Moses and Aaron with the Ten Commandments

Painted around 1674–1675 by Dutch-Sephardic artist Aron de Chaves for London's Creechurch Lane Synagogue, Moses and Aaron with the Ten Commandments is a monumental work of Anglo-Jewish history depicting Moses in a red mantle gesturing toward two dark stone tablets, alongside his brother Aaron outfitted in full High Priest (Kohen Gadol) vestments. Reflecting the heritage of the Sephardic congregation that commissioned it, the central tablets display the Decalogue in gold-leaf lettering side-by-side in both Hebrew and archaic Spanish, with the right tablet covering duties toward God and the left covering social obligations toward others. By blending Baroque European painterly style with explicit Hebrew iconography and Spanish text, the canvas stands as a rare surviving visual artifact from the earliest days of the readmission of Jewish communities to 17th-century England.