He lifts a stone tablet high.
Bible in art · Exodus
Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law and Burning the Golden Calf (Ms. 33, fol. 88, from the Weltchronik)
Unknown painter, Regensburg · about 1400–1410
Getty Center, Los Angeles
From the Regensburg Weltchronik, about 1400–1410. Its painter used strong red grounds and figures in green, pink and orange robes.
At the far left Moses raises a tablet above his head. In the middle a golden calf burns in a fire while people bow down beside it; at the right, men seize one another by the hair.
From the text
- Moses throws down the tablets (Exodus 32:19)
- He burns the calf in the fire (Exodus 32:20)
The artist’s own
- The fighting men — probably the punishment that follows in Exodus 32:27–28
- The people in turbans and hats of the painter’s day
Details
Moses
The calf in the fire
A golden animal lies in red flames.
Bowing down
People kneel and bend low by the fire.
The struggle
Men grab each other by the hair.
Unknown illuminator, Regensburg; text by Rudolf von Ems (Austrian, about 1200–1254). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 33 (88.MP.70), fol. 88) · Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)