Bible in art · Exodus

The Dance around the Golden Calf

Lucas van Leyden · c. 1530
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Lucas van Leyden painted this triptych — a central panel with two hinged wings — in Leiden around 1530, a few years before his death. The three panels make one continuous landscape; the centre is about 93 centimetres high.

In front the Israelites eat, drink and embrace on the grass. Behind them a ring of dancers circles a small golden calf set on a tall pillar. High on the mountain, half hidden in a storm cloud, a tiny figure kneels; lower down, two men come down the slope.

From the text

The calf made of gold (Exodus 32:4)
“The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry” (Exodus 32:6)
The dancing that Moses saw as he came near the camp (Exodus 32:19)
Moses on the mountain, then coming down with Joshua (Exodus 32:15–17)

The artist’s own

The calf set on a tall column, like a statue in a town square
Israelites in the hats, slashed sleeves and gowns of the painter’s own day
A green, wooded landscape with blue mountains instead of a desert
A red tent on the left wing as the only sign of a camp

Details

On the summit

A tiny kneeling figure at the top of the mountain, inside the storm cloud — Moses.

Coming down

Two small men come down the slope — Moses with Joshua.

The golden calf

A little gold calf stands on top of a tall pillar.

The dance

Men and women dance hand in hand around it.

The feast

In front, people eat, drink and embrace on the grass.

Lucas van Leyden, Netherlandish, c. 1489/94–1533. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (SK-A-3841) · Oil on panel (triptych) · Image: "Public Domain" (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); object metadata: CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) — Rijksmuseum Linked Art record.

The verses

Exod 32:1–6Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!” So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the calf and proclaimed: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.

Exod 32:15–19Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “The sound of war is in the camp.” But Moses replied: “It is neither the cry of victory nor the cry of defeat; I hear the sound of singing!” As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.

See it at the museum’s site