Moses

Opaque glass mosaic, designed by William Blake Richmond, executed by Messrs Powell of Whitefriars, completed by 1896



This mosaic shows Moses receiving the tablets of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The story of Moses was the subject-matter of mosaics from Byzantine times onwards.



Brief description: Moses as white-bearded and long-hair old man in a red tunic with tails flying in the wind and seated on a green hill; his looks away from his raised hands which hold one of the stone-tablets; the golden hand of God reaching out towards this tablet from within clouds depicted as swirls in blue, gold and silver; at the base of the mosaic an ornamental band with golden ground depicting a vase at its centre and a blue, as well as a red bird on either side.



Related quotes:

Exodus 24:15-18: “Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; an on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.“ (NRSV)

Exodus 31:18: “And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” (NRSV)

Browne 1896, p. 15: “The figures in the spaces on the sides of the clerestory windows on the south represent the builders and decorators of the Temple and the Tabernacle, and the earliest visions of a house or tabernacle of God. […] Passing to the western bay, still on the south side, the figure on the east of the window is Moses receiving the Law; and on the west is Jacob’s vision. The inscription below [destroyed during the Second World War] is O Adonai et Dux domus Israel veni ad redimendum nos, ‘O Lord and Leader of the house of Israel, come to redeem us.’”



Related work elsewhere: Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, mosaic, 6th century AD, San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy; Moses on Mount Sinai, pietre dure floor panel designed by Domenico Beccafumi, 1531, Siena Cathedral, Italy



Literature and references: Browne 1896, p. 15; Zech 2015, p. 36.