The Liberator and the Topsy-Turvy World: A Study of Mosaic Iconography in Leiden and the Motif of Mundus Inversus

Part I: The Mosaic Legacy in Leiden's Collections

The city of Leiden, a historic center of scholarship and art, holds within its institutions a multifaceted legacy related to the biblical figure of Moses. This legacy is not monolithic but is distributed across various media, from medieval manuscripts and early modern paintings to nineteenth-century prints and archaeological contexts. An investigation into these holdings reveals a complex portrait of Moses as a lawgiver, philosopher, prophet, and a potent symbol of national liberation. However, a comprehensive survey requires a crucial preliminary distinction between collections physically housed within the city and those connected to it by name and artistic tradition.

1.1 Preliminary Clarification: Leiden-Based Institutions vs. "The Leiden Collection"

To accurately map the documents and artifacts relevant to this inquiry, it is essential to differentiate between the public and university institutions located in Leiden and the significant private art collection that bears its name. The city of Leiden is home to Leiden University and its extensive libraries, the National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden), and the municipal Museum De Lakenhal.1 These institutions are the physical repositories of the manuscripts, prints, and archaeological materials discussed in this report.

In contrast, "The Leiden Collection" is one of the world's most important private assemblages of seventeenth-century Dutch art, founded by Thomas S. Kaplan and Daphne Recanati Kaplan.4 This collection is based in New York and is not physically located in the Netherlands.6 Its name is a deliberate homage to the city of Leiden, the birthplace of Rembrandt van Rijn, whose work forms a cornerstone of the collection.4 The collection's mission is to serve as a "lending library" of Dutch Golden Age art, making its treasures available to museums and the public worldwide.4 This distinction is of paramount importance because a key artwork central to this study, Pieter de Grebber's painting

The Finding of Moses, is part of this New York-based collection.9 The naming of the collection itself underscores Leiden's profound and enduring influence on the history of Dutch art, an influence that resonates globally.

1.2 Leiden University Libraries: Manuscripts, Texts, and Prints

Leiden University Libraries, with their vast digital and physical archives, hold several significant items directly or indirectly related to the stories and figure of Moses. These holdings span theology, philosophy, art history, and cross-cultural studies, reflecting the university's long-standing role as a center for diverse intellectual inquiry.10

Philosophical and Theological Texts

The university's collection of manuscripts contains foundational works of Jewish thought that are directly linked to authors named Moses, preserving a rich intellectual heritage.

• Moses Maimonides, Moreh ha-Nevukhim (Or. 4745): This significant manuscript, executed on parchment and dating from the 12th or 13th century, contains the Hebrew translation of Dalalat al-Ha'irin, or The Guide of the Perplexed, by the seminal Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1139–1204).13 The translation was completed by Samuel ibn Tibbon. As a cornerstone of medieval rationalist philosophy, this work sought to reconcile Aristotelian thought with Hebrew scripture. Its presence in the Leiden collection, under the shelfmark Or. 4745, highlights the university's deep holdings in theological and philosophical history and provides a direct link to one of the most influential intellectual figures named Moses in world history.13

• Moses di Gaggio di Rieti, Collective Volume...: The digital collections also list a collective volume that includes an untitled work in Italian (written in Hebrew script) by Moses di Gaggio di Rieti.14 While access to the full digital object is restricted, its catalog entry confirms the existence of another textual artifact within the university's archives authored by a figure named Moses, further broadening the scope of relevant documents.

Artistic Representations

Beyond theological texts, the libraries' print room contains works that engage with the rich iconographic tradition of Moses in Western art.

• Pierre Jean Edmond Castan, Michelangelo working in his workshop on the Moses... (PK-P-126.163): This nineteenth-century print by the French artist Pierre Jean Edmond Castan (1817–1892) is a fascinating piece of reception history.15 It depicts the Renaissance master Michelangelo in his studio, actively sculpting his monumental statue of Moses, which was destined for the tomb of Pope Julius II. In the background, other works like the
  Slaves and a cartoon for the Last Judgment are visible. The inclusion of this print in the Leiden collection demonstrates a continued scholarly and artistic interest in the figure of Moses, not just as a biblical character but as a subject of canonical European art. It speaks to the enduring power of Michelangelo's interpretation and its place within the art-historical imagination preserved at Leiden.15

Cross-Cultural References

The global reach of the university's collections, particularly through its integration of the KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) holdings, reveals the presence of the Moses narrative far beyond its Judeo-Christian origins.16

• Voorhoeve & Iskandar, Catalogue of Acehnese Manuscripts: A catalogue of Acehnese manuscripts, compiled by P. Voorhoeve in cooperation with T. Iskandar and published by the library in 1994, explicitly mentions stories of Moses.18 Within its section on "Religious works a. Legends relating to the pre-Mohammedan period," the catalogue lists an entry titled
  Haba Musa (Stories of Moses).18 This reference is a crucial indicator of the universal significance of Moses as a prophet within Islamic tradition, which is well-represented in Leiden's extensive Oriental manuscript collections. It demonstrates that the university's resources allow for a comparative study of the Moses narrative across different religious and cultural contexts.

1.3 The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden: The Egyptian Context

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO), the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, is intrinsically linked to Leiden University, having originated in 1818 as the university's "archaeological cabinet".19 While the museum's online collections do not feature artifacts that explicitly depict scenes from the life of Moses, its world-renowned Egyptian collection is of profound contextual relevance to the Exodus narrative.2

The museum houses one of the top ten Egyptian collections in the world, providing the authentic material and cultural backdrop against which the biblical stories of the Israelites' bondage and liberation are set.2 Visitors and researchers can engage directly with the civilization of the pharaohs. The collection's centerpiece is the two-thousand-year-old Egyptian temple from the village of Taffeh, a gift from the Egyptian government to the Netherlands in the 1960s in gratitude for Dutch assistance in a UNESCO rescue operation.20 This monumental structure, along with other artifacts such as sarcophagi, canopic jars (containers for mummified organs), and objects from the ancient Near East, allows for a tangible connection to the world described in the Book of Exodus.19 For any scholar studying the historical context of the Moses stories, the RMO in Leiden is an indispensable resource, offering not an illustration of the narrative, but an immersion into the physical reality of its setting.

1.4 The Leiden Collection and Pieter de Grebber's The Finding of Moses

The most significant single artwork directly related to the Moses narrative with ties to Leiden is The Finding of Moses, an oil on panel painting created around 1632–34 by the Haarlem-based artist Pieter de Grebber (ca. 1600–1653).9 As established, this masterpiece is part of the New York-based Leiden Collection, named in honor of the city.

Iconographic Analysis

The painting depicts the pivotal scene from Exodus 2:1–10, where the infant Moses, having been abandoned in a basket on the Nile to escape the Pharaoh's murderous decree, is discovered by the Pharaoh's own daughter.9 De Grebber captures the solemn and tender moment of transfer: a young woman presents the child to the richly attired princess, who reaches out to accept him.9 The artist masterfully uses a strong, diffused light to illuminate the key figures, casting them against a dark, indistinct background.9 The composition is arranged along a clear diagonal, leading the viewer's eye from the reeds at the lower right up to the seated princess on the left, creating a frieze-like and highly legible narrative structure.9 This clarity stands in contrast to other contemporary depictions, such as a version from the workshop of Rembrandt, which focuses more on the surprise and curiosity of the discovery.9 De Grebber, instead, emphasizes the gravity of the act, a moment that elevates Moses from certain death to a position of honor at the Egyptian court.23

Allegorical Significance in the Dutch Republic

For a seventeenth-century Dutch audience, the story of Moses resonated with profound political and national significance. The narrative of the Israelites' suffering under Egyptian bondage and their subsequent liberation under the leadership of Moses was understood as a powerful Old Testament prefiguration of their own recent history: the long and arduous struggle for independence from Spanish Catholic rule during the Eighty Years' War.23

The leader of the Dutch Revolt, William I of Orange, known as William the Silent, was frequently and explicitly likened to Moses.23 Both figures were seen as divinely guided leaders who led their people out of oppression toward a "promised land" of freedom and self-determination. The parallel was made even more poignant by the fact that both men died before the final realization of their vision; Moses died before entering Canaan, and William was assassinated in 1584, long before the Dutch Republic's independence was formally recognized in 1648.23 This allegorical connection was a cornerstone of Dutch national mythology. Therefore, a painting like de Grebber's

The Finding of Moses was not merely a depiction of a distant biblical event. It was a resonant and patriotic statement, a celebration of divine providence in the founding of the Dutch nation, and a tribute to the foundational leader who, like Moses, had set his people on the path to freedom.

Table 1: Inventory of Moses-Related Documents and Artifacts in Leiden Collections

The following table provides a consolidated summary of the key documents, artworks, and collections related to the figure of Moses that are either physically located in Leiden or are intrinsically linked to the city's artistic and scholarly heritage.

Item/Artwork Title

Creator/Author

Date

Holding Institution/Collection

Collection/Shelfmark

Medium/Type

Brief Description & Relevance

Moreh ha-Nevukhim

Moses Maimonides

12th-13th C.

Leiden University Libraries

Or. 4745

Hebrew Manuscript

Foundational work of Jewish philosophy by a figure named Moses. 13

Collective Volume...

Moses di Gaggio di Rieti

N/A

Leiden University Libraries

N/A

Hebrew/Italian Manuscript

Textual document directly linked to an author named Moses. 14

Michelangelo working...

Pierre Jean Edmond Castan

1817-1892

Leiden University Libraries

PK-P-126.163

Print

Artistic representation of the creation of the famous Moses statue. 15

Catalogue of Acehnese...

P. Voorhoeve / T. Iskandar

1994

Leiden University Libraries

N/A

Manuscript Catalogue

Mentions an Acehnese manuscript (Haba Musa) containing stories of Moses. 18

The Finding of Moses

Pieter de Grebber

ca. 1632-34

The Leiden Collection (New York)

PG-100

Oil on Panel

Major Dutch Golden Age painting depicting a key Moses narrative with strong allegorical ties to Dutch history. 9

Egyptian & Near East Collection

N/A

Ancient

Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Leiden)

N/A

Archaeological Artifacts

Provides the essential material and cultural context for the biblical Exodus narrative. 2

Part II: De Verkeerde Wereld: An Anatomy of the "World Upside Down"

The concept of the "world upside down" is a rich and enduring cultural motif used to represent social, moral, and cosmic disorder through the inversion of established norms. Known in scholarly discourse by its Latin name, Mundus Inversus, this topos has a long and complex history, serving as a versatile tool for satire, social commentary, and philosophical reflection across various media, from literature to the visual arts.25

2.1 Genealogy of a Topos: From Classical Adynata to Mundus Inversus

The intellectual origins of the "world upside down" can be traced to classical antiquity and the rhetorical device known as adynaton (plural: adynata), or impossibilia in Latin.27 An

adynaton is a figure of speech that emphasizes a point by describing an impossibility. Classical authors like Virgil used this device to express extreme emotional states or unbreakable promises; for example, a jilted lover might declare that before he changes his heart, rivers will flow upstream and wolves will flee from hares.28

It was the German philologist Ernst Robert Curtius who, in his seminal work European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, formally identified the "world upside down" as a distinct literary topos—a recurring, conventional theme or formula.26 Curtius demonstrated how the simple "stringing together of impossibilia" evolves into a coherent motif used to critique the state of the world.26 He cites a poem from the

Carmina Burana that begins as a "complaint on the times," lamenting that learning is in decay, and then expands into a litany of inversions: "the ass plays the lute; oxen dance; plow-boys turn soldiers".26 This catalogue of absurdities serves to declare that the entire world is "topsy-turvy" and "out of joint".26

2.2 Mechanisms of Inversion: Satire, Carnival, and the Subversion of Order

The power of the Mundus Inversus motif, particularly in the medieval and early modern periods, stems from its direct assault on the deeply entrenched concept of a divinely ordained cosmic hierarchy. This hierarchical structure, known as the scala naturæ or the "great chain of being," organized the entire universe in a strict, immutable order descending from God through angels, humans (with their own internal hierarchies of nobles and commoners), animals, plants, and minerals.27 To depict this order inverted—with animals hunting humans, children beating their parents, or the cart placed before the horse—was to portray a world returned to a state of primeval chaos.27 Such an image was a powerful polemical tool, used to label any person, institution, or idea as abnormal, unnatural, and a threat to the very balance of the world.27

This topos is also deeply connected to the social theories of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, who analyzed its function within popular culture, particularly in the context of Carnival.27 During carnivalesque festivals like the Feast of Fools, social hierarchies were temporarily and officially suspended. A commoner might be crowned "king for a day," and sacred rituals might be parodied.31 Bakhtin saw this as a "downward movement," where everything elevated, sacred, and official is brought into the "lower realm of the material bodily stratum"—the world of feasting, defecation, and debauchery.27 This temporary inversion was not merely destructive; it was seen as having a regenerative power, using laughter to critique and renew the social order.29

The versatility of the topos is one of its defining features. It can be employed to mock, deplore, or criticize a specific situation, or to imagine entirely different worlds, both dystopian and utopian.26 As a result, it appears across a wide range of media, including poetry, pamphlets, paintings, and prints, making it a pervasive mode of perceiving and understanding the world.29

2.3 The Topsy-Turvy Sensibility in Dutch Golden Age Art

The "world upside down" motif found particularly fertile ground in the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Netherlands, a period of profound social, political, and religious upheaval. The Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule and the Protestant Reformation were not abstract events but a lived reality of an overturned world. The established order was violently subverted, and long-held certainties were thrown into question. It is no coincidence that a culture experiencing such a radical inversion of its own reality would find the Mundus Inversus topos to be a particularly resonant and effective artistic framework. The art of the period did not just depict a topsy-turvy world; it was a direct cultural response to living in one.

Satirical Prints and Political Commentary

Early examples of the motif's use in the Netherlands are explicitly political. A series of four satirical engravings published in 1579 by the Antwerp rhetorician Willem Haecht, with designs by Marten van Cleve, used the theme to comment on the perilous state of the country.32 The first print in the series is explicitly titled

The World Upside Down. It employs a rebus-like combination of human figures, symbolic animals, and text to convey its message. Personifications of Hypocrisy and Tyranny are shown literally holding the world upside down, while soldiers plunder the countryside. The accompanying text and images create a cumulative effect of disorder: the lion (a symbol of the Netherlands) sleeps, the wolf steals, and the fox robs.32 This series is a clear example of the topos being used as a form of political polemic, a visual lament for a nation in chaos.

Jan Steen and the "Disorderly Household"

In the seventeenth century, the theme was masterfully adapted to the genre of interior scenes by the Leiden-born painter Jan Steen (c. 1626–1679).33 Steen became the quintessential painter of the

Verkeerde Wereld (the Dutch term for the motif), often depicting scenes of boisterous and chaotic households that have become synonymous with his name—the Dutch expression "a Jan Steen household" still refers to a messy, lively home.35

In paintings like The Dissolute Household (ca. 1663–64), Steen presents a microcosm of a world where all social and moral order has collapsed.35 The mother of the house has fallen asleep from drink, the maid flirts with the father (a self-portrait of Steen), children feed wine to a cat, and a Bible is trampled on the floor.35 The consequences of this moral inversion are literally suspended over the family's heads: a basket hangs from the ceiling containing items that portend their fate—a crutch and a beggar's can, instruments of punishment, and the jack of spades, a symbol of misfortune.35

Steen often made the connection to the broader "world upside down" theme explicit. In the background of The Dissolute Household, painted decorations on the windows depict animals in human roles—a boar with a musket and a lion with a staff.35 This detail directly links the domestic chaos in the foreground to the traditional iconography of the

Mundus Inversus, suggesting that this particular disorderly household is but one small corner of a larger topsy-turvy world.35 Through his humorous yet moralizing scenes, Steen used the motif to critique a wide range of human follies, including sloth, gluttony, lust, and poor parenting, all of which contribute to the inversion of a proper, orderly society.35

Part III: Synthesis: Moses, the Inversion of Power, and the Dutch Imagination

The figure of Moses and the motif of the Mundus Inversus are not disparate subjects within the cultural landscape of Leiden and the Dutch Golden Age. Rather, they are deeply intertwined, representing two powerful frameworks for conceptualizing and representing narratives of liberation, the subversion of authority, and the radical inversion of power. The stories of Moses provide a foundational narrative of a world turned upside down, while the artistic topos offers the visual and symbolic language to express it.

3.1 The Exodus Narrative as Primal Inversion

When examined through the theoretical lens of the Mundus Inversus, the biblical narrative of Moses's early life emerges as a quintessential "world upside down" story. The established order of the world—the absolute power of the Egyptian empire over an enslaved Israelite population—is systematically inverted at every turn. The story of The Finding of Moses, as depicted by Pieter de Grebber, is a perfect encapsulation of this theme.

The narrative begins with a decree from the apex of worldly power: the Pharaoh orders the death of all male Hebrew infants.9 This edict is immediately subverted not by a rival king or a foreign army, but from within the Pharaoh's own household, by his daughter.23 In an act of merciful rebellion, she defies her father's command and adopts the very child condemned by his law.9 This single act represents a profound inversion of the established hierarchy. A baby from an enslaved and persecuted people, destined for death, is not only saved but is elevated to the highest echelons of society, raised as a prince of Egypt. The lowest is made highest, and the powerless is placed at the center of power.

This initial inversion sets the stage for the larger narrative of the Exodus, in which Moses, now a fugitive and a humble shepherd, returns to challenge and ultimately bring about the downfall of the most powerful empire of his time. The story of Moses is, at its core, a story about the radical reordering of the world, where divine will overturns human tyranny and the oppressed are liberated. De Grebber's painting, therefore, can be read on multiple levels: as a faithful depiction of a biblical scene, as a potent national allegory for the Dutch Republic, and as a powerful illustration of the primal Mundus Inversus narrative, where the natural order of power is turned on its head.

3.2 Jan Steen's Moses: Biblical Farce as Social Critique

The most compelling synthesis of the Moses narrative and the "world upside down" motif is found in the work of the Leiden master, Jan Steen. As previously established, Steen was the foremost painter of the Verkeerde Wereld, using scenes of domestic chaos to deliver moralizing social critiques.35 While he was known for these genre scenes, he also painted a number of historical and biblical subjects, including the story of Moses.36 His treatment of these sacred narratives, however, was often filtered through the same satirical and critical lens he applied to his secular works.

A prime example is his painting Moses and Pharaoh's Crown (c. 1670).38 The painting depicts an extra-biblical story in which the infant Moses, while in the Pharaoh's court, is tested to see if he poses a threat. He is presented with a choice between a golden crown, symbolizing earthly power, and a bowl of glowing coals, representing divine trial or perhaps suffering.39 In his innocence, Moses reaches for a hot coal and burns himself, thus proving he is no threat to the throne.39

This is a moment of high theological drama, a story about divine providence, the nature of power, and the future of a people. However, Steen chooses to depict this solemn event as a "farce".39 The scene is not one of reverence or gravity. Instead, it is filled with the same kind of comical human agitation that populates his tavern scenes. The Pharaoh is portrayed as visibly irritated, his powerful counselors are flustered and agitated, and the central figure of the infant Moses is simply a crying toddler.39

In this artistic choice lies a profound act of thematic inversion. Steen deliberately applies the stylistic and emotional conventions of his signature Verkeerde Wereld genre scenes to a sacred historical narrative. By doing so, he inverts the expected tone of the subject. The painting's "subtle criticism" is not aimed at the biblical story itself, but at the figures of authority within it.39 The Pharaoh and his court, the supposed paragons of worldly power and order, are rendered as foolish, paranoid, and comically inept as the drunken parents in

The Dissolute Household. They are powerful men whose world is turned upside down with fear by the presence of a single child. Steen thus uses the story of Moses as a vehicle for his characteristic social critique, demonstrating that human folly, vanity, and the absurdity of power are universal, present in the palaces of pharaohs just as they are in the disorderly homes of seventeenth-century Holland.

3.3 Conclusion: A Dual Legacy of Liberation and Inversion

The investigation of Moses-related documents in Leiden and the analysis of the "world upside down" motif reveal two deeply interconnected cultural currents in the Dutch Golden Age. The city's collections—from the philosophical depth of Maimonides' manuscript at the university to the material context of ancient Egypt at the RMO—preserve a rich and varied legacy of the Mosaic narrative. This narrative, particularly the story of the Exodus, became a foundational allegory for the Dutch Republic, a powerful symbol of its own liberation from tyrannical rule.

Simultaneously, the artistic and literary topos of the Mundus Inversus, or Verkeerde Wereld, provided a robust and flexible language for artists to critique, satirize, and process the profound social and political inversions of their time. The chaos of war and reformation found its reflection in images of a world turned topsy-turvy.

These two currents converge most powerfully in the artistic imagination of the period. The story of Moses is itself a narrative of primal inversion, where the powerless are elevated and the mighty are brought low. When artists like Pieter de Grebber painted The Finding of Moses, they were not only illustrating scripture but also invoking a national story of liberation that was, in essence, a real-world "world upside down." Furthermore, when a master of the topsy-turvy genre like Jan Steen turned his attention to the Moses story, he used it as a new stage upon which to enact his familiar critique of human folly, treating the court of the Pharaoh with the same satirical eye he cast upon a chaotic Dutch household.

Ultimately, the figure of Moses and the motif of the "world upside down" are not separate inquiries but are two sides of the same conceptual coin in the context of seventeenth-century Dutch culture. Both provided essential frameworks for understanding and representing narratives of radical change: the overthrow of tyranny, the subversion of established power, and the timeless absurdity of human authority in the face of forces beyond its control. The legacy preserved in and associated with Leiden is therefore a dual one, celebrating both a liberator who set things right and an artistic tradition that delighted in showing the world turned upside down.

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