Moses brings forth Water out of the Rock

This painting is one of a pair that depicts episodes from the Book of Exodus, which describes how Moses rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and accompanied them into the promised land of Canaan. It is based on Exodus 17: 1–7 and shows the Israelites near Rephidim – their colourful tents are in the background to the left.Moses had led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, but their desperation grew as their water supply diminished. Two women on the left seem to be quarrelling, while two elderly men threaten Moses. Tired of their complaints, Moses calls for God, who tells him to strike his rod against the rock at Horeb. Moses obeys, and water miraculously springs from the stone. In the right half of the picture, the Israelites drink from the gushing stream. More people approach from the background, carrying jugs to be filled for their onward journey to the Sinai desert. The second painting, The Worship of the Egyptian Bull God, Apis, shows a later episode: the Israelites celebrating the golden calf, a cult image that the high priest Aaron had constructed for them in Moses' absence.The equal dimensions of these two paintings suggest that they belong together, and perhaps another showing the famous episode of Moses carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments has been lost. Such horizontal paintings were known as spalliere in fifteenth-century Italy. They were particularly common in Florentine households, and are likely to have been inserted into furniture or wainscoting.Many of the leading painters in Florence produced spalliere. These two are likely to have been made by the so-called Master of the Campana Cassoni. In the absence of a real name, scholars have formed a group of stylistically similar paintings and named them after two paintings (Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon) that are of a format similar to ours and that may have decorated cassoni. The paintings in this group are often related to designs by Filippino Lippi, which suggests that the painter was a member of Filippino’s workshop or that he imitated Filippino’s work hoping to find customers.