The rays of Michelangelo's Moses as the sign of the betrayed

Vienna Choir ^ | FR Post 18 FEB 2003 | Guy Shaked

[vannrox]

The rays of Michelangelo's Moses as the sign of the betrayed

The sign of the betrayed in Michelangelo's Moses

by Guy Shaked

Keywords: Moses, Michelangelo Buonarroti, San Pietro in Vincoli, Shaked, Sigmund Freud

The statue of Moses, by Michelangelo, depicts Moses in an important moment in his life. Moses has come from mount Sinai, and brings his people, the people of Israel the basic rules of their religion. For, under his arm are the second plates of the Ten Commandments.

Moses posture is that of a prophet, posed on a marble chair, between two decorated marble columns. His long beard descends to his lap and is set aside by his right hand, which also leans on the plates. This posture of the seated prophet also appears in Michelangelo's "Sistine Chapel" frescoes from about the same time. The Prophets Zachary, Joel, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Daniel, as well as the Libyan, Cumaean, Erythraean, Persian and Delphic Sibyls, are all seated like Moses between decorated columns and hold some kind of writing platform (Book or Scroll).

All these prophets and Moses have in common that their religious teachings and prophecies were written down and preserved as Biblical books. A prophet as Jonah that his action rather then religious prophecies and teachings appear in the Bible is depicted without writing platform besides him [1].

The statue contains several peculiarities of proportions (described as faults by some art critics) however these disappear if the statue is seen from below as Michelangelo originally intended [2].

Seated down he gazes at his people, the people that betrayed his trust. For the people of Israel have worshiped the

golden calf. Sacrificing and donating to this idol their gold and jewelry. This had happened while Moses was at the mountain receiving from God the Torah for the first time. It caused Moses in a moment of rage to break the first set of plates on which the commandments were inscribed. Thereafter he made a second set of plates on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed - and this set which is depicted, he did not break.

The shape of the plates is rectangular in the statue, as was the main tradition in Italy up to his time, different from the current depiction of it as having on its top two arches, in the shape of the diptych. Michelangelo may have been influenced directly in this matter from the Bronze door by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) from 1452 for the baptistery of the cathedral of Florence [3] doors which were called by Michelangelo "Gates of Paradise" [4] .The fresco of Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507) at the Sistine Chapel might have served also as a source.

Moses is watching his folk and is at a state of anger, feeling not unfamiliar to Michelangelo in the time he was making the Julius tomb. For this prolonged project began in 1505 with the demand by Pope Julius II to erect 40 large statues in his tomb. Later he changed his mind and cut-down the scope of the project, and refused to talk about the project with Michelangelo who left as a result angrily to Toscana in 1506. When he returned to Rome the project was further cut down in its size by Julius and later by the popes that followed. His assistants finally finished the work on the tomb in the 1540's. Instead of work on this project he was employed on the fresco of the Sistine Chapel which made him most frustrated. He expressed his bitterness in his 'sonetto caudato': I' ho gia' fatto un gozzo in questo stento... (I've already grown a goiter in this drudgery [5] and also told the pope that painting "is not my art".

It is in his treatment of the rays which it said Moses' face radiated (Exodus 34:29-30) that Michelangelo displays his greatest sophistication in the interpretation of the biblical text. In the Hebrew bible it says that the skin of the face of Moses radiated (in Hebrew : karan) , yet the depiction of this in sculpture would mean the defacing of Moses' face and depiction of stone rays instead of facial features.

Michelangelo uses the other meaning of the Hebrew word karan - grew horns ('cornuto' in Italian), and placed the rays of light on Moses' head as if they were two small horns. He may have based his action on Jerom's translation that actually used the Latin term 'cornutam' as a translation of the Hebrew word karan.

A possible interpretation of Exodus 34:29-35, is that Moses face radiated and the people of Israel were afraid to approach him thinking it might be some contagious skin condition or disease [6] being an unnatural feature. It is improbable that he in fact had a skin condition for a number of reasons. The first that later nothing is mentioned of it and it passed as it came and was therefor a temporary condition. The second, that according to religious reasoning there is no reason for God to inflict such punishment on his most loyal prophet. The thirst reason, of modern research of the Bible, that it is not logical for such an degrading story to the figure of God's prophet, to be preserved in a myth about the bringing of God's words to his chosen people. The interpretation that the people of Israel thought he had skin condition or disease is problematic not because of the mistaken conception and behavior of the people of Israel, but because of Moses somewhat apologetic response in masking his face, as if he is shamed and not scolding them for their disrespectful and wrong behavior to their leader.

It is to prevent just such interpretation that the translators of the Septuagint interpreted the original text as his skin was (glorified) [7] referring to Moses radiating skin. Thus suggesting that the people of Israel did not approach him out of awe and amazement, of a glorious unnatural event.

Jerome's translation is in fact another valid interpretation of the biblical text, and not an error in understanding the Hebrew word karan. For it poses a possible solution to two major problems of the Hebrew text. It also solves the problem of a possible understanding of the text a skin condition by not translating the word "skin" at all, in fact he translates: "cornuta esset facies" (his face had horns).

The first problem which Jerom's interpretation aims to solve, is that it is written that Moses did not know God made his face radiate (likron) (Exodus 34:29). This radiation (krina) is said to have frightened the people of Israel and he had to cover his face with a mask (masve) when he spoke to them (Exodus 34:33-35). A question arises how did he not notice this radiation of his face when he was going down from the mountain. If a persons facial skin glows (radiates) even without a mirror we would expect them to notice it.

Now, according to Jerome's interpretation all that Moses had not to notice is his added horny tissue (horns lacking nerves), and a tiny deformity in his head's shadow at very specific angels.

The second problem of the text, Jerome aims to tackle, is that this radiation happened only after Moses second stay on the mount. If it was caused by staying with God for a long period of time why didn't his face glow after the first time he stayed with God for forty days (Exodus 24:18), for there is no mention of radiating face after the first conference with God.

According to Jerome's interpretation of the text, the horns on Moses' head are a reminder to the people of Israel of the calf (also with horns) that they adorned while Moses was with God on the mount for the first time (Exod 32:1-6,21-24). It both reminded them of God's rage at their betrayal and admiration of the golden calf as it served as a demonstration of God's awesome power, which can turn humans to have a form similar to the idols. It therefor, as expected from a sign of the betrayed God, arose immense fear in the people of Israel. They could not look strait at Moses, of that immense fear (Exodus 34:30).

By putting the rays of light as horns on Moses' head Michelangelo evaded the need to deface Moses' face and could depict the face of the betrayed Moses and give it the expression of anger as he turns his head to watch his folk. Freud identified this expression of anger for example [8] The meaning of horns as a symbol for betrayal might have served as the source of the Italian folk idiom of the horns of the 'cornuto' as a symbol for betrayed husbands [9], At any case it served through the Italian language as an interpretation of Michelangelo's Moses.

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1. An exception to the rule is the figure of the prophet Jeremiah who appears in a fresco as occupied in thoughts, without a book or scroll besides him. This might be in respect to his request in the bible that his prophecies and teaching will be written down in a book and then thrown to the waters of the river Euphrates in Babylon (Jeremiah 51:59-64)
2. Rosenthal, E., Michelangelo's Moses, dai di sotto in su, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 46, 1964, pp. 544-550
3. Tsarfati, G. B., "Luchot habrit kesemel hayahadut", Aseret Hadibrot : Berei hadorot, (in Heb.), (B. Segal ed.), Magnes, Jerusalem, 1986, pp. 363-366
4. Vasari, G., Le Vite dei Piu` Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architetti, Rome, Newton, 1991, p. 309
5. Saslow, J. M., The Poetry of Michelangelo : An Annotated Translation, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1991, pp.70-72
6. It seems that the Biblical writer was much occupied by skin conditions that were prevalent among the Israelites of the desert generation (they are discussed extensively in Leviticus, chapters 13-15). That God in some caused the disease of leprosy (causing the skin to be white as snow) directly and could for Moses heal it completely is demonstrated on Moses (Exodus 4:6-7) and on his sister Miriam (Numbers 12:10-15). The accusation that the Israelis were expelled from Egypt because they suffered from skin conditions existed in the Greek Hellenistic and later Roman world as is claimed by Tacitus and opposed by Josephus (See: Tacitus, The Histories, (Jackson, J., tr.), Book V, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1969, pp. 177-181; Josephus (Flavius), Against Apion, (Thackeray, H. St. J., tr.), II. 289-290, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1969, p. 409
7. Brenton, L. C. L. (ed.), The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, Hendrickson Publishers, MA. U.S.A., 1990, p. 118. The Jewish-Alexandrine philosopher Philo (c. 1st century AD) takes the idea even further, suggesting that Moses "descended with a countenance far more beautiful than when he ascended, so that those who saw him were filled with awe and amazement". The radiation from him (that he did not notice) was such that "nor even could their eyes continue to stand the dazzling brightness that flashed from him like the rays of the sun." See, Colson, F. H. (tr.), Philo, Vol. VI, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1950, p. 485
8. Tolnay, C., "Michelangelo" Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon, Vol. 24, 1954, pp. 39-41. Freud, S., Der Moses des Michelangelo, Imago, Zeitschrift Anwendung der Psychoanalyse auf die Geistesschaften, Vol. 3, 1914, pp. 15-36
9. The term 'fare la corna al proprio coniuge' meant to betray in the Italian language, as early as the thirteen century (in Proverbia super natura feminarum). See: Cortelazzo, M., & Zolli, P., Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1979, Vol. 1, p. 285
   

[vannrox]

THis is a very interesting article.

[Cultural Jihad]

BTTT

[vannrox]

.


See Also The Horns of Moses, by Leonard Michaels on the ArtKrush web site.


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[thinktwice]

A poor picture of Michaelangelo's finest work.

[txzman]

Jerome has so many issues with the "things" he constructs out of whole cloth, I would ask for a number of other sources for translation befor ever trusting him or his ideas.

[vannrox]

[vannrox]

[vannrox]

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Very good article! It has been said that Moses veiled his face so the people could not see the glory fading away.

[martin_fierro]

Michaelangelo, Schmichaelangelo.

<|:)~

[aruanan]

The statue contains several peculiarities of proportions (described as faults by some art critics)

The poor dopes. They probably are to art what Rex Reed was to film and to the use of the English language.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Deuteronomy 34:10-12

10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
11 In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,
12 And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.

The "false prophet" is a pseudo Moses, a great military commander ala Mohammed.

Revelation 13:11-14

11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Two horns like a lamb:

The horns have elicited various interpretations. The likeliest explanation is that Michelangelo relied on Jerome's vulgate translation of the Old Testament. In this commonly available version, the "rays of light" that were seen around Moses' face after his meeting with God on Mt Sinai were expressed as horns. Some people believe that Jerome's intention was to express a metaphor for the glory of God reflected from Moses's face.

Michaelangelo's Moses

Acts 7:22-23 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

And in 762AD, the capital city of Baghdad was founded. In the eighth century, the Abbasid caliphate established its capital at Baghdad, which became an important commercial, cultural, and a famous center of learning in the Middle Ages, and was regarded in the tenth century, the intellectual center of the world. As capital of the caliphate, Baghdad was also to become the cultural capital of the Islamic world. Baghdad became a center of power in the world, where Arab and Persian cultures mingled to produce a blaze of philosophical, scientific, and literary glory. This era is remembered throughout the Arab world, and by the Iraqis in particular, as the pinnacle of the Islamic past.

http://home.achilles.net/~sal/iraq_history.html

Lawrence: Yes, you were great.
Feisal: ..nine centuries ago...
Lawrence: Time to be great again, my Lord

The Britishness of Jordan has always been a source of strength. The Army, which is the best trained in the Middle East, was the British lead Arab legion. When Major Lawrence was sent to Arabia, the choice was the Hashemite Prince Faisal- the King's great uncle and the Bedouin tribes, now making Jordan, to defeat the Turks and enter Damascus three days before general Alenby's well equipped British army reached it. 

In fact it was during the filming of Lawrence of Arabia in the Jordanian desert in 1961 that King Hussein met Toni Gardiner - later princess Muna al-Hussein- who was working as a secretary on the set.

http://www.mideastnews.com/Epoch.htm

[STD]

It might be appropos that the statue is on display in Rome in the Cistine Chapel at the Vatican, the seat of papal power.

[STD]

Sorry Cistine = Sistine

[Desdemona]

Sorry, the Moses is in the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Rome, last I heard. It wasn't in the Sistine Chapel when I was there.

The Pieta is in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, but the Moses is in a completely different part of Rome.

[Thinkin' Gal]

It might be appropos that the statue is on display in Rome in the Cistine Chapel at the Vatican, the seat of papal power.

They moved it?

[cornelis]

Freud identified this expression of anger

Freud? Always trying to gild the horns on that calf.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Ole Siggie author of Moses and Monotheism.

[cornelis]

Right, and Philo?