Moses, who extracts water from the rock by Gioacchino Asseteto

Moses, who extracts water from the rock by Gioacchino Asseteto

In the world-famous art museum of Madrid, the Prado, among others, there is a canvas depicting a well-known episode from the Old Testament about how the prophet Moses, inspired by the Jewish god Yahweh, extracted water from the rock and quenched the thirst for the chosen people of Israel’s wilderness. The author is Italian artist Asseteto Giocino.

You look and understand: Well, how difficult it is for any kind of talented artist to abandon himself, from his time and completely immerse himself in gray antiquity, to stylize so believably that even the most rigorous critic and art historian could not find fault! Here, too, the author obviously did not try to draw the Jews, and “populated” the picture with his contemporaries, people from another era, not the Old Testament.

Tell me, are people represented in the turban, half-naked, now elegantly dressed, next to Moses? However, thirst is one for all. Drink directly from the containers that were at hand. The dog in the lower right corner also eagerly clung to the source of life-giving moisture. Children pull weak hands to the pitchers. Crush and pandemonium. There is nothing to be done – physiology and its laws are stronger than the strictest morality.

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