Evening journal., 1900-10-13
THE HEAD OF MOSES.
WHY THE LEADER OF ISRAEL is REP
RESENTED WITH HORNS.

a 'copy-of Michael Angeles i''Moses."
That small statuette wastn storm cen
ter for weeks, thepupils and teachers
vying with each.other in an attempt to
find an answer tosthei question OF one
Of the small pupilsswho' grayely que
ried the whys Of the incipient horns
which ornamented's the head Of the
rugged leader'of the 1sraelites as he is
inithissmasterpiece OF Mi
chael Angeles, a masterpiece, by the
way, which started out to be Joye or
some other fiction ofE the brain, but
which the great sculptor finally shaped
into the likeness. of. Pope Julius and
christened Moses"
For 4O'years, just,as long as Moses
and his people wandered in the will
derness, this statue stood I'm the work
shop Of its gifted creator before the
world saw it. buttit types today the
universal conception OF the great law
giver, horns and all.
1t has been known for centuriess
though, that the e'translation Of Habak-
kuk, which says, "And his brightness
was as light; he had horns coming out
of his head" is incorrect and the mis-
take Of the Intelligent compositor,"
who in his illuminated text got mixed
up on his "a's'' and "e's" and made
"qaran" head 'qeren," as nearly as
Hebrew can be made into cold Eng
lish. The formert means trays" the
latter means "horhs," and there you
are.
st. Jerome in rendering 'his face
shone" In the passage in Exodus gave
1t its primitive meaning and mistrans-
lation and has sent down to US through
the ages "faciem esse cornatum," be-
ing 'his face was horned" Thus IL
seems that a mistake stereotyped In
stone remains to torment the youth
who likes to knowtthe why OF things.
Just why artists and sculptors keep
on perpetuating this idea is one Of the
mscrutable things Of life. But more
than anybody else,perhaps artists cling
to tradition, and since the great mas
ters gave Moses horns It must be the
proper thing 70 dD. and that IS proba-
bly, why he wears horns In modern as
well as medieval art.
In the Congress sional library, on the
south side Of the big sunfower clock,
rs a gigantic bronze Moses by Nlehaus
and he has horns that look not unlike
those wonderful bumps that Ben But
ler's big head U sed 70 wear. In the
Boston library John Sergeant, the
great painter, f,Ir a centerpiece 20 q
procession OF the prophets painted
Moses with full front view and hOrni
like a Texas stee z, and Unfolding him II
a queer conventional kind Of draperl
that looks like ee ,gles' wings.
In striking an i pleasing contrast t
these horned conceptions which thu
ancients have Imposed upon us anC
which we still 'Iccept is a copy of {
splendid Moses by Plockhorst repre-
sentlng the arcl1angel Michael strug
Cling with Satan. for the dead body o.
Moses, which is rIpborne by three littl'
angels. The Mososs has instead of horn
upon his grandlyl conceived head ray
Of light which seem to mellow an,
soften the stern face Of the dead law
giver. Plockho rst has painted rea
child angels, to >, not fat little kid
with legs and a rms like prizehghter
and bodies like eer tanks. This hello
tint, which is Il 1 the library of con
gress, is a presei 1t from the royal gal
lery In Berlin,
Nicolas Poussir painted some 20 pic
lures Of Moses fl ON a pudgy little ba
by In the bulrush basket to Moses ''oi
gray Bethpeor's ,elght," some Of then
with horns and ;me Of them without
Five Of these pic lures are of the bab.
in the water and Just out of it, and tn
heads are as vari I'D as those Of Colum
bus on the expos Zion postage stamps
Some Of them loo like advertisement
for hair restOrai Ives and others a
though wigs wo uld enhance the aI
pearance Of the baldheaded babie
whose painted slces look as man.
years old as the J iaby Moses had live
minutes when T Dund by Thermutis
Another by this iuthor has horns tina
extend out from the sides of the heal
like the ears of mule and represent
Moses as striking the rock in the vii
derness. This is n very funny picture
anyway, for the camels have head
like horses, and Z he horses look like al
most anything tn 1t stands on four leg
excepting horses.
This curious idC a Of a horned Nose
has not only b zen perpetuated b.
paintings, coins a nd statues, but has al
so passed muster with many writers o
acknowledged ia me. Grotius, for in
stance, identifies 1Ioses with the horn
ed Mnevis Of Eg Fpt and suggests tina
the phenomenon was intended to re
mind the Israelii rs Of the golden cali
Spanheim, howey 'er, stigmatizes the ei
forts Of art in th S direction as "prepOs
ferrous industry" and distinctly attrih
utes to Jerome a lveritable belief in tn
horns of Moses. Crude as Is the mis-
translation not bne person In ten, a
the schoolteach hrs and pupils foun
out. have any Il Aea why it is that art
2sts and sculpt Drs still depict Nose
with horns.-Wi lshington Star.
To Live Long