Ten Commandments (Los Diez Mandamientos, Spain) from the collection of Blackfriars Gallery and Library

Ten Commandments (Los Diez Mandamientos, Spain), 1956

Lithograph

Perhaps the most famous biblical movie of all time, Paramount Pictures’ The Ten Commandments (1956) starred Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brenner as Rameses. As a director whose name became synonymous with epic productions, Cecil B. DeMille made several of the films represented in this collection. Five of them might be considered “biblical epics”: The Ten Commandments (1923); The King of Kings (1927); The Sign of the Cross (1932); Samson and Delilah (1949); and The Ten Commandments (1956). The latter was DeMille’s seventieth and final film.

The poster is a visual representation of the central premise of the film, as stated in the on-screen introduction from its director Cecil B. DeMille, "...whether men are to be ruled by God’s law, or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Rameses." This poster places in closeup the tablets of the Ten Commandments, written in an ancient Proto-Hebrew script found by DeMille’s researchers.

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From Blackfriars Gallery and Library

Hieronymous Wierx

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Lithograph

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