What is the Meaning of Moses Horns in Michelangelo Sculpture

 The true meaning of Moses' "Horns" in the Sculpture of Michelangelo

The sculpture of Moses by Michelangelo Buonarroti was carved between
the years (1513 – 1515)

 

The ideals of the Renaissance period

 To have a precise idea of what Michelangelo wanted to express in his works of art, we must know the engine, the source of his inspiration for his art. Like all of his contemporaries, Michelangelo is a product of the Renaissance period, characterized by the rejection of many of the principles of medieval knowledge and the admiration of Greco-Roman antiquity. They intended to recover the classical knowledge in which a new scale of values for the individual was sought. Faced with a medieval society in which everything revolved around the idea of God and the Church, during this period of the Renaissance, man became the center of the universe, used reason as a source of knowledge, and sought the truth through personal reflection and research.

 The essential features of this time, specifically, were the rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman culture, humanism, and anthropocentrism. Renaissance art revolved around the human being, but that did not mean that it ceased to be religious, but in addition to the Church, new patrons would appear, such as wealthy merchants or the monarchy. Due to this new patronage, art ceases to carry out exclusively religious functions. Instead, new genres and themes appear, such as sculptures, portraits, the nude, landscape, or mythological paintings from different cultures, including images of their gods wearing horns on their heads. For example, Hathor, Moloch, and Lucifer, among others. 

 The Bible says about the people who adore those idols: "Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings, birds, animals, and reptiles. (Romans 1:21-23-NIV).

Hathor 

Hathor wears horns because she is related to the cow, which is the animal that represents fertility and motherhood. She is the cosmic mother goddess, and when she gave birth to the sun, she placed it between her horns.

Moloch 

One of the best-known horned gods appears in the religion of the Carthaginian, Syrian, and Phoenician peoples. It is about the mighty Moloch, the Canaanite deity. His representation is usually made with a bronze statue with fire inside, with the horns of a bull on his head. This horned god demanded the sacrifice of children in his statues' flames to ensure the lands' fertility. In this sense, he is one of the darkest history deities. The axis of his worship occurred in the performance of the Moloch rite, a typical ceremony in which healthy newborn babies were offered for sacrifice. Babies were thrown into the bowels of the Moloch statue, where they died. His ashes were kept in vessels and taken to the temples where he was worshipped. Parents and relatives were forbidden to mourn, to avoid offending Moloch.

  Lucifer   

 

According to the lessons embodied in the Bible, this character represents the gathering of all the evils that exist on earth; he was the one who deceived the couple in the Garden. But the reality is that this was only sometimes the case. Lucifer was not only an angel but also the most beautiful and favorite of God. So sure was he of his superiority that he dared to challenge God to take his place. It was after that betrayal that he would be expelled from heaven.

Moses goes up to Mount Sinai for the first time to receive the tablets of the Law and breaks them coming down from the Mount (Exodus 32)

 Moses, "The leader of Israel," appears in Michelangelo's sculpture, seated with the Tables of the Law under his arm while his other hand is on his lower abdomen. This representation of Moses projected him when he came down from Mount Sinai the first time he received the Law. After hearing the Words of God telling him to go down because the people he brought out of the land of Egypt had corrupted themselves, he went down to the valley. Moses found them in an orgy worshipping a golden calf image they had made for themselves, honoring it, offering sacrifices to it, and saying, to Israel, that they were their gods that brought them out of the land of Egypt. Moses 'anger burned hot.

At this crucial moment, Michelangelo imagined Moses as he sculptured him, full of anger, disappointment, and frustration. His head is turned, concentrated in an expression of tremendous tension reflected in the robust constitution of his musculature tense up. His attention narrows and becomes locked onto the target of his anger. The blood flows and swells his veins. Inside his brain, neurotransmitter chemicals known as catecholamines are released, causing him to experience a burst of energy. This burst of energy is behind his angry desire to take immediate action. At the same time, his heart rate accelerates, his blood pressure rises, and his rate of breathing increases. His face flushed as increased blood flow entered his limbs and extremities in preparation for physical action. Soon he can pay attention to nothing else. Then, in quick succession, additional brain neurotransmitters and hormones (among them adrenaline and noradrenaline) are released, which trigger a lasting state of arousal. Now Moses is about to lose control, which leads him to experience an –   intermittent explosive disorder – a sudden episode with impulsive, aggressive, and violent behavior that impelled him to react with too much exaggeration.

 Moses's body language in (Moses' terribilita) sculpture is what Michelangelo saw in his imagination for his work of art, with horns in his head. It is the explosive disorder Moises experienced on his first return from his journey to Mount Sinai, seeing his people engaged in an orgy, worshipping a golden calf. 

  It is not the second time Moses returned from the Mountain that Michelangelo had been the inspiration for his (Moses terribilita) sculpture. Still, it was the first time he returned from the Mount that Michelangelo inspired this sculpture.

 When Moses returned the second time from the Mountain Sinai, his face was glowing with the brightness of the Mighty Presence of God reflected in his face; as in (2 Samuel 22:13-NIV) says: "Out of the brightness before Him coals of fire flamed forth."

 In returning from the Mount the first time, Michelangelo saw him burning with a red-hot anger of animal behavior and about to lose control, like charging in a bull's fight. This leads Moses to experience an – intermittent explosive disorder – a sudden episode with impulsive, aggressive, and violent behavior that impelled him to react with too much exaggeration, smashing the tablets of the Law against the ground and breaking them into pieces.