Finding of Moses
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Chapter 1:15–22 of the Book of Exodus recounts how during the captivity in Egypt of the Israelite people, the Pharaoh ordered "Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live." |
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The Finding of Moses, sometimes called Moses in the Bullrushes, Moses Saved from the Waters, or other variants, is the story in chapter 2 of the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible of the finding in the River Nile of Moses as a baby by the daughter of Pharoah. The story became a common subject in art, especially from the Renaissance onwards.
Depictions in Jewish and Islamic art are much less frequent, but some Christian depictions show details derived from extra-biblical Jewish texts. The earliest surviving depiction in art is a fresco in the Dura-Europos Synagogue, datable to around 244 AD, whose motif of a "naked princess" bathing in the river has been related to much later art. A contrasting tradition, beginning in the Renaissance, gave great attention to the rich costumes of the princess and her retinue.
Moses was a central figure in Jewish tradition, and was given a variety of different significances in Christian thought. He was regarded as a typological precursor of Christ, but could at times also be regarded as a precursor or allegorical representation of things as diverse as the pope, Venice, the Dutch Republic, or Louis XIV. The subject also represented a case of a foundling or abandoned child, a significant social issue into modern times.
Leading depictions
- The Finding of Moses (Tiepolo) by Gianbattista Tiepolo, in Edinburgh; a different composition in Melbourne.
- The Finding of Moses (Gentileschi) by Orazio Gentileschi, versions in the Prado, Madrid and National Gallery, London
- The Finding of Moses (Poussin) by Nicholas Poussin; there are three different compositions, two in the Louvre, Paris, the other National Gallery, London
- The Finding of Moses (Veronese) by Paolo Veronese, various compositions, in the Prado, Dresden, Dijon and elsewhere
- The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting), 1904, sold at auction in 2010 for nearly US$36 million. Private collection.
See also
- "The Finding of Moses" (poem), a poem by the Irish street poet Zozimus (b. circa 1794 – d. 1846)
- Massacre of the innocents
