The Finding of Moses

c. 1581/1582

Veronese

Painter, Venetian, 1528 - 1588

Six elegantly dressed, light-skinned women, a man with dark brown skin, and a person of short stature gather around a nude baby boy in front of a landscape with a town in the distance in this vertical painting. Attention is focused on the baby, held by a woman kneeling to our lower left, and on a woman wearing a silver and gold-colored brocade dress standing near the center of the painting. The central woman's dress is trimmed with gold and jewels. She wears a pearl necklace, and her blond hair is wrapped with pearls around a gold, jeweled tiara. She leans to our right, toward another woman with blond, pearl-adorned hair wearing a blue and white stripped dress with puffed sleeves. In front of that pair, and along the right edge of the painting, another woman with pearls in her hair bends over a person of short stature and gestures toward the baby. The person of short stature has brown hair over a high forehead and a tan complexion. He holds an instrument like a recorder and wears a navy-blue and crimson-red jester’s costume. Seen from the waist up in the lower left corner of the painting, the man with brown skin has close-cropped black hair and wears a marigold-orange garment. Looking onto the scene from the sunken riverbed, he gazes to our right in profile and holds a basket. Above him, the woman holding the baby looks at the woman wearing silver and gold. An older woman holds up a cloth, presumably to wrap the baby. Another person looks on over that woman’s shoulder, and two more women stand farther back to our left, apart from this group. Behind the main scene, a few spindly trees with feathery pine-green or harvest-yellow leaves extend off the top edge of the canvas. An arched bridge spans the river in the distance to the left and beyond a town is painted in blue and gray against rocky hills. Blue sky above is strewn with white clouds.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

This painting is one of several variants by Veronese of the subject, some completed with workshop assistance. It depicts a biblical account from Exodus 2:3–10. The infant Moses was placed by his mother in a basket and hidden beside the river, to escape the edict of the king of Egypt that all male offspring of the Israelites should be slain at birth. The basket was discovered by the king’s daughter when she came to the river to bathe with her maidservants. Seeing the princess take pity on the child, Moses’s sister Miriam, who had been keeping watch from a distance, approached and offered to find a nurse for him. In this way, Moses was saved and brought up by his own mother.

Veronese imagined the event in contemporary terms and showed the princess wearing a magnificent robe of gold and silver brocade and copious jewelry, surrounded by a courtly entourage. In the immediate foreground, an African servant holds the now-empty basket. The kneeling woman holding the baby is presumably Miriam, and the older woman preparing to wrap him in a cloth is his mother. In the left middle ground, two other servants, apparently unaware of the remarkable discovery, have undressed to their shifts and are preparing to bathe in the river.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 27

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 58 x 44.5 cm (22 13/16 x 17 1/2 in.)
    framed: 81.12 × 67.95 × 7.3 cm (31 15/16 × 26 3/4 × 2 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.38

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century: The Finding of Moses, c. 1581/1582

Scholarly Series:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Louis Michel Vanloo [1707-1771], Paris; (his sale, Paris, 14 December 1772, no. 2); purchased by (Augustin Ménageot, Paris) through Denis Diderot [1713-1784], Paris, for Catherine II, empress of Russia [1729-1796], Saint Petersburg;[1] Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg; purchased November 1930 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 1 May 1937 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The title page of the 1772 Vanloo sale catalogue indicates the sale was to be "à la fin de Novembre" (at the end of November), but the listing by Frits Lugt (no. 2083 in volume 1 of Fritz Lugt, Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques, 4 vols., The Hague, 1938-1964), refers to his no. 2086, which indicates the Vanloo sale took place 14-17 December. The details of Ménageot's role in the sale to Catherine II are outlined in a letter of 19 January 1997 from Dr. Nicole Willk-Brocard, and her article "Augustin Ménageot (ca. 1700-1784), Marchand de Tableaux. Quelques Jalons," Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April 1998): 161-182 (both in NGA curatorial files).
[2] Mellon purchase date and date deeded to Mellon Trust are according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 63, fig. 23.

2012

  • Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2012-2013, no. 21, repro.

Bibliography

1864

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Die Gemäldesammlung in der kaiserlichen Ermitage zu St. Petersburg nebst Bemerkungen über andere dortige Kunstsammlungen. Munich, 1864: 72.

1888

  • Caliari, Pietro. Paolo Veronese, sua vita e sue opere: Studi storico-estetici. Rome, 1888: 389.

1909

  • Wrangell, Baron Nicolas. Les Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la Galérie de Tableaux de l'Hermitage Impérial à St-Pétersbourg. London, 1909: repro. 23.

  • Somof, Andrei. Ermitage Impérial. Catalogue de la galerie des tableaux, Vol. 1: Les écoles d’Italie et d’Espagne. Saint Petersburg, 1909: 33.

1912

  • Venturi, Lionello. “Saggio sulle opere d'arte italiana a Pietroburgo.” L' Arte 15 (1912): 211.

1927

  • Osmond, Percy H. Paolo Veronese: His Career and Work. London, 1927: 118.

1928

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588. Bologna, 1928: 198.

1934

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. Paolo Veronese. Rome, 1934: 76, 121.

1939

  • Orliac, Antoine. Véronèse. Paris, 1939: 18.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 209-210, no. 38.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 204.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 39, repro.

1951

  • Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 100-102, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 68, color repro.

1953

  • Fastnedge, Ralph. “Two Italian Pictures Recently Restored at Liverpool.” Liverpool Libraries, Museums and Arts Committee Bulletin 3, nos. 1–2 (July–October 1953): 19.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 30, repro.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:139.

1960

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 34, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 308, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 135.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:182, color repro.

1968

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 52-53, color repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 123, repro.

  • Marini, Remigio. Tutta la pittura di Paolo Veronese. Milan, 1968: 119 no. 194b.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 645.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 364, repro.

1976

  • Pignatti, Terisio. Veronese. 2 vols. Venice, 1976: 1:146-147, no. 240.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:528-531; 2:pl. 368, 368A,B.

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 42, pl. 26.

1980

  • Cocke, Richard. Veronese. London, 1980: 100.

1981

  • Badt, Kurt. Paolo Veronese. Cologne, 1981: 99-101.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 215, no. 263, color repro.

  • Cocke, Richard. Veronese's Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonné. London, 1984: 241-242.

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. Veronese. Milan, 1984: 138, 184.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 422, repro.

1989

  • Brown, Beverly Louise. "Replication and the Art of Veronese." Studies in the History of Art 20 (1989):120-122, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 96, color repro.

  • Pignatti, Terisio, and Filippo Pedrocco. Veronese: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1991: 255, no. 183.

1995

  • Pignatti, Terisio, and Filippo Pedrocco. Veronese. 2 vols. Milan, 1995: 2:317.

1998

  • Willk-Brocard, Nicole. “Augustin Ménageot (ca. 1700-1784), Marchand de Tableaux. Quelques Jalons.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 131 (1998): 170.

2007

  • Gisolfi, Diana. “Collaboration and Replicas in the Shop of Paolo Veronese and His Heirs.” Artibus et Historiae 28, no. 55 (2007): 81.

2008

  • Finaldi, Gabriele, ed. 100 Masterpieces of the Museo del Prado. Madrid, 2008: 76.

2009

  • Odom, Anne, and Wendy R. Salmond, eds. Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia's Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938. Washington, D.C., 2009: 135 n. 62.

2011

  • Fiedler, Susanne, and Torsten Knuth. "Vexierbilder einer Biographie: Dr. Heinz Mansfeld (1899-1959)." Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher 126 (2011):308.

  • Yavneh, Naomi, “Lost and Found: Veronese’s Finding of Moses.” In Gender and Early Modern Constructions of Childhood. Edited by Naomi J. Miller and Naomi Yavneh. Burlington, VT, 2011: 51 n. 1.

2012

  • Brilliant, Virginia, and Frederick Ilchman, eds. Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice. Exh. cat. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. London, 2012: 68, 136-138, no. 21, 265.

2013

  • Semyonova, Natalya, and Nicolas V. Iljine, eds. Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art 1917-1938. New York and London, 2013: 138, 139, 156, repro.

2014

  • Marini, Paola, and Bernard Aikema, eds. Paolo Veronese: L’illusione della realtà. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London; Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona. Milan, 2014: 274.

  • De Fuccia, Laura. “Paolo Veronese, maestro di eleganza alla corte francese nel Seicento.” Artibus et Historiae 35, no. 70 (2014): 133, 139 n. 40.

2016

  • Wecker, Menachem. "Famed Arts Patron Catherine the Great had Many Lovers, But She was a Prude." Washington Post 139, no. 120 (April 3, 2016): E2, repro.

  • Jaques, Susan. The Empress of Art: Catherine the Great and the Transformation of Russia. New York, 2016: 397, color fig.

  • Terribile, Claudia. “Un figlio per due madri: Paolo Veronese e il tema del Mosè salvato dalle acque.” In Paolo Veronese: Giornate di Studio. Edited by Bernard Aikema, Thomas Dalla Costa, and Paola Marini. Venice, 2016: 79, 84.

2019

  • Dunn, Joanna, and John Marciari. "Paolo Veronese's Finding of Moses: A Reassessment." Facture: conservation, science, art history 4 (2019): 250-265, 251-252 unnumbered fig. (detail), fig. 1, fig. 5 (detail), figs. 7, 8 (details), figs. 10 (b), (c) (details).

Wikidata ID

Q20176727

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