
In viewing Rockefeller Center, I was dumbstruck by the polychromed bas-reliefs that adorn the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Here was this Moses-looking figure, with repeating rows of geometric whiskers blowing more than a yard long out of the frame. He floats in gilded lined clouds of purple, burgundy, mauve, gray and black. In his splayed right hand he holds a golden caliper-looking compass. Wisdom Creating the Universe or so it’s titled. Behind his hand there’s a biblical verse, “Wisdom and Knowledge Shall Be The Stability of Thy Times.”