Why does the Vatican have a statue of Moses with horns on his head?

I tracked this down in Rome. It is very impressive.


I have put a link in for you in the sources.





What of the interesting facial features on this Moses? Some think that, in the beard, a silhouette of Michelangelo is visible.





The horns have elicited various interpretations. The likeliest explanation is that Michelangelo relied on Jerome's vulgate translation of the Old Testament. In this commonly available version, the "rays of light" that were seen around Moses' face after his meeting with God on Mt Sinai were expressed as horns. Some people believe that Jerome's intention was to express a metaphor for the glory of God reflected from Moses's face.


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Why does the Vatican have a statue of Moses with horns on his head?
That should probably tell you who they work for!!
Reply:what? i've never heard of that!
Reply:I didn't want to bring this up, but perhaps some Italian out there will reveal the embarrasing details as to what it means when a man has horns growing out of his head. I think Michelangelo should have kept his opinions to himself abot Moses' personal life. Cosa fai, Micaelo?
Reply:The horns represent the rays of light that emanated from Moses face after his encounter with God on the Sinai. You may remember that he had to wear a veil for that reason
Reply:It's called a GARGOIL. How do you know it is of Moses?
Reply:Michelangelo's "Moses" has horns because one of the biblical translations of "rays of light" became "horns" in Italian. Because of this mistranslation, depictions of Moses with horns became somewhat commonplace
Reply:It is not actually in the Vatican. It is in a church in Rome called St. Peter in Chains church. It was sculpted by Michelangelo. He had available to him the most common translation of the scriptures at the time: Jerome's Vulgate which was in Latin. The passage where Moses returned from receiving the ten commandments states that Moses had rays coming from his face from being in the presence of God. But in Jerome's translation, it was improperly written that he had horns!
Reply:I agree with JAT. ;-) LOL
Reply:see what a person can learn on the net.


But then I'm not much for statues anyhow.
Reply:Because religion is evil. End of story.
Reply:Well, there are different kinds of horns - there are goat horns, and then there are antlers. I suspect the rays of light from the top of his head might have resembled antlers in shape and size (i.e. raindeers horns).





:)
Reply:In addition to the "rays of light" issue, it seems possible that Michelangelo was modelling him after classical statues which were horned... may he have been identifying him with, for example, the bull-horned Dionysus?
Reply:i also ask where are your sources for this it may be moses in hell as he struck the stone twice in disbelieve that the first one wouldnt work but i dont think that exsists anyway as i havent heard and i have heard alot of stuff about the vatican. and if it does exsist it probably somebody played a joke on the pope for april fools!!!



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