Image of the Week: The Golden Calf
© D. Yael Bernhard
This painting is the image for next February in my new calendar, The Jewish Eye 5782 Calendar of Art. In the annual cycle of Torah readings, thwhen the story of the Golden Calf is read – one of the most infamous tales in the Bible. As in many other stories, the characters model how not to behave. The newly-liberated Hebrew slaves are encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai as Moses, the leader who brought them to freedom, ascends the craggy peak for further instructions from the Eternal. Short-sighted and faithless, the people quickly lose confidence in Moses. Unable to contain their raucous spirit, Aaron limply allows them to cast a golden idol in the shape of a calf. Descending the mountain with the two inscribed tablets, Moses beholds his tribe in a state of wild pagan revelry, worshipping a sculpted object.
Idol worship was common in ancient times, and permeated the land of Cana'an, where this tribe was headed. While it may seem harmless to worship a manmade object – as an object has no power to do harm – there is great harm in feeding children to one, as the people did in their efforts to appease the fire god Molech, to name just one. Ritual sacrifice abounded in polytheistic societies, as it was believed these idols fed on animal and human life. Expelling these bloody temple rituals from the ancient world was no small task, but without this essential change, there could be no human rights. Furthermore, the abdication of responsibility to an inanimate object was incompatible with human morality, which was struggling to enter a new chapter in human history right around the time the Hebrew slaves crossed the Red Sea into the Sinai Desert.
Enter Moses, and the god of his forefathers, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. It was Abraham, forefather of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who first rejected idol worship, marking the beginning of a departure that would take another two thousands years to shake down. Old ways die hard, and the humble Moses had his work cut out for him as he descended the mountain and beheld what was nothing less than a complete betrayal of all that his omnipresent God stood for.
A primitive style seemed in order for this painting. I wanted my image to look rather like a cave painting, showing the pagan worshippers in full frenzy, dancing around the fire with their golden calf held aloft. A new side of Moses is revealed as he flies into a rage and seizing the golden calf, upends it. His very hair is seething with smoke as the people cower before him. Stormy, discordant colors fill the painting as Moses smashes the tablets. Bolts of lightening issue from his body (these are cut from silver paper, which unfortunately did not reproduce very well, and appear bleached out). The golden calf is cut from a thin sheet of gold leaf mounted on rust-colored paper – a precious scrap given to me by a friend from his late wife's collection of rare papers. Evidently it was destined for this painting.
What comes next in the story is not a pretty sight, as Moses demands that all those who believe in the magic power of their idol should drink its molten metal. The golden calf is melted down, and the guilty worshippers are forced to drink the liquid gold, driving home the point that literal belief in false idols is ultimately fatal.
I don't think I want to illustrate that part of the story.
The Golden Calf is a study for a larger, future, dramatic and stormy painting. This one is quite small – just about 12" wide. I can picture it much larger.
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You can view the entire calendar here.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard