GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE (1609-64)
The Exposition of Moses
c. 1645RCIN 904061
To save the infant Moses from Pharaoh’s order that all Israelite boys be put to death, his mother hid him in a basket among reeds on the banks of the Nile (represented here by a river god with a crocodile). The child was subsequently found by Pharaoh’s daughter and saved. Both this sheet and the next probably depict the moment at which the infant was set afloat on the river, though many of the anguished figures are men rather than women.