[RegulatorCountry]

The presence of Michelangelo's Moses in Rome, in The Church of St. Peter In Chains, with what are plainly horns on his head seems to undermine such a contention. There were and are other conventionalized means of representing "radiance" about one's head and face in painting and sculpture. There were clearly no objections from either the church hierarchy or the laity, otherwise that rather infamous statue of Moses with horns would not have been sitting there rather puckishly horn-bedecked since 1515.

[annalex]

plainly horns

Already cited:

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."[6]:74–90 The understanding that the original Hebrew was difficult and was not likely to literally mean "horns" persisted into and through the Renaissance.

The metaphor may have been clear in the day, but today it looks to you "puckishly horn-bedecked". You are right that there obviously had been no objection -- which proves the point the article makes.

[boatbums]

Maybe the wind was blowing and it was just locks of Moses' hair poking out??? Moses was having a "bad hair day"? ;o)