Auffindung Moses

Auffindung Moses
Discovery of Moses
Depiction of the Old Testament scene of the discovery of Moses, the Bible reports that the descendants of Jacob multiplied briskly in Egypt, when a new Pharaoh came to power, he suspected that the people of the Israelites would become too powerful and that Egypt would grow an internal enemy from this, the Pharaoh then ordered that all newborn males were to be killed, At this time a Jewish woman gave birth to a beautiful son and after three months, when she could no longer hide him safely, she placed the infant in a rush box sealed with tar and set it out on the banks of the Nile and had it guarded by the boy's little sister, the following incident - also depicted in the painting - is described in the Book of Moses (2:5-10) as follows "... Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the Nile. Meanwhile, her servants were walking up and down the banks of the Nile. Suddenly she saw the box in the reeds and sent her maid to fetch it. When she opened it and looked inside, there was a crying child. She took pity on him and said, "This is a Hebrew child. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go to the Hebrew women and call you a wet nurse to nurse the child? Pharaoh's daughter answered her: Yes, go! The girl went and called the boy's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take the child with you and nurse him. I will reward you for it. The woman took the child and nursed it. When the boy had grown, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter. She took him as her son, called him Moses and said, 'I drew him out of the water...' The scene depicted was embedded by the artist in a European fantasy landscape, and the pharaoh's daughter in her precious ermine-trimmed robe is also reminiscent of European rulers of the 17th century, impasto, religious, baroque genre painting, oil on canvas, c. 1700, unsigned, stamped on the reverse "Hagans Erfurt 3. Dec. 1954", craquelure, paint cupping, backed missing part in the canvas, old restored, in need of restoration, framed in c. 7 cm wide Berlin moulding, folding dimensions c. 73.5 x 103.5 cm.