Moses Striking the Rock
1401 to 1500
Medium
etching
Dimensions
sheet: 26.6 x 41.4 cm (10 1/2 x 16 5/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1973.34.6
Art Historical Context
Behold *Moses Striking the Rock*, a captivating 15th-century etching by the enigmatic Master IV, created after a design by Francesco Primatic. This print vividly captures the biblical episode from Exodus 17, where Moses, staff raised, strikes a rugged rock to unleash life-giving water for the Israelites wandering in the Sinai desert—a miracle of faith and divine provision amid hardship. Francesco Primaticcio, a leading Mannerist artist associated with Fontainebleau School, brought graceful, elongated figures and dramatic tension to his compositions, hallmarks of the style's elegant complexity...