The Jewish holiday of Passover commemorates the Israelites’ liberation, led by Moses, from slavery in Egypt. The Hebrew prophet’s beginnings has been a popular theme in art history explored in paintings, drawings, frescos, prints, stained glass, and illuminated manuscripts by both Jewish and Christian artists. One of the most famous examples is the 1904 painting “The Finding of Moses” by Anglo-Dutch artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
The textual reference for this narrative comes from Exodus, the second book of the Bible. At the start, the Pharaoh decrees that all Jewish male newborns in Egypt be thrown into the Nile River. To avoid this fate for her son, Moses’ mother places him in the reeds by the river in a papyrus basket. The baby is found and removed from the water by none other than the king’s daughter.
The princess knows that he is Jewish, but adopts him anyway, naming him Moses, which means “to draw out.” Watching this scene at a distance is Moses’ sister. She emerges, offering to secure a nurse for the baby and chooses their own mother.
The interior decoration of one of the world’s oldest known synagogues, called Dura-Europos Synagogue, contained frescos of the life of Moses on its western wall. One of the wall’s registers illustrates the finding of Moses. The Synagogue dates to the mid-3rd century and is in modern-day Syria. The building’s extensive, colorful wall paintings are unique, with nothing comparable in the art of Jewish antiquity. The Synagogue was uncovered in the 1930s, during excavations by a Yale-French archaeological team. It had spent over a millennium beneath layers of sand. The artworks were later transferred to the National Museum in Damascus.
European Depictions
Christian artists were interested in the story of Moses’s beginnings, in part because his tale was viewed as a precursor to the New Testament’s Flight into Egypt. In that chronicle, Jesus flees to Egypt with his family, escaping King Herod’s ordered massacre of Jewish male infants in Bethlehem.
Veronese’s greatest version is at the Prado and dates to circa 1580. The figures in the foreground are in a pastoral locale. At the left is a body of water that leads to a cityscape in the background. This verdant atmosphere, coupled with the lavish brocade dress of the Pharaoh’s daughter and her attendants’ costumes, reveal that Veronese contemporized the story’s ancient Egyptian setting.
During the 17th century, the Dutch identified with several accounts from the Hebrew Bible, including the Book of Esther and the story of Moses. Regarding the latter, they saw a parallel between the Israelites Egyptian enslavement with the oppressive Spanish rule of their own territory, including how both peoples were freed due to courageous leadership.
At the Morgan Library is a dramatic drawing by Rembrandt (1606–1669) of the Finding of Moses. It dates to around 1655 and is one of many works on paper by the artist of biblical subjects. At its center is the Pharaoh’s daughter, who stands in resplendent dress under a large parasol. At the lower right, Moses is rescued from the water as his semi-concealed sister watches the event unfold.
Gentileschi’s elegant pictures from his 12-year London period are noted for their sumptuous colors and highly detailed depictions of textiles. “The Finding of Moses,” the NG writes, “is the most ambitious and displays unparalleled refinement and beauty.”
The artist sets the story in countryside that resembles England rather than Egypt. The river at right looks more like the Thames than the Nile. Nine life-size female figures surround baby Moses. As in Veronese and Rembrandt’s depictions, the Pharaoh’s daughter is clearly delineated from the grouping. Here, she is arrayed in a bejeweled yellow gown. Moses’ sister kneels before the princess while Moses’ and Miriam’s mother hovers protectively.
England’s Knighted Master
Alma-Tadema trained in the academic style, studying at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Afterwards, he was mentored by a history painter who also worked as a professor of archaeology. This had a life-changing impact on Alma-Tadema. He became renowned for his opulent paintings of the classical world that reflected his exacting study—from trips, visits to museums, and an extensive library—of the art and objects of antiquity.
He moved to London in 1870 and became a British citizen as well as a member of the Royal Academy. Alma-Tadema traveled in exalted circles: He was friends with the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra), and his works were collected by the likes of William Henry Vanderbilt and Henry Clay Frick. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1899, and six years later he received the Order of Merit. After his death, as a final honor, Alma-Tadema was buried in London’s famous St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Sadly, it was soon after this that his beautiful paintings of precision, pageantry, splendor, bold color, and natural light were written off as superficial and old-fashioned. Modernism came to dominate the art world, and it was not until the 1960s that critical approval of his work reemerged.
Alma-Tadema’s Biblical Canvas
One of Alma-Tadema’s most famous paintings is “The Finding of Moses.” The oil on canvas dates to the end of his career. Its inspiration came from a six-week trip in 1902 that the artist took to Egypt for the opening of the Aswan Dam at the invitation of Sir John Aird, its engineer. Aird was a prominent patron of the arts, and his collection consisted mainly of large Academic pictures, including Alma-Tadema’s magnificent “The Roses of Heliogabalus.”
Alma-Tadema was artistically inspired by the trip to Egypt, making many sketches and taking photographs. Aird wanted to add another Alma-Tadema painting to his collection and selected the artist’s idea of the “Finding of Moses.” Alma-Tadema worked almost exclusively on it for just under two years. This time-consuming picture was the culmination of his meticulous skill honed over decades.
This was an unusual topic for Alma-Tadema, as he rarely painted biblical or even mythological subjects. While his work was deeply rooted in historic accuracy, he did take artistic license throughout his oeuvre in order to create imaginative, enthralling compositions. This painting is no exception. Alma-Tadema positions Moses prominently in a retinue of pomp that features many of his favorite models recognizable from previous artworks, though not necessarily ethnographically correct for an ancient Egyptian setting.
The Pharaoh’s daughter, who was modeled on Aird’s daughter, wears a diadem that was copied from a rare silver example now in Leiden’s Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. Other accurately depicted objects include her gold pectoral and cuff bracelet, fox-tailed flail, and the chair in which she is carried, along with jewelry worn by the servants and priests.
The viewer’s eyes are drawn throughout the picture plane. The composition has strong horizontals, with a frieze-like composition that implies movement. There are pronounced verticals, too. On the left side of the composition is a red granite statue with a hieroglyphic inscription, and there are white ceramic pots in the center and at right.
Sotheby’s cataloguing notes, “The intricately-described decorations of the foreground contrast with the far bank’s teams of Hebrew slaves, their blurred shapes suggesting distance and the hazy day’s heat, while the distinct rose-colored Pyramids of Gizeh mark the horizon line.”
Lush florals abound, imbuing the scene with abundance and color. The foreground features delphiniums, which were cultivated in ancient Egypt, by a limestone wall. Amidst the flora are a smattering of yellow butterflies. Moses’s basket is decorated with lotuses and the princess holds a single flower. Additionally, lotuses are entwined around the ostrich feather fans used for her benefit, and they adorn the heads of her female attendants.
Throughout art history, some artists have recreated the original Exodus elements and others have reimagined the story in their own times. The adaptable nature of the Finding of Moses demonstrates its eternal relevance to people throughout the world and centuries. Sotheby’s writes that some contemporaneous viewers considered Alma-Tadema’s version “the most authoritative, faithful interpretation of the famous story.”
“The Finding of Moses” was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1905, and Aird paid 5,250 pounds (over $724,000 today), plus the artist’s expenses for it. Just how far Alma-Tadema’s stature descended in the ensuing decades is conveyed by the price it fetched when Aird’s family auctioned it in 1935; a mere 820 pounds (just over $66,ooo). Alma-Tadema and this special painting have now been restored to rightful prominence.
