Attributed to GIOVANNI FRANCESCO ROMANELLI (Italy, 1610 - 1662)"Moses saved from the waters".Oil

Attributed to GIOVANNI FRANCESCO ROMANELLI (Italy, 1610 - 1662)
"Moses saved from the waters".
Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.
Retains labels on the back.
It has repainting and restorations.
It has a 17th century frame redecorated and repainted.
Measurements: 149 x 200 cm; 171 x 222 cm (frame).
The dynamism and intensity of this baroque image has been conceived with a composition that exalts the dramatism of the biblical scene. The author depicts the moment when Moses is found and rescued from the waters (Exodus 2: 1-10). The Pharaoh's daughter, on going to bathe, notices the presence of the basket with the child and, taking pity on him, decides to take charge of the child and look for a matron to feed him. The scene is composed with the presence of the Pharaoh's daughter, who stands wearing a richly jewelled headdress. The young woman is accompanied by two maidens, one of whom holds the baby's cot, and the other who holds the young woman's arm to prevent her from falling into the water. Surely one of these young women is Miriam, since, in the biblical account, it is she who, after Moses is rescued, comes to ensure the child's salvation and offers her mother's services as a wet nurse. Due to its formal and compositional characteristics, this work is related to the style of Giovanni Francesco Romanelli. This subject had already been painted by the artist, as can be seen in the work in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It was painted by Romanelli in 1656. The Finding of Moses was executed during Romanelli's second stay in Paris (1655-1656), when he was decorating the apartments of the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, in the Louvre. The simplified composition and clearly delineated forms suggest that this jewel-toned canvas also functioned as a decorative element, unlike the work presented here. Romanelli had assisted Pietro da Cortona on his ambitious ceiling fresco The Triumph of Divine Providence in the Palazzo Barberini. Like his master, he enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini and his uncle, Pope Urban VIII. The Barberini's exile to France in 1646 led Romanelli to follow his patrons to Paris.
Giovanni Francesco Romanelli was a painter from Viterbo who developed his career during the second third of the 17th century. He trained in Rome with Pietro da Cortona, which brought him into the orbit of the Baberini. He remained close to the family of Pope Urban VIII throughout his life, especially to Cardinal Francesco, who hosted him in the Chancellery Palace as early as 1632. His work immediately earned him an enormous public fortune, and before the age of thirty he received the most important commissions in the Eternal City, including a large canvas for St Peter's Basilica. Due to the great fame and success that accompanied him throughout his life, he had a large number of followers, painters who were able to learn from the master the advances and fundamental values of his painting. In the 1640s Romanelli's style evolved towards greater classicism in a new compositional balance influenced by the contemporary triumph of forms increasingly typical of the classicising Baroque, the dominant trend in Rome at the time.