The LION & the CARDINAL
« August 2009 »
S M T W T F S
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile

E-mail me:
danmitsui@
hotmail.com


Please visit
the following
web pages
to see my
work as an
artist:


My home page


Religious art


Biological art


Bookplates &c


Supported
Sites:


Durandus
of Mende

Adam of
St. Victor

Michelle
Mitsui


Donations to
support the
maintenance of
this web site
and web log
are gratefully
received.

If you e-mail
me your postal
address after
making a
donation, I
will send you
a small pack-
age with ten
printed
samples of my
work (mostly
bookplates)
as a token
of gratitude.

You may also
use the button
below to make
payments for
artwork.

19 August 2009 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



HORNS of MOSES



It is commonly known that Moses, in mediaeval art, is depicted with horns on his head. The supposed reason for this is also commonly known; every art history teacher informs his students that the Vulgate Bible contains a mistranslation, which resulted in an absurd artistic convention. I myself am disinclined to think that St. Jerome and centuries of iconographers were all idiots.

Upon further investigation, I learned that the Hebrew word - keren - that St. Jerome translated into the Latin as "grew horns" means, literally, "grew horns". His supposed mistake was not knowing that the word also has an idiomatic meaning of "emitted rays of light". Modern scholars, looking at two possible translations for the word, think: Of course! His face began to radiate! How silly that nobody realized this sooner!

This provokes from me the question: How exactly are rays of light shooting out of a man's head any more or less plausible than horns growing? I have never seen either happen. They would be equally miraculous phenomena, and I really cannot say which one a multitude of ancient Hebrews would have found more impressive (bear in mind that when God wanted Moses to impress a multitude of ancient Hebrews, He gave him a staff that could turn into a snake). I suspect that several centuries of looking at Baroque and Romantic art have accustomed our minds to imagining rays of light shooting out of things. And cinematic special effects have lately influenced our expectations even more. But projecting those expectations back onto the book of Exodus is snobbery.

Newer | Latest | Older