Jacques de Létin 1597 – 1661

Moses at Mount Sinai

oil on canvas (210 × 232 cm) — c. 1655

Exodus 31:18

18.       And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Moses poses with the Tables of the Law, on which the Ten Commandments were written (in French, according to de Létin). Behind him is Mount Sinai, where he received the Commandments.

The building in the background is Saint Catherine's Monastery, at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is one of the oldest monasteries in the world. A beam of light falls on the monastery, through an eye in the rock on the left.