The Finding of Moses

Pietro da Cortona (follower of) 1596 - 1669

Summary

The painting depicts the Old Testament story of the Finding of Moses (Exodus 2. 1-10). The Pharaoh had commanded that all Hebrew male children should be drowned in the River Nile. Levi's wife, unable to hide her infant son at home any longer, made a raft and hid him in the bulrushes at the water's edge. When the Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe, she caught sight of the raft. Here, the artist dramatically depicts the moment at which her handmaids present her with the infant. The action takes place in a fanciful Egyptian landscape. Behind the women, on the far side of the Nile, stands a city whose classical architecture has been altered and embellished to suggest an oriental setting. The Pharoah's daughter, wearing an elaborate crown, is dressed in white and gold, with a blue cloak that flows like a river from her shoulders. She stands with outstretched arms, gazing in amazement at the infant held by her three attendants. The figure on the extreme left is Moses' sister, who stayed nearby to witness what would happen (Exodus 2.4). This is probably the work of a contemporary follower of Cortona, who was equally distinguished as a painter and as an architect. In the 1630s he became the official painter to Urban VIII and is distinguished, with Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, as one of the principal Baroque artists in Rome. He painted frescoes for the Palazzo Barbarini (1631-9) and the Palazzo Pamphili (1651-4) in Rome, commissioned by Pope Innocent X, and, in the 1640s, for the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Cortona had a large number of pupils and followers.