3-102-296 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law', 1659, (1967). Alternative title: Moses with the Tablets of the Law. Biblical scene: when Moses descended from Mount Sinai to bring the Israelites the tablets of the law received from God, he found them dancing around the Golden Calf: "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount" (Exodus 32:19). This is a fragment of a larger work which Rembrandt cut out of the original composition after it had been refused by those who commissioned it. Painting in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. From "Rembrandt" by Ludwig Münz and Bob Haak, [Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1967]