By James Wehn
Moses stands among twelve men armed with swords and a variety of pole arms. Wearing the iconic dress of a biblical prophet, his long robe and red cloak contrasts the fifteenth-century clothes and armor worn by the men around him. The precise meaning of this anonymous drawing in the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art is unclear. The scene is probably intended to illustrate a passage from the book of Exodus in a handwritten German bible. Calligraphy on the verso (back) of the paper is a passage where Moses instructs the Hebrew people to prepare for the last of God’s plagues on Egypt and to flee into the wilderness. However, because the drawing has been removed from it’s original context within a handwritten manuscript, it is impossible to determine whether this scene appeared before or after the verso text. The question remains: what is this scene intended to illustrate?
The men with Moses may represent the leaders of the twelve houses of Israel, which could explain the variety of styles in their attire. That most of them are armed may allude to a later verse, which reads, “The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle.” (EXODUS 13:18)
The attribution of this work is based on the German script and also the drawing’s stylistic similarity with other illustrated bibles from the same period. Establishing a precise date for the drawing is challenging. However a few elements within the image itself also hint that it was probably produced in the latter half of the fifteenth century.
The full armor on the man to the left of Moses is typical of the “gothic” style worn during this period, and the artist’s detailed drawing makes it easy to identify the many parts that make up a suit of armor. He wears a type of helmet called a sallet, identified by the extension of the metal at the rear. His chin is protected by a bevor. The torso is covered by the cuirass, or breastplate, while faulds protect the hips. The circular defenses at the armpits are called besagews. Foot armor, or sabatons, was typically pointed during the second half of the 15th century. The shape of the blade on the large halberd (the second pole arm from the right) is also consistent with the late 1400s.
Image credit: courtesy Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art; photography by Robert Fogt
Copyright 2009 James Wehn & myartcanon.net
Post a Comment