Oil on canvas. Spanish school, late 18th century.
It recounts the biblical episode narrated in the book of Exodus in which the young Moses, to escape the slaughter of the children of Israel ordered by Pharaoh, was left by his mother in a basket on the banks of the Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter went to bathe. She found him, decided to save him and then raised him as a son in her court. The episode has been widely used as a pictorial subject, due to the suggestive nature of the theme: the scene full of characters sees at its centre the princess daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, surrounded by all her retinue, who looks at and welcomes with the gesture of her outstretched hand the baby Moses, who, removed from the basket on her left, reaches out hungrily towards the breast of the woman behind her, the wet nurse ready to nurse him. The scene is set in a Nordic landscape contemporary with the painting, just as the figures are dressed in 18th-century clothing, except for the princess, who wears a headdress with an oriental-style diadem.
Her figure stands out for the bright colour of her dress, as does the rosy complexion of the naked child, which stands out against the duller, darker colours of the women in the retinue.
The painting has been restored and retiled.
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PLATINUM Seller in Milano, Italy
