Moses Defending Jethro's Daughters at the Well

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Cesare Dandini , Italian, 1596-1657

Title

Datec.1635

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

206 x 272 cm

Credit LineMilltown Gift, 1902

Object numberNGI.1683

DescriptionDandini was one of the most significant artists working in Florence during the first half of the seventeenth century. Compared with his contemporaries, he seems to have found it particularly difficult to detach himself from the traditional Mannerist legacy of his culture. Nevertheless, Dandini was gifted with an uncommon talent and gradually elaborated a refined style that was admired by his contemporaries, and is still appreciated today. His ability as an illustrator of moral concepts and of literary or biblical subjects is evident in this scene drawn from Exodus (2:15). It is presented like a stage scene, from the lighting to the props. When Moses fled from Egypt he sought sanctuary in the land of Midian. One day, he was resting near a well when the seven daughters of a priest called Jethro came to draw water for their father’s flocks. The local shepherds drove the women away but Moses promptly defended them, forcing the men to share the water. The painter has handled the episode with his customary polished elegance. The canvas was commissioned in Florence by Michel Agnolo Venturi. It was subsequently acquired, with other Florentine and Roman pictures, by Irishman Joseph Leeson, future Earl of Milltown, on one of his two grand tours.

March 2016
ProvenancePossibly Michelagnolo Venturi, Florence, in the seventeenth century; Joseph Leeson, later 1st Earl of Milltown, by 1826; Milltown Gift, 1902 Exhibition HistoryPainting in Florence 1600-1700, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1979

Label TextIn the Old Testament, Moses murdered a man in Egypt and fled to Midian. There he encountered two young shepherds at a well who were preventing a group of women from drawing water. The women were the daughters of Jethro, priest of Midian. Moses challenged the men, and later married Jethro's daughter Sephora. Active in Florence, Dandini came from a family of successful artists; his brother Vincenzo and nephew Pietro were also acclaimed painters. Cesare painted miniature portraits on copper as well as paintings of religious and allegorical subjects.