The Biblical account of Moses receiving the Tables of the Law and a pictorial interpretation of the event by Jacopo Tintoretto

Abstract

According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses, who led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, received the Tables of the Law directly from the Lord, God Yahweh, on Mount Sinai. During Moses’s absence on the mountain his brother, Aaron, fashioned a golden calf for the people to worship. When Moses descended from the mountain and witnessed the people’s idolatrous debauch, he smashed the Tables of the Law in anger. This scene has been depicted by various artists, from among which the version by Jacopo Tintoretto, Moses Receiving the Tables of the Law, is chosen for discussion. Tintoretto’s painting not only depicts the narrative, but also contrasts the transcendence of the written law and the visual symbol system of the idolaters, respectively in the upper and lower zones of the painting.

Volgens die Ou Testament het Moses, wat die Jode uit Egipte gelei het, die Tafels van die Wet direk van die Here, die God Yahweh, op die Berg Sinaï ontvang. Gedurende Moses se afwesigheid op die berg het sy broer, Aaron, ’n goue kalf geskep vir die mense om te dien. Toe Moses van die berg afgekom en die volk se afgodsfees aanskou, het hy die Tafels van die Wet in woede stukkend gegooi. Hierdie toneel is deur verskeie kunstenaars uitgebeeld, onder wie die weergawe van Tintoretto, Moses ontvang die Tafels van die Wet, vir bespreking gekies is. Tintoretto se skildery stel nie net die verhaal voor nie, maar verbeeld ook die transendensie van die geskrewe wet teenoor die visuele simboolstelsel van die afgodedienaars, respektiewelik in die boonste en onderste gedeelte van die skildery