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Archive photograph of the previous version: engraving: a bearded Moses raises the Tables of the Law above his head to break them.

Previous version1866

Moses, bearded and draped, his face furious, holds a shrink-wrapped pack of twelve toilet rolls high above his head, ready to smash it.

Current version2026

Gustave Doré, Moses Breaks the Tables of the Law

Engraving by Gustave Doré, 1866, via Wikimedia CommonsPublic domainImage source

Acc. no. GLI.2026.007 107

Moses and the Golden Calf

Prophet, liberator and lawgiver of the Hebrews.

At the GLiTCH Museum, Department of Contemporary Antiquities.

Marble, two-ply cellulose wadding, polythene wrap.

Next version Marble. Double-ply toilet paper, carved from the block.

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Catalogue entry

Record GLI.2026.007
Work 7 of 13

Materials depicted
Marble, two-ply cellulose wadding, polythene wrap.Twelve rolls. Limit: one pack per visitor.
Provenance
Supermarket, toiletries aisle, 16 March 2020, 8.05am. Last pack.
Condition report
Good. Original packaging. No roll has been started.
Related work
Nicolas Poussin, The Adoration of the Golden Calf, 1633–4, National Gallery, London.

Commentary

According to Exodus, Moses spends forty days and forty nights on Sinai. Tired of waiting, the people bring their gold earrings to Aaron, who casts them into an idol: the golden calf.

On his return, Moses smashes the tablets of the Law in anger at the foot of the mountain. Then he takes the calf, burns it, grinds it to powder and makes the people drink it.

Quarantine comes from the Venetian for ‘forty days’. Why forty is uncertain: Hippocrates has been suggested, as have the forty days of Scripture, this stay on Sinai among them. In March 2020, quarantine returned, and one product was among the first to vanish from the shelves. The phenomenon has been the subject of scientific study.

Previous version

Gustave Doré, Moses Breaks the Tables of the Law, wood engraving, 1866. New ones had to be cut.

Engraving by Gustave Doré, 1866, via Wikimedia CommonsPublic domainImage source

See both versions
References3 references

Digital composition by Aël, updated with the help of artificial intelligence. Glitch: original.