From Wikipedia: "The Column of the Immaculate Conception (Italian: La Colonna della Immacolata) is a nineteenth-century monument in central Rome depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Marian monument was designed by the architect Luigi Poletti, the actual figure atop was sculpted by Giuseppe Obici and commissioned by Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies. In part, he wanted to put closure to the dispute between Naples and the Papal States that had developed in the last century, when Naples abolished the Chinea, a yearly tribute offered to the Pope as ultimate sovereign of Naples.
The column was dedicated on 8 December 1857. It celebrated the recently adopted (1854) dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The dogma had been proclaimed ex cathedra in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus of Pope Pius IX.
The structure is a square marble base with statues of biblical figures at the corners that uphold a column of Cipollino marble of 11.8 meters. Atop the column is a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary. The standard imagery of the immaculate conception is used: a virgin on a crescent, atop the world, stomping a serpent (a symbol of the original sin assigned to all humans, except the Virgin Mary, since Adam and Eve).
The biblical statues are Patriarch Moses sculpted by Jacometti, King David by Tadolini, Prophet Isaiah by Revelli and Seer Ezekiel by Carlo Chelli. Moses is shown with horns and a long veil over his head, holding the tablets containing the Ten Commandments." (
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From Encyclopedia Britannica: "Moses, Hebrew Moshe, (flourished 14th–13th century BCE), Hebrew prophet, teacher, and leader who, in the 13th century BCE, delivered his people from Egyptian slavery. In the Covenant ceremony at Mt. Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were promulgated, he founded the religious community known as Israel. As the interpreter of these Covenant stipulations, he was the organizer of the community’s religious and civil traditions. In the Judaic tradition, he is revered as the greatest prophet and teacher, and Judaism has sometimes loosely been called Mosaism, or the Mosaic faith, in Western Christendom. His influence continues to be felt in the religious life, moral concerns, and social ethics of Western civilization, and therein lies his undying significance." (
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