Moses and/or the 10 Commandments appear three times in the
architectural embellishment of the Supreme Court building. Two of
these representations depict Moses as simply one of several important
lawgivers; these representations tend to disprove the idea that the 10
Commandments have some special relationship to American law. The third
instance has the Commandments as one of two artistic adornments on a
set of doors.
This site has a good description of the three instances and of the
context in which they appear.
http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/arg8a.htm
There is an image of Moses holding the 10 commandments, along with
Confucius and Solon on the east pediment of Supreme Court building.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/967509/posts
Title: Justice, The Guardian of Liberty, 1935
Location: Supreme Court, 2nd St. between E. Capitol St. and Maryland
Ave. NE
The pediment located on the east facade of the Supreme Court, is about
18 feet tall and 60 feet long. It emphasizes the contributions of
Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations to the development of law.
Moses, with the two tablets of Israelite law, is the central figure.
http://www.moseshand.com/studies/Pediment.htm
Search strategies: "supreme court" "ten commandments" ; "supreme
court" sculpture
Nellie Bly
Google Answers Researcher |
Request for Answer Clarification by
nautico-ga
on
22 Aug 2003 07:42 PDT
But my question was limited to whether you could verify the existence
of a "carving of the Ten Commandments behind the Chief Justice's
chair."
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Request for Answer Clarification by
nautico-ga
on
22 Aug 2003 11:13 PDT
Can I assume that you were unable to either confirm or disprove the
existence of the Ten Commandments carving "behind the chief justice's
chair"?
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Clarification of Answer by
nellie_bly-ga
on
22 Aug 2003 12:02 PDT
Hi-
As noted at the web site cited in the answer:
http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/arg8a.htm
Moses is depicted holding BLANK tablets in the freize near the ceiling
of the courtroom.
I've just now verified this information with the SCOTUS information
office.
Accorcding to the website:
"The Courtroom friezes were designed by sculptor Adolph Weinman. These
friezes are located well above the courtroom bench, on all four walls.
The South and North wall friezes form a group that depicts a
procession of 18 important lawgivers: Menes, Hammurabi, Moses,
Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius, Augustus, Justinian,
Mohammed, Charlemagne, King John, St. Louis, Hugo Grotius, William
Blackstone, John Marshall, and Napoleon. Moses is holding blank
tablets. The Moses figure is no larger or more important than any
other lawgiver. Again, there is nothing here to suggest and special
connection between the 10 Commandments and American law."
The letter writer may have had this frieze in mind when claiming that
the Ten Commandments are "carved into the wall." Given the height of
the carving, they would not likely appear in most photos of the
justices at the bench and are not what one would usually describe as
"behind the justice's chair."
According to the information office that is the ONLY depiction of
Moses or the ten commandments in the courtroom.
A photograph of the courtroom is included in a pdf document available
at:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/courtbuilding.pdf
However, I was unable to download that file because of technical
difficulties.
Nellie Bly
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Clarification of Answer by
nellie_bly-ga
on
28 Aug 2003 12:48 PDT
Hi nautico-
I've just received a printed "Information Sheet" from the Office of
the Curator of the Supreme Court of the United States.
It describes in full the friezes on the wall of the courtroom. Some
of the information is different from that on the web site cited in the
answer.
However, the bottom line is still that there is no depiction of the
Ten Commandments behind the bench. Moses and the Ten Commandments
are, however, depicted on the south wall frieze along with other law
givers.
The tablet in the East Wall Frieze behind the bench depicts the Bill
of Rights.
Here are some pertinent items:
The architect of the Supreme Court Building, Cass Gilbert, chose
sculptor Adolph Weinman, to design the courtroom friezes. Weinman
wanted the subject matter to correlate with the purpose of the
building, so he portrayed allegorical representations of the law on
the East and West Walls and historical lawgivers on the North and
South.
The East wall located directly above the bench "focuses on two male
figures that represent the Majesty of Law and the Power of
Government."
In a letter, Weinman told Gilbert that the tablet between them
represents "the first 10 ammendments of the Constitution."
Weinman designed a procession of "great lawgivers of history" for the
North and South walls. The marble friezes are each 40 feet long by
7feet, 2 inches high.
The sculpture begins on the south frieze with Fame and moves left to
right and includes Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon,
Draco,Confucius and Octavius. The south wall depicts Justinian,
Muhammad, Charlemagne, King John, Louis IX, Hugo Grotius, Sir Wm.
Blackstone, John Marshall and Napoleon.
Moses is depicted "holding two overlapping tablets, written in Hebrew,
representing the Ten Commandments. Partially visible from behind
Moses' beard are commandments six through ten."
There was obviously some misunderstanding when I spoke with the
information office by telephone, but I am confident that the
Information Sheets, which contain illustrations, are the correct
information.
I appologize for any previous misleading information.
Nellie Bly
Google Answers Researcher
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