Marc Chagall

The canvas is not relined. The picture surface is inclean and retians its original impasto. Under uv there are no signs of inpainting.
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The story of the golden calf has been explored by artists since antiquity. Marc Chagall's rendering shows Moses to the left, an angelic white figure against the stormy mountain, descending from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Below him, the Israelites are dancing with hands raised around the golden calf, an image of the God of Israel created out of fear that Moses would not return. The scene is bathed in red, anticipating Moses' anger at the worship of this idol, the resultant destruction of the golden calf and the slaughter of those who do not follow Moses and God.

Chagall began to visualize scenes from the Old Testament in 1930, when Ambrose Vollard commissioned illustrations for the Bible, and he continued to revisit religious themes throughout his career. Moise et le Veau d' Or is a late work that epitomizes Chagall's strength as a colorist.  The use of colors such as black, white and red – the last color permeates almost the entirety of the work – reflect the intensity of the story and its importance to the artist. The depth of Chagall's palette is matched by the immediacy of his brushwork -- in places he painted with the blunt end of his paintbrush -- and gives this work a pulsing energy.