Exodus 32.1-14: Why the Bull?

I appreciate the irony that the blog about art and faith seems compelled to write about the idolatry surrounding the Golden Calf every time the story shows up in the lectionary. I know, though, that idolatry isn't bound to follow art. And I think that the story says way more about human nature than it does about the nature of art. So, today...why the bull? 

It's probably not much of a mystery why Aaron made a calf (Exodus 32:1-14). Three different bull-worshipping cults were active in Egypt. The cult of Apis was the most prominent. Apis was worshipped in the region of Memphis, Egypt. Believed first to be manifestation of the god Ptah and later associated with Osiris, Apis bulls (real, live bulls) were identified by particular markings. The chosen bull lived out his life treated like a god. At their deaths, Apis bulls were buried like kings. Tombs of more than 60 animals have been found.

Follower of Filippino Lippi. The Worship of the Egyptian Bull God Apis. c. 1500. London: National Gallery.

It's easy to spot what is different in the version of the golden calf above, isn't it? Usually the calf is rigidly posed on an altar or plinth. It is sometimes draped with wreaths of flowers. See Poussin's version here. Here, like the cow that jumped over the moon, the creature is airborne, and not just suspended in midair. The artist has shown the animal twisting and turning, as if it has come to life above the dancing, celebrating people (who are clearly from Western Europe). It is a beautiful sunny day with a blue sky and puffy white clouds. This seems more nursery ornament than occasion for sin and idolatry. 

The construction of this golden statue was ostensibly to establish the "real" god of the people now that it appeared Moses and his God would not be coming back to lead them. The act has given the world not just a single story but also a seemingly timeless metaphor for idolatry. What was it that the calf represented that made it so much more attractive than any other option? I suspect it was the past. In Numbers 11:5 we hear the people remembering the good old days of Egypt: free fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onion, garlic. Wasn't it great in Egypt? Well, maybe. Except for the slavery part. 

Maybe this is a case where the people thought, well, better the devil you know... But it's still delusional. The good old days weren't good, leeks and onions aside. The people couldn't wait to get out of Egypt when Moses set it up. But now, they need something new and shiny to follow. It's the story of humanity, isn't it? Enthusiasm, boredom, seeking something new. Or in this case, something old all shined up to delude the people into thinking it is new...and in their best interests. But that's just bull. 

This week on Art&Faith Matters on Facebook...a multi-million dollar golden calf. 

Exodus 12.1-14: Passing Over

For additional Holy Week resources, click on the Liturgical Calendar tab above.

The lamb's blood on the doorpost was a sign that the Lord should pass over a particular house as the firstborn of Egypt were killed. The blood was important, a visible sign of belonging to Yahweh.

What in the world does that look like? Cecil B. DeMille imagined a green mist that oozed under doors in order to accomplish the task at hand. Did you imagine it looking like either of these?

The left image shows a traditional angel holding a sickle. Also called a reaping hook, the sickle is an agricultural tool designed for harvesting, reaping, or cutting foliage. Is this a harvest in Egypt?

Or perhaps the right image is more what you imagine. A winged being but hardly solid. It is a red mist that creates a type of garment. In the angel's hand is a sword, a weapon with a long blade designed for slashing or thrusting.

(Left) Exodus 11.4. Scanned from "Coloured Picture Bible for Children." (Right) Arthur Hacker. And There was a great Cry in Egypt. 1897. Private Collection. 

A weapon? Or a tool? What should this figure be carrying?

And what of the aftermath? We are usually focused on the gathering of the Israelites and their leaving Egypt. American artist Charles Sprague Pearce instead focused on the grief of Egyptian parents in his painting (below). The parents here prepare to bury their child along with the clay figures that would be the child's companions in the afterlife. Many Victorian-era parents knew what it was to lose a child. This image, rather than celebrating the freedom of the Israelites, honored the grief of
Egyptian parents.

Charles Sprague Pearce. Lamentations over the Death of the First-Born of Egypt, 1877. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum.

How do we interpret this event? What are the feelings, and even contradictions, that we must hold in our hands as we consider this story?

And, for Christians, how do we hold this story as we read it on Maundy Thursday? See this week's Facebook post for thoughts on Passover and Maundy Thursday.

Exodus 20.1-17: Every Sunday

Every Sunday is a little Easter. That's what Christians say. And during Lent, there are those who give permission to skip their Lenten discipline on Sundays, because nothing tops Easter. The root of Easter, of Sunday, of Shabbat is, of course, creation. The Decalogue makes that clear in verses 8-11 of the reading from Hebrew scripture for Lent 3B (Exodus 20:1-17). For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

But we rarely see it. It used to be slightly more common. The two examples below are from previous centuries, so in them God is depicted as a bearded man. On the left is a Creation icon from Russia focusing on the seventh day and God's resting from work. In the version here, God has abandoned his throne for his bed and is literally napping, though his right hand is making a gesture, apparently of blessing.

(Left) God Rested on the Seventh Day. c. 1550. Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, MA. (Right) Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", published in 1860. Universitats Bibliothek Heidelberger, Germany.

The image on the right is a mid-19th century woodcut Bible illustration from Germany. God is still a bearded man, but he does not lie down on a bed. His eyes are closed, and his hands are crossed and in his lap as he sits on a mandorla of smoke or clouds with the earth as his footstool. The days of creation are marked by elements like the sun, moon and stars and the indication of oceans and dry land on the earth. A similar composition is found in a 12th-century mosaic in the Cathedrale de Monreale in Sicily. 

The subject is harder to find in contemporary art, perhaps because we overvalue work and undervalue sabbath. The small piece shown here, created by the artist as a seminary student, uses parchment panels to represent the six days of creation. The piece speaks to God's rest by taking the form of a hammock, and the text citation is written on the wooden stretcher.

Saralee Howard. On the Seventh Day He Rested.

The reminder is important, if only occasionally highlighted in contemporary life. Even God rested. Perhaps that's something we might take up as a Lenten discipline.


For thoughts on the Gospel reading for Lent 3B (John 2:13-22) follow this link.
For thoughts on wisdom and foolishness (cf. the Epistle reading for Lent 3B, I Corinthians 1:18-25), click here.
For a Facebook look at the Ten Commandments and Lent, click here.

Exodus 1.8-2.10: Forgetting and Remembering

And there arose a king who did not know Joseph. That is the chilling beginning of the Israelites' changing fortunes in Egypt. Originally welcomed as the family of Joseph, who saved Egypt from famine, the Israelites are known to this new king only as a threat to his position of power. He doesn't care what happened in the past or what was promised to these people. So the king decides to neutralize the threat. That's the beginning of the reading from Hebrew scripture for Proper 16(21)A/Pentecost 12A (Exodus 1:8-2:10).

Probably no contemporary artist has devoted more time and energy to the art (and necessity) of remembering the past than Anselm Kiefer. Born in post-war Germany in 1945, Kiefer has continued to prod his own and the world's remembrance of Germany's legacy of World War II.

Anselm Kiefer. Fur Paul Celan: Aschenblume. 2006. Oil, acyrlic, emulsion, shellac, and books on canvas. Private collection. For Anselm Kiefer, see: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kief/hd_kief.htm

Kiefer's Für Paul Celan : Aschenblume is a large-scale work (more than 10 feet tall and 25 feet long), includes various paints, shellac and burned books. Books, for Kiefer, symbolize the storehouse of human history and knowledge. Burned books are a reminder of Nazi book burnings and can also be a reference to the linguistic root of the word holocaust. Holocaust comes from the Greek holokauston, related to the Hebrew olah ("burnt whole").

George Santayana (Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás) gave the world the eminently quotable aphorism Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Kiefer's work demanded (and still demands) that the past be remembered. What are the dangers we face when we "do not know Joseph"? And who will be Shiphrah and Puah when Joseph has been forgotten?

For thoughts on how the gospel reading intersects with the reading from Hebrew scripture, click here.

This week on Facebook, consider how many artists "know Joseph" in their paintings of the Exodus. Click here. 

Wandering Thoughts on the Face of God

The Exodus text for Proper 24A/Ordinary 29A/Pentecost+19A  (Exodus 33:12-23) is a visually rich text that is hard to capture. There is plenty to be seen in the story. The trick is figuring how to show it well. The artist might choose to show a man (Moses) hiding in a crevice of a rock. Showing a man being hidden by a giant hand seems more B movie than scripture. And the point of God's glory is that no one could see it and live, so trying to depict something of that scope with the limitations of paint or pencil or photography will probably yield results that are...anticlimactic.

Instead of the sweeping epic vista, then, we offer a few thoughts.

Instead of seeing the face (panim..a plural...faces!) of God, which cannot be seen, God tells Moses that he may see God's back after God's glory has passed by Moses (sheltered in the rock and behind God's hand). That is the normal order of things, but it is infrequent that the backside of God is mentioned in scripture or art. The most famous, perhaps, is one of the two images of God painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling's panel "The Creation of the Heavenly Bodies".

Michelangelo. Creating the Heavenly Bodies. 1508-1512. Sistine Chapel, Vatican. 

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/CSNs/CSNs_V_StCentr_08.html

In that panel, God pictured on the right hurls the sun with his right hand and the moon with his left. Then, at the left, a second depiction of God gestures with the right hand to bring forth vegetation on the earth. Unusually, this second depiction on the left, shows not God's face as it is the other times God is painted. Rather here, what we see is God's backside. 

To be sure, Michelangelo's God, painted as Humanism takes Renaissance Italy by storm, has little to none of the glory that we might imagine from the Exodus account. In the Sistine Chapel, God is often seen floating on a cloud with an entourage of beings and a generous length of flowing garment, but this hardly seems to be so awe-full that no one could live who saw it.

Just as "face" is a plural", so, too, the Hebrew word translated "back" in the NRSV (achowr, plural of achoray) is also plural. In Exodus 33:23 tthe KJV translates the word "my back parts", retaining the plural sense. Jerome's Latin Vulgate uses the phrase "posteriora mea". The English form of this word, like its Italian cognate, posteriore, can mean a body part. Perhaps that is how it traveled to Michelangelo and was then put into the fresh plaster of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

There is a place in scripture, associated with Moses and the Exodus, where the face of God is not hidden. In the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, the blessing is offered that the Lord's face will "shine upon you and be gracious to you" and that the Lord's countenance will "give you peace". Note, however, that there is no indication that the people should look at God's face while it is shining upon us or giving us peace.

A rabbi giving this blessing uses a certain gesture to accompany the blessing. Both hands are open, thumbs are touching, with forefingers almost forming a triangle. On each hand, the four fingers are separated into two groups of two fingers. When you see two hands (called Cohanic hands, spellings vary) on a Jewish gravestone you know it is the grave of someone who traces their descent from the priestly (cohen) tribe.

 

For thoughts on the gospel passage for this week (Matthew 22:15-22), click here.

We'll Meet Again

Golden calf. Golden calf.
Worship of golden calf. Worship of golden calf.
People of God. People of God.
Appointed leader. Appointed leader.

Are they the same subject? The two images are very similar and the subject might be confused, but there are differences worth noting...and similarities worth noting, too.

Nicolas Poussin. The Adoration of the Golden Calf. 1633-1634. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London. 

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/nicolas-poussin-the-adoration-of-the-golden-calf

Jean-Honore Fragonard. Jeroboam Sacrificing to the Idols. 1752. 

Oil on canvas. 48 1/4 x 61 1/2". Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

http://www.beauxartsparis.com/collections-et-ressources/les-peintures/70-les-peintures 

The top image is, indeed the worship of the golden calf from Exodus 32. It contains all the elements we expect from this story: the calf statue, licentious behavior, a desert setting. The lower image also has the calf statue, but it is not depicting the Exodus story. The Fragonard painting illustrates a passage from I Kings 12. 

At that point in Israel's history, Jeroboam, first king of the northern kingdom of Israel breaks the covenant depicted in the Poussin painting. Jeroboam sets up two golden calves, one in Dan and one in Bethel. The statues were erected so the people would not (have to) go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and be tempted to put Rehoboam back on the throne. When the statues were placed, Jeroboam said to the people, "Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt." And he made sacrifices and offerings at one and then the other. That's several of the Sinai commandments broken all at once. 

It's deja vu all over again. 

Check the Art&Faith Matters Facebook page for another take on this text. Click on the link at the bottom of the page. 

For thoughts on the Philippians passage (4:1-9) matched with this lectionary text, click here.

Commandments on the Wall

The idea of displaying the words of the Decalogue on a wall is not a new idea. Those ten words have been kept before the faithful for centuries. Here are two examples of Exodus 20 used as wall decoration. As it happens, both are in churches, but the use of the Commandments is distinctly different in each painting. One work is a 17th-century Dutch painting, the other is an 18th-century English engraving. Both help us understand how the Christian church has seen and used the words brought down from Sinai.

William Hogarth created a set of paintings, later turned into engravings for wider distribution, on the theme of "The Rake's Progress." The series follows the "progress" of a young man who inherits and squanders a fortune, losing his way in the process. The fifth scene is "The Marriage". Having lost his fortune and been bailed out of jail, the young man makes an economically advantageous marriage. Even as he is "plighting his troth" to his bride, he is casting his eyes on the young woman who is attending her. In the lower left corner, two dogs echo the pose of the bride and groom.

William Hogarth. The Rake Marrying an Old Woman. Plate 5 from "A Rake's Progress." 1735.

Etching and engraving on paper. London: Tate. T01792. 

The tablets containing the Decalogue are on the wall behind the minister. Look closely, and you'll see that even before the marriage ceremony is completed, the commandments are broken. Only one tablet, containing commandments 6-10, is visible in the print. The crack runs near the 10th commandment which reads: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.  

Many of the same elements are used in Pieter Saenredam's painting of the interior of the Buurkerk in Utrecht. Again two tablets containing the words of the commandments are hung on the wall of a church sanctuary. The large plaque seems to echo the Protestant emphasis on word rather than image. In an interesting artistic choice, though, the actual words on the plaque are unintelligible. Looking closely at the painting, one will only see paint. Here, the tablets, topped by a sculptural portrait bust of Moses (interesting in light of the prohibition of images in the second commandment) serve as a backdrop to two young men. One of the young men is putting graffiti on the wall. He is illustrating a chivalric tale about four brothers and a magic horse. The other is, if not teaching, at least reviewing tricks taught to his dog.  

Pieter Saenredam. The Interior of the Buurkerk at Utrecht. 1644. Oil on oak. London: National Gallery. NG1896.

The dog, shown sitting up on its back legs in a position of receptivity faces the commandments, while his master's back is to the ten rules. This position is indeed meant to underscore the idea of learning, and in Dutch art, the dog symbolizes leerzugtigheid (Christian aptitude). This painting, then, comments on instructing the faithful, and perhaps specifically children, under the watchful eye of the Ten Commandments.

Two works of art. Two ways to think about the ten commandments in the life of the church.

As a historical note: Neither of the church buildings shown in these works is home to a worshiping community in 2014. The Marylebone church depicted by Hogarth was destroyed in 1740. There is still a church by that name in London. The Buurkerk in Utrecht is now the home of the Museum Speelkiok (http://www.museumspeelklok.nl/?Language=en).

For Hogarth, see: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hogarth-a-rakes-progress-plate-5-t01792
For Saenredam, see: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/pieter-saenredam-the-interior-of-the-buurkerk-at-utrecht

For thoughts on the epistle reading for Proper 22(27)A [Philippians 3:4b-14], click here.

Business as Usual at Horeb?

The elements are familiar: Moses, rock, water, people prepared to receive the water. But you might not expect to see the episode of Moses striking the rock as a monument in a public park. This particular statue, dedicated in 1893, is in Washington Park, Albany, NY.

Often in pictures we see Moses standing beside a rock, more in the pose of Christ standing at the door and knocking. Here, though, Moses will be more in the way of Nanny McPhee, tapping her cane on the ground to effect action. Here Moses is standing on the rock, though the Exodus passage tells us that God has promised to be standing on the rock (Exodus 17:6: I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink). Additional bronze figures on the lower part of the statue represent stages of human life - infancy, maturity, youth, old age, reminding us that all people need to drink of this water.

The statue (both rock and bronze figures), designed by John Massey Rhind, is also called the King Memorial Fountain. Commissioned by Henry King as a memorial to his father, Rufus King, the chosen subject was the Rock of Horeb. The subject was chosen not for its demonstration of faith in God's providence but rather, apparently, as a comparison to Rufus King's skills in banking and commerce. A general interpretation is that the people were "able to drink" of progress, because of Rufus King's skills.

Is that a comparison we would make today? The water from the rock...as commerce? In other times and places, the rock at Horeb has served as a typology for poets and for the resurrection. What might the act of getting water from a rock symbolize for us today (in addition to drinkable water, which remains out of reach to many people in the world)?

For additional information on the fountain, see:  http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/04/18/the-moses-fountain-in-washington-park. For additional information on the rock at Horeb as symbol/typology, see: http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/type/moses.html and http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/type/ch2.html

For thoughts on John 4 and Exodus 17, click here.

Manna From Heaven

What did it look like and taste like, this manna from heaven? Artists have depicted everything from flat wafers to doughy pellets. Artists have shown the manna falling like a rain shower and like a thunderstorm (and when they include the quail descending it's sometimes hard to tell if they are depicting God's plan for food or one of the plagues!).

In 2013, artists Han Zhang and Helen Yung interpreted the story of this heavenly food (Exodus 16:2-15) using paper and calligraphy. "Like Manna from Heaven" was created at the Culture of Cities Centre in Toronto. Inspired by a Chinese expression that literally translates "pie from the sky" and means "free and delicious food falling from heaven", the artists calligraphied poems about food on rice paper. The paper was then cut to create three-dimensional forms reminiscent of baskets, nets and other containers.  These forms were suspended so that they might, indeed, fall from heaven.

Viewers became creators by writing or drawing their own idea of "manna" on rice paper. They then attached their contributions in, among and through the artist-created pieces of the installation. 

The installation was part of the first Future Food Salon event of 2013. The event, "Crickets on the Tip of Your Tongue", raised the question of what we might be eating in the coming decades. Bugs (like crickets) are considered one of the ideal foods of the future as they are a sustainable protein source that can live in many climatic zones. If they were uncertain about manna, what would Moses and the people say about the evening's variety of cricket canapes?!

For the Future Food Salon: Crickets on the Tip of Your Tongue, see: http://www.cultureofcities.com/future-food-salon-series-iicrickets-on-the-tip-of-your-tongue/
For Helen Yung, see: http://helenyung.com/
For Han Zhang, see: http://www.han-studio.com/

Post and Lintel

They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel

of the houses in which they eat it. -Exodus 12:7

Most children with building blocks will build a post and lintel system. Two blocks stand vertically (posts), and a third block is placed horizontally across them (lintel). Post and lintel is the engineering of Stonehenge on a scale much larger than children's building blocks.

In addition to the instruction to paint with the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of a house, Deuteronomy 6:9 and Deuteronomy 11:20 direct that certain words of God should be on the doorposts of homes. The word mezuzah actually means doorpost, but the word has come to mean the doorpost and the container that is attached to it. In the container is a piece of parchment on which are written the words of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Deuteronomy 11:13-21. On the back of the parchment is the word shaddai. Shaddai is one of the mystical names for the Almighty and is also an acronym for Shomer Daltot Yisrael, Guardian of the Gates of Israel.

Doorways are places that are "in between". Standing in a doorway one is neither fully in nor fully out. Inside the house is the familiar. Outside the house is the stranger. Inside is "us"; outside is "them". Anything posted on a doorpost sends a message to that "unfamiliar them". What have Christian church doorways looked like? What is the message that our church building doorways send to the world? What have we written on our own doorposts and lintels?

This week on Art&Faith Matters' Facebook page you'll see links to contemporary artists' interpretations of the seder plate. Click on Art&Faith Matters on Facebook.