medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Darrelyn (if I may)
A look at Ruth Mellinkoff's introduction to her _The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and Thought_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970 [paperback reprint, 1997]; = California Studies in the History of Art; 14), esp. pp. 5-8, will furnish references to rather more than one or two early medieval images of Moses without horns either receiving or subsequently displaying the Tablets of the Law. In her review of Mellinkoff in _Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte_ 37 (1974), 284-88 -- this is one of several reviews of Mellinkoff conveniently accessible in JSTOR -- Adelheid Heimann called these images _berühmt_. I imagine that they still are, as I had already found a number of them when performing some quick-and-dirty image searches in Google. Herewith a few instances (incl. some not mentioned in Mellinkoff's introduction):
1) the late C6 or early C7 Ashburnham Pentateuch (Paris, BnF, ms. nouv. acq. lat. 2334), fol. 76r:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/AshburnPenatuchtFolio076rMosesReceivingLaw.jpg
2) the earlier C9 Moutier-Grandval Bible (London, BL, Add MS 10546), fol. 25v:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Karolingischer_Buchmaler_um_840_002.jpg
3) a late C9 _Orationes_ of Gregory of Nazianzus (Paris, BnF, ms. grec 510), fol. 52v:
http://tinyurl.com/ooauyq5
4) the earlier C10 Bible of Leo the patrikios (or of L. the sakellarios; Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Regin. gr. 1), fol 155v:
http://sites.univ-provence.fr/pictura/GenerateurNotice.php?numnotice=A3637
5) the mid-C10 Paris Psalter (Paris, BnF, ms. grec 139), fol. 422v:
http://tinyurl.com/q5on45y
6) on a detached leaf from a late C11 psalter from the Vatopedi monastery on Mt. Athos (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, ms. W.530.B):
http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/W530B/data/W.530.B/sap/W530B_000001_sap.jpg
7) a later C11 icon in the monastery of St. Catherine, Saint Catherine's, Sinai:
http://sites.univ-provence.fr/pictura/GenerateurNotice.php?numnotice=A6959
8) in the very late C11 or very early C12 mural paintings of the abbaye de Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe:
http://tinyurl.com/o4es2zu
9) a C12 icon in the monastery of St. Catherine, Saint Catherine's, Sinai:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/catherines2-24.htm
10) on the later C12 baptismal font in the basilica di San Frediano in Lucca:
http://art-history-images.com/photo/6628
http://tinyurl.com/qd9arhz
11) on an unsourced and undated relief, perh. in Istanbul:
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid2/no_dgb/pics/26/large/019133022497_15.jpg
Can anyone say where this is?
12) in Giotto's early C14 frescoes in the Cappella dei Scrovegni in Padua:
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/giotto/padova/decorati/10scenes.html
http://tinyurl.com/mqywwrc
Rather unsurprisingly, medieval images of Moses created in non-Latin-rite areas are unaffected by Jerome and don't show Moses as horned. The verse in Exodus where the Vulgate has _cornuta ... facies_ is 34:29 (_cumque descenderet Moses de monte Sinai tenebat duas tabulas testimonii et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Dei_).
Best,
John Dillon
On 09/23/13, Darrelyn Gunzburg wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Medieval images of Moses were depicted more often than not with Moses wearing horns.This was said to have derived from an incorrect translation of the Hebrew Masoretic text to describe Moses' face as he descended from Mt Sinai with the tablets of the Law (Exodus 35). The Hebrew Masoretic text contains the word 'keren' ('shining'), and was said to have been translated as 'cornutum' (horned) in the Latin vulgate by Jerome.
>
>
> I have found one or two images of Moses without horns, such as in the Bury Bible, CCCC MS 21, fol.70r. I wondered if anyone had come across any other images of Moses holding the tablets of Law and portrayed without horns, particularly in connection with foreshadowing Christ.
>
>
> Many thanks,
>
>
> Darrelyn Gunzburg
> ------------------------------
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