plagues, most of his story lacks evidence. One of the most striking aspects of Artapanus' works is the ease with which he syncretizes Jewish and Egyptian culture and religion.
Artapanus of Alexandria | Works and portrayal of Moses
The ark appears enclosed and solid; it looks rather like an elongated coffin, perhaps because the artist was unfamiliar with the subject. There are few comparable Islamic world histories, and like other scenes in the "Jami' al-tawarikh", this may be all but unique in Islamic miniatures. The composition may be derived from Byzantine depictions. This manuscript has seven miniatures of the life of Moses, an unprecedented number perhaps suggesting a special identification with Moses by the author Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, a convert from Judaism who became chief minister of Persia.
Finding of Moses | Islamic art
The painting was part of a series developed for the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the church of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome. The painting depicts an old testament event described in Numbers 13:1-33, where messengers or "spies" returning to Moses from the lands of Canaan, bring forth evidence of the agricultural bounty of the lands. Moses stands tallest with the "horns of light" emerging from the forehead. The messengers bring pomegranates, figs, but most prominently grapes. The grapes evoke the sacramental wine of the Eucharist. In the chapel, this painting accompanied canvas depictions of the Last Supper and "Elijah receiving bread from the Widow of Zarephath" (also displayed at the Getty museum).
Moses and the Messengers from Canaan (Giovanni Lanfranco) | Description
They note that Moses is holding blank tablets, which God had commanded Moses to make in preparation for the second giving of the Law; they also note that Moses is depicted with "horns," which the biblical texts describe Moses as having only after he returned to the Hebrew people after the second giving of the Law. They argue that the statue depicts the moment when Moses sees God, as described in Exodus 33: "The incident in question is the most significant part of the Old Testament story of the exodus. Moses, full of doubt about his own standing and that of his people, takes the considerable risk of requesting—even demanding—that they are forgiven, that he be granted the Lord's grace, and that the Lord resume his place and lead them to the Promised Land.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Interpretations
In the background, the Hebrews are shown safely completing their crossing of the Red Sea as Moses (shown in blue) gestures for the waters to return and drown the pursuing Egyptians (). In the right foreground, Moses, near the end of his life, is depicted laying his hand on Joshua and commissioning him to lead the Israelites (). Bronzino's arrangement of the Hebrews in the foreground demonstrates his mannerist penchant for appropriating classical sculptural subjects in his works. The seated nude on the right is shown in the classic reclining pose of a river god. The semi-nude male on the left with his back to the viewer contorts his body to grip the arm of a seated female while holding onto an oversized mazzocchio hat popular in 15th-century Florence.
Crossing of the Red Sea (Bronzino) | Composition
The Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56–120 CE) refers to Moses by noting that the Jewish religion was monotheistic and without a clear image. His primary work, wherein he describes Jewish philosophy, is his "Histories" (c. 100), where, according to Murphy, as a result of the Jewish worship of one God, "pagan mythology fell into contempt." Tacitus states that, despite various opinions current in his day regarding the Jews' ethnicity, most of his sources are in agreement that there was an Exodus from Egypt. By his account, the Pharaoh Bocchoris, suffering from a plague, banished the Jews in response to an oracle of the god Zeus-Amun.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Tacitus
Moses is mentioned more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament figure. For Christians, Moses is often a symbol of God's law, as reinforced and expounded on in the teachings of Jesus. New Testament writers often compared Jesus' words and deeds with Moses' to explain Jesus' mission. In Acts 7:39–43, 51–53, for example, the rejection of Moses by the Jews who worshipped the golden calf is likened to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews that continued in traditional Judaism. Moses also figures in several of Jesus' messages. When he met the Pharisee Nicodemus at night in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, he compared Moses' lifting up of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which any Israelite could look at and be healed, to his own lifting up (by his death and resurrection) for the people to look at and be healed.
Moses | Christianity
[and] the only way to approach this god is to live in virtue and in justice."
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Strabo
The difference lies in the depiction of Hermes, which can be argued represents a note of optimism of being saved; as in other versions of the mythology, Hermes helps obtain Prometheus' release. Still, in the Prometheus Bound attributed to Aeschylus, Hermes treats Prometheus badly, which would argue against an optimistic interpretation. The depiction of the sacks of bones (used in another part of the myth to deceive Zeus) and a clay statue (which represents his creation of man) are also not part of the Rubens painting. Another notable difference is the look of pure agony in Jordaens' Prometheus while Rubens' figure relies on the suggestion of the contorted figure to convey the same feeling.
Jacob Jordaens | "Prometheus"
Of the European painters of the subject, the Flemish Jacob Jordaens depicted Odysseus escaping from the cave of Polyphemus in 1635 (see gallery below) and others chose the dramatic scene of the giant casting boulders at the escaping ship. In Guido Reni's painting of 1639/40 (see below), the furious giant is tugging a boulder from the cliff as Odysseus and his men row out to the ship far below. Polyphemus is portrayed, as it often happens, with two empty eye sockets and his damaged eye located in the middle on his forehead. This convention goes back to Greek statuary and painting, and is reproduced in Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein's 1802 head and shoulders portrait of the giant (see below).
Polyphemus | Artistic representations
Historical depictions include the Binding of Isaac; the Jewish people hurriedly leaving Egypt with their matzos, which did not have time to rise; Pharaoh and his army pursuing the Jewish nation to the Red Sea; Moses receiving the two Tablets of Stone from heaven and giving over the Pentateuch to the Jewish people; and the Jews receiving manna from heaven during their wanderings in the desert. The Jewish characters are dressed in medieval German-Jewish clothing, and the pointed "Jewish hat" mandated by the Church beginning in the 13th century is seen on Jewish leaders and teachers, including Moses. Yet while the Jewish characters all have human bodies, and some also have human hair and beards, and wear helmets or women's snoods, their faces are those of "sharp-beaked and sharp-eyed birds".
Birds' Head Haggadah | Illustrations
The cradle has been decorated with lotus flowers, tied on with a pink ribbon. Another female attendant plays a stringed instrument. The painting is composed like a frieze, with bright blues and purples of delphiniums in the foregrounds; the procession passing behind; a space for the river; and then, in the background, on the other bank of the river, teams of slaves can be seen labouring under their dark-skinned overseers, possibly working on the pyramids at Giza on the opposite bank. The blues of the flowers are echoed by the lapis lazuli inlay of the chair, but contrast with yellows, oranges, reds and pinks.
The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting) | Description
In other paintings he portrayed the body in its basic "alphabetic" gestures, placed his self-portrait in a text, copied whole chapters from the bible and made writing itself into a painted image. In those actions Sgan-Cohen's developed a unique poetic and artistic view of the visual aspects of the Hebrew word and the Hebrew alphabet. Naturally, the Bible became a major source in his art: Moses, The Akedah, Jonah and the Leviathan, Psalms, etc. In a very ambitious and project, Sgan-Cohen made twelve large panels in which the whole text of the Twelve Minor Prophets ("Trei Assar") were copied, a homage to the long tradition of the meticulous reproduction of the word of the prophet and at token of respect to the sanctity of the word.
Michael Sgan-Cohen | Work
Moses is depicted with horns, connoting "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew words for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and for an artist horns are easier to sculpt than rays of light. Other works of art include two canvases of "Saint Augustine" and "St. Margaret" by Guercino, the monument of Cardinal Girolamo Agucchi designed by Domenichino, who is also the painter of a sacristy fresco depicting the "Liberation of St. Peter" (1604). The altarpiece on the first chapel to the left is a "Deposition" by Cristoforo Roncalli.
San Pietro in Vincoli | Interior
Four figures are on the bank, with Moses still in the water; the largest is the princess, who stretches out her arms, which the baby also does. This gesture may derive from a textual variation found in Midrashic sources and the Aramaic translation of the Bible. In these "she ... sent her female slave" is changed to "she stretched out her arm". Though the context is Christian, many of the images here are of Old Testament subjects, and very likely reflect models adopted from an initially Jewish visual tradition, perhaps painted by artisans with sets of models for all religious requirements.
Finding of Moses | Jewish art and traditions
In his essay entitled "The Moses of Michelangelo", Sigmund Freud associates the moment in the biblical narrative when Moses descends from the mountain the first time, carrying the tablets, and finds the Hebrew people worshipping the Golden Calf, as described in Exodus 32. Freud describes Moses in a complex psychological state: We may now, I believe, permit ourselves to reap the fruits of our endeavors. 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.
Moses (Michelangelo) | Interpretations
The Youth of Moses or The Trials of Moses is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli and his workshop, executed in 1481–1482 in the Sistine Chapel, Rome (modern-day Italy).
Youth of Moses | Introduction
A contrasting tradition, beginning in the Renaissance, gave great attention to the rich costumes of the princess and her retinue. Moses was a central figure in Jewish tradition, and was given a variety of different significances in Christian thought. He was regarded as a typological precursor of Christ, but could at times also be regarded as a precursor or allegorical representation of things as diverse as the pope, Venice, the Dutch Republic, or Louis XIV. The subject also represented a case of a foundling or abandoned child, a significant social issue into modern times.
Finding of Moses | Introduction
The Finding of Moses had been a popular subject for paintings since the Renaissance, with a revival in the 19th century by Orientalist artists keen to add authentic archaeological decor to their depictions.
The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting) | Introduction
The first or "Semitic" form showed Jesus with short and "frizzy" hair; the second showed a bearded Jesus with hair parted in the middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted. Theodorus Lector remarked that of the two, the one with short and frizzy hair was "more authentic". To support his assertion, he relates a story (excerpted by John of Damascus) that a pagan commissioned to paint an image of Jesus used the "Zeus" form instead of the "Semitic" form, and that as punishment his hands withered. Though their development was gradual, we can date the full-blown appearance and general ecclesiastical (as opposed to simply popular or local) acceptance of Christian images as venerated and miracle-working objects to the 6th century, when, as Hans Belting writes, "we first hear of the church's use of religious images".
Icon | Stylistic developments
His other paintings include the "Moses with Arms supported by Aaron and Hur", in the collection of Aberystwyth University and "A Dog of the Convent of Great St. Bernard, remarkable for his docility, courage and intelligence,and for his attachment to his master, on whose tomb he is represented" (Royal Academy 1857).
Thomas Brigstocke | Other paintings
The painting, like others in the cycle, shows more episodes at the same time; the theme is described by the inscription on the frieze "PROMULGATIO LEGIS SCRIPTE PER MOISEM. In" ("Promulgation of the Written Law through Moses"). In the upper part is Moses kneeling on Mount Sinai, with a sleeping Joshua nearby: he receives the Tables of the Law from Yahweh, who appears in a luminescent cloud, surrounded by angels. In the foreground, on the left, Moses brings the Tables to the Israelites. In the background is camp of tents, with the altar of the golden calf in the middle; the Israelites, spurred by Aaron, are adoring it: the position of some of them, painted from behind, was usually used for negative characters, such as Judas Iscariot in the "Last Supper".
Descent from Mount Sinai (Sistine Chapel) | Description
This composition can appear until as late as Ingres (Montauban, Musée Ingres ) and beyond. From the Early Medieval period the moment shown is usually assimilated to the finding itself, by the inclusion of, initially, Mary, and later Joseph as well, usually at the left of the scene. Typically, Jesus and the doctors, intent on their discussions, have not noticed them yet. From the 12th century Jesus is often seated in a large throne-like chair, sometimes holding a book or scroll. In late medieval depictions, the Doctors, often now carrying or consulting large volumes, may be given specifically Jewish features or dress, and are sometimes overtly anti-Semitic caricatures, like some of the figures in Albrecht Dürer's version in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
Finding in the Temple | In art
When not depicted in this common form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as a dog-faced baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is A'an, the god of equilibrium. In the form of A'ah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form. These forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoth's attributes.
Thoth | Depictions
Artapanus of Alexandria, in his history of the Jews, went so far as to identify Moses with Tot-Hermes (the Egyptian messenger and scribe of the gods, who invented the letters, the various arts of peace and of war, as well as philosophy), and with the Greek Musaeus, "the teacher of Orpheus." He even ascribed to him the division of the land into its thirty-six districts, with their various forms of worship. As the foster-mother of Moses, Artapanus names Merris, the wife of Chenephres, King of Upper Egypt; being childless, she pretended to have given birth to him and brought him up as her own child.(Eusebius, l.c.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Artapanus of Alexandria
34, with reference to Ex. xiv. 13, 30).
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Philo
The Crucifixion was replaced, at the expense of the objectors, by the present scene of the Transfiguration. Both depictions of Moses, like the famous sculpture by Michelangelo in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome show him with horns, a symbolic attribute due to a mistranslation in the Vulgate Bible.
St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney | Interior
Although some images exist at the synagogue at Dura-Europos, and such images may have been common, Judaism in theory forbade images, and its influence on the depictions of Jesus remains unknown. Christian depictions of the 3rd and 4th centuries typically focused on New Testament scenes of healings and other miracles. Following the conversion of Constantine in the 4th century, Christian art found many wealthy donors and flourished. In this period Jesus began to have more mature features, and was shown with a beard. A new development at this time was the depiction of Jesus without a narrative context, but just as a figure by himself.
Race and appearance of Jesus | Artistic portrayals
Accordingly, this was the reason for the representation of character, or ethos, in public paintings and sculptures. In order to portray the character's choice, the pictorial narrative often shows an earlier scene than when the action was committed. Stansbury-O'Donnell gives an example of this in the form of a picture by the ancient Greek artist Exekia which shows the Greek hero Ajax planting his sword in the ground in preparation to commit suicide, instead of the actual suicide scene. (Stansbury-O'Donnell, p. 177.) Additionally, Castriota explains that ancient Greek art expresses the idea that character was the major factor influencing the outcome of the Greeks' conflicts against their enemies.
Ethos | Character, or ethos, in pictorial narrative
The fresco depicting the voyage of Moses is the first on the wall right to the altar, and faces the "Baptism of Christ" on the opposite wall. The painting shows Moses (dressing in yellow and green as in the other frescoes of the cycle) leaving for Egypt, after he had been exiled from Midian, with Zipporah to his right. In the center, an angel asks him to circumcise his son Eliezer (scene on the right), as a sign of the alliance between Yahweh and the Israelites. The baptism, depicted on the opposite fresco, was in fact considered by several early Christian writers, including Augustine, as a kind of "spiritual circumcision".
Moses Leaving for Egypt (Perugino) | Description
There has been confusion over the identify of the man in the painting because Don Antonio Ruffo did not specifically request a subject for his commission. It has been thought to be Albertus Magnus, Tasso, Ariosto, Virgil and seventeenth-century Dutch poet Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. The identity of the subject was also challenged by Simon Schama in his book called "Rembrandt's Eyes." Schama presents a substantial argument that it was the famous ancient Greek painter Apelles who is depicted in Rembrandt's painting. In 1969, Julius Held argued that it was Aristotle in the painting by analyzing his facial features, his clothes and the objects he holds.
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer | Misconceptions
In the play "Exagōgē" by Ezekiel the Tragedian (3rd century BC), Moses recounts his finding, saying of the princess "And straightway seeing me, she took me up", which may be reflected both in the New Testament Acts 7:20, and in artistic depictions where the princess is apparently first to grasp the ark. The motif of the naked princess standing in the water, sometimes accompanied by naked maids, reappears in Jewish manuscript illuminations from Spanish workshops in the late Middle Ages, along with some other details of iconography found in the Dura-Europos synagogue. In the 14th-century Golden Haggadah there are three, while Moses' sister Miriam sits on the bank watching them.
Finding of Moses | Jewish art and traditions
i. 166).
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Josephus
39). Later on, the belief became current that Moses did not die, but was taken up to heaven like Elijah. This seems to have been the chief content of the apocryphon entitled the "Assumption of Moses", preserved only in fragmentary form.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | Moses' death, or elevation, or pre-existence
These realistic life-size figures are modelled in terracotta, for native stone was lacking in Modena, and subsequently painted. They represent emotive mourners gathered around the dead Christ, in which each character is a portrait of either the donor or a relative of the donor; in the Modena "Lamentation", for instance, Ercole I d'Este represents Nicodemus and his wife Eleonor represents Mary of Cleophas. In the Neapolitan piece, Alfonso II is Joseph of Arimathea. It seems probable that Mazzoni's background in theatrical masks and props affected his work, because of the staged melodrama in their gestures and expressions. One attractive theory is that they relate to an annual passion play, in which these notable figures may have played some part.
Guido Mazzoni (sculptor) | Biography
The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, influenced Longinus, who may have been the author of the great book of literary criticism, "On the Sublime". The date of composition is unknown, but it is commonly assigned to the late Ist century C.E. The writer quotes Genesis in a "style which presents the nature of the deity in a manner suitable to his pure and great being," however he does not mention Moses by name, calling him 'no chance person' (οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν ἀνήρ ) but "the Lawgiver" (θεσμοθέτης) of the Jews," a term that puts him on a par with Lycurgus and Minos.
Moses in Judeo-Hellenistic literature | In Longinus
Allowing for the painted pilasters that separate each scene, the level of the horizon matches between scenes, and Moses wears the same yellow and green clothes in his scenes. Botticelli differs from his colleagues in imposing a more insistent triptych-like composition, dividing each of his scenes into a main central group with two flanking groups at the sides, showing different incidents. In each the principal figure of Christ or Moses appears several times, seven in the case of the "Youth of Moses". The thirty invented portraits of the earliest popes seem to have been mainly Botticelli's responsibility, at least as far as producing the cartoons went.
Sandro Botticelli | Sistine Chapel
Timanthes of Cythnus () was an ancient Greek painter of the 4th century BC. The most celebrated of his works was a picture representing the sacrifice of Iphigenia, in which he finely depicted the emotions of those who took part in the sacrifice; however, despairing of rendering the grief of Agamemnon, he represented him as veiling his face. A painting discovered at Pompeii, and now in the Museum at Naples, has been regarded as a copy or echo of this painting (Wolfgang Helbig, "Wandgemälde Campaniens", No. 1304).
Timanthes | Introduction
Some individuals, such as Josephus Flavius, show a high degree of individuality. Others, like John Chrysostom, are dull and expressionless. Researchers attribute this second style of facial expressions to repetition and not poor skills. Expressions were used when the text called for it, such as grief when Jacob saw Joseph’s blood-ridden coat. The artists were also skilled as realistically depicting gestures and motions, shown through Abraham’s firm grip on Sarah’s wrist. Overall, the styles that were used by the various artists for the creation of the Sacra Parallela were remarkably similar. The variations are not attributed to the different artists, but the fact that the artists gave the most attention to the scenes that they liked and finished the rest in a routine manner.
Sacra Parallela | Illustrations
The statue dates from 1544. After storm damage it was rebuilt in 1790-1791. The Louis XVI style basin was designed by Niklaus Sprüngli. The statue represents Moses bringing the Ten Commandments to the Tribes of Israel. Moses is portrayed with two rays of light projecting from his head, which represent which tells that after meeting with God the skin of Moses' face became radiant. The twin rays of light come from a longstanding tradition that Moses instead grew horns. Most commentators have simply said that Jerome mistranslated קָרַ֔ן ("qāran") as “horned” rather than “radiant.” But Bena Elisha Medjuck, a McGill University Department of Jewish Studies graduate student, offered a more complex explanation in his 1988 thesis “Exodus 34:29-35: Moses’ ‘Horns’ in Early Bible Translation and Interpretation.”[1] Medjuck explains that Jerome was well-acquainted both with the variant meanings of "qāran" and with the prevailing translation of his contemporary Jewish scholars – with whom he consulted! Jerome chose the “horned” translation as metaphor faithful to the text: a depiction of Moses’ strength and authority, and a glorification of the Lord! Jerome even explained this in his accompanying commentary! Horns were almost universally viewed by ancient civilizations as symbols of power, not as the negative or demonic symbols they became for Christians thousands of years later.
Mosesbrunnen | History
Pilate now frequently appears in illuminations for books of hours, as well as in the richly illuminated "Bibles moralisées", which include many biographical scenes adopted from the legendary material, although Pilate's washing of hands remains the most frequently depicted scene. In the , Pilate is generally depicted as a Jew. In many other images, however, he is depicted as a king or with a mixture of attributes of a Jew and a king. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries see fewer depictions of Pilate, although he generally appears in cycles of artwork on the passion. He is sometimes replaced by Herod, Annas, and Caiaphas in the trial scene.
Pontius Pilate | High and late medieval and renaissance art
Moses also appears in other religious texts such as the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), Midrash (200–1200 CE), and the Quran (c. 610–653). The figure of Osarseph in Hellenistic historiography is a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers against the pharaoh and is finally expelled from Egypt, changing his name to Moses.
Moses | Hellenistic literature
A putto representing Charity harvests acorns from the oak branch. Fortitude's seated posture and the folds of her clothing are copied directly from a modello Raphael had seen of Michelangelo's "Moses". Prominently seated in the center is Prudence. On her breast is an effigy of a winged Gorgon to ward off deceit and fraud. Janus-like, her head has two faces shown in profile. Her youthful feminine face looks forward into a mirror. This is an allegory of wisdom and knowledge of the present. The backward-facing visage of the old man peers into a past for sound judgment predicated on experience.
Cardinal and Theological Virtues (Raphael) | Description
Scholars cannot agree on the subjects of some scenes, because of damage, or the lack of comparative examples. The scenes depicted are drawn from the Hebrew Bible and include many narrative scenes, and some single figure "portraits"—58 scenes in total, probably representing about 60% of the original number. They include the "Sacrifice of Isaac" and other Genesis stories, Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law, Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, the visions of Ezekiel, and many others. The Hand of God motif is used to represent divine intervention or approval in several paintings. There have been scholarly debates questioning the wall paintings' influence over later Judeo-Christian iconography, which have been held due to the relevance of such early depictions of the biblical narrative.
Dura-Europos synagogue | Iconography
He also suggested that he would have had short, curly hair and a short cropped beard. Although entirely speculative as the face of Jesus, the result of the study determined that Jesus' skin would have been more olive-colored than white or black, and that he would have looked like a typical Galilean Semite. Among the points made was that the Bible records that Jesus's disciple Judas had to point him out to those arresting him in Gethsemane. The implied argument is that if Jesus's physical appearance had differed markedly from his disciples, then he would have been relatively easy to identify.
Depiction of Jesus | Range of depictions