Descent from Mount Sinai

The Descent from Mount Sinai is a fresco painted by Cosimo Rosselli with his assistants in 1481–1482 for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It belongs to a cycle designed to set the stories of Moses and Christ side by side on opposite walls, presenting the law received on Sinai as leading to Christ and, through the handing over of the keys to Saint Peter, to the papacy. Within that logic, the painting links divine authority with the legitimacy of the Roman see.

The scene combines several moments at once, a common device across the cycle. In the upper part, Moses kneels on Sinai while God appears in a luminous cloud surrounded by angels and hands him the tablets; the sleeping Joshua accompanies him. In the foreground on the left, Moses carries the tablets down toward the people, but in the centre he discovers the worship of the golden calf, encouraged by Aaron, and reacts by smashing the tablets on the ground. In the background on the right, the punishment of the idolaters and the receiving of new tablets unfold. Several figures seen from behind, a device usually reserved for negative characters, heighten the moral contrast.

Vasari criticised Rosselli's weak draughtsmanship, which he offset with bright colours and golden highlights; according to the account, this preference for eye-catching effects pleased Pope Sixtus IV.

Painter

Cosimo Rosselli

Date

1481

Medium

fresco painting, fresco

Dimensions

350 × 572 cm

Museum

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Depicts

golden calf, Tablets of Stone

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