Little Moses Trampling on the Crown of the Pharaoh

ca. 1710 – oil on canvas, cm 172 x 290

This refined da sala painting attributed to Nicolò Bambini once belonged to the Palladian Villa Barbaro in Maser collections that were later integrated with the Nani Donà collections.

Little Moses Trampling on the Crown of the Pharaoh is a beautiful picture reflective of Nicolò Bambini’s best years when he fully mastered an autonomous style striving to reach ideal beauty through a skilled and pondered handling of light and semi-darkness and splendid smooth shapes.

The episode, as described in Flavius Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews, describes Moses in the act of trampling on the crown that the Pharaoh of Egypt had just tried to place onto his head. Although the religious message remained central, Bambini adopted the graceful and measured register of a gallant conversation.