Image Details

Photo by Victoria & Albert Museum, London/Art Resource, NY

ON THE COVER: Moses bows his head as he presents to the Israelites the large tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Sculpted in bronze and gilded by the Dutch-born artist Hubert Gerhard (1540–1620) for the Fugger Altarpiece, this work was commissioned by a merchant family in Augsburg, Germany. Representations of the Tablets of the Law often include huge, impressive slabs. But, unless Moses had the large hands and strong muscles that Gerhard gives him, he would have found it difficult to carry these heavy stones down Mount Sinai. In “Re-creating the Tablets of the Law,” Alan Millard looks to archaeology to determine that Moses actually had a much lighter burden.