Study for the figure of Moses 1730 - 1737

Curator: This is Jacob de Wit’s Study for the Figure of Moses, created sometime between 1730 and 1737. It’s currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It's brooding. The face seems to emerge from this darkness—the contrast between light and shadow is stark. Is it ink and charcoal? The textures seem quite expressive. Curator: Yes, the drawing combines ink and charcoal. De Wit’s handling of light and shadow is, I think, quite masterful, wouldn’t you agree? It imbues the figure with a sense of gravitas and almost divine power. Semiotically, it evokes a very specific idea of prophetic authority. Editor: But charcoal! Think of the labor—the burning of wood to create the very tool he uses. How readily available and handled that material was! And how readily available were models like this. The artist elevates Moses—the prophet, lawmaker, and leader—through skill, yet Moses himself becomes an object rendered in common materials. I wonder what wood provided the charcoal... was it a local material? Curator: The swirling lines, particularly in the beard and hair, add to the figure’s dynamism. You can almost feel the weight of history, or perhaps destiny, resting upon his shoulders. I see this drawing as a precursor to high Baroque ideals. Editor: All that density, and look how much the paper bleeds—there’s no escaping the hand and its messiness, no escaping the inherent physical process. It connects de Wit, even from centuries later, with the reality and physicality of his process and also to ours, in seeing it. What was de Wit really doing—was it about showing a certain type of leader, or also the artist’s labor, and Moses’s labor, too? Curator: I hadn’t considered it from that angle. Very interesting. It is rewarding to examine and consider both form and means when we look at art like this. Editor: Indeed. Thank you for drawing my attention to those features! I’ll have to contemplate Moses' material being even more carefully now.