Description: ART: Michelangelo - Moses Sculpture - Rome, Vatican - ITALY: The 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 the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time. The statue has what are commonly accepted to be two horns on its head. The depiction of a horned Moses stems from the description of Moses' face as "cornuta" ("horned") in the Latin Vulgate translation of the passage from Exodus in which Moses returns to the people after receiving the commandments for the second time. The Douay-Rheims Bible translates the Vulgate as, "And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." This was Jerome's effort to faithfully translate the difficult, original Hebrew Masoretic text, which uses the term, karan (based on the root, keren, which often means "horn"); the term is now interpreted to mean "shining" or "emitting rays" (somewhat like a horn). Although some historians believe that Jerome made an outright error, Jerome himself appears to have seen keren 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 literally mean "horns" persisted into and through the Renaissance. This Divided Back Era (1907-15) postcard is in good condition, but shows some edge wear.
Price: 8.5 USD
Location: Brooklyn, New York
End Time: 2025-01-06T02:54:27.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Artist: Michelangelo
Unit of Sale: Single Unit
Size: Standard (5.5 x 3.5 in)
Material: Paper
City: Rome
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Brand/Publisher: Unbranded
Subject: Michelangelo - Moses Sculpture
Moses: Most Important Prophet in Judaism
Type: Printed (Lithograph)
Michelangelo Buonarroti: Italian High Renaissance
Continent: Europe
Era: Divided Back (c. 1907-1915)
Region: Italy
Country: Vatican
Theme: Architecture, Art, Religious, Roman Catholic
Features: Sculpture
Lawgiver: Torah
Country/Region of Manufacture: Italy
Postage Condition: Unposted
Pope Julius II Tomb: Horns
