The Finding of Moses

Veronese · c. 1581/1582
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Veronese painted this small canvas in Venice about 1581–1582; he and his workshop made the subject many times. It once belonged to Catherine the Great in St Petersburg and came to Washington in the 1930s.

Pharaoh’s daughter, in a gown of white and gold, looks down as a kneeling woman lifts the baby on a white cloth. Around them stand ladies, servants and a dwarf, with a bridge and a town beyond the river.

From the text

Pharaoh’s daughter going down to bathe in the Nile, with her attendants (Exodus 2:5)

The basket among the reeds, opened (Exodus 2:5–6)

The child taken up out of the water (Exodus 2:10)

The artist’s own

The princess dressed as a Venetian noblewoman, with pearls and a small crown

A dwarf and servants, as in the rich households of Veronese’s day

A stone bridge and a hill town with towers instead of Egypt

Details

Pharaoh’s daughter

In a white-and-gold patterned gown, leaning on a lady beside her.

The baby

Lifted on a white cloth that an older woman holds open.

The basket

A servant in orange holds the wicker basket.

A dwarf

In a red and striped costume, a dagger at his side.

Bridge and town

Across the river, a stone bridge and towers on a hill.

Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Venetian, 1528–1588. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.38) · Oil on canvas · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

Exod 2:3–10But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” “Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”