About this artwork

Tiepolo treats the Old Testament story of Pharaoh’s daughter rescuing the infant Moses from the bulrushes in a light-hearted, irreverent way. Moses is shown upside down and bawling, while the cast of supporting characters could have been drawn from contemporary popular theatre. A section of the painting showing a foot-soldier with a dog was long ago cut from the right edge and is now in the Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin. This picture, which shows Tiepolo’s admiration for the 16th-century Venetian painter Paolo Veronese, is first recorded in the collection of the Venetian nobleman Andrea Corner at Palazzo Corner della Regina on the Grand Canal. 

Audio commentary

This commentary is part of the National audio tour. Listen to the whole tour in Smartify.

Updated December 2020

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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo