Standing on the peak of Mt. Sinai, Moses extends his arms to receive the Tablets of the Law from God. in the earliest known painting by El Greco. Acrid yellows, greens and pinks, applied with quick, nervous brushstrokes, illustrate the violent—literally earth-shattering—moment of divine revelation: “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke for the Lord had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently” (Exodus 19:18).
At the foot of the mountain lies Saint Catherine’s—a sixth-century monastic fortress that still stands at the base of the traditional Mt. Sinai (see photo of Jebel Musa, the Mountain of Moses). In the foreground, pilgrims with walking sticks and camels wend their way through the mountainous terrain to the monastery—a place of pilgrimage in El Greco’s day as well as our own.
Though white steps mark the precipitous path up the mountain face, no pilgrims ascend: In this way, El Greco deliberately separates the biblical realm, on the mountaintops, from his own world, in the valley.
On the distant mountain (at right), El Greco portrays a later scene in the life of the biblical leader—two angels lay out Moses’ body on Mt. Nebo.
Raised on the island of Crete, El Greco probably studied art at a local dependency (branch) of the Monastery of St. Catherine, which in his day ran the most important school of painting on Crete. This scene appears on the back of the central panel of a small portable altarpiece with a decorative wooden frame and hinged wings. El Greco painted the triptych soon after he left Crete for Venice in the mid-16th century, but before he moved to Toledo, where he would later achieve fame.
Standing on the peak of Mt. Sinai, Moses extends his arms to receive the Tablets of the Law from God. in the earliest known painting by El Greco. Acrid yellows, greens and pinks, applied with quick, nervous brushstrokes, illustrate the violent—literally earth-shattering—moment of divine revelation: “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke for the Lord had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently” (Exodus 19:18). At the foot of the mountain lies Saint Catherine’s—a sixth-century monastic fortress that still stands at the base of the […]
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.
