Moses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the Rock

Moses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the Rock

Giulio Bonasone

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print combines two related episodes from the Old Testament Book of Exodus. At left, Moses strikes a rock to reveal the stream of water that God had promised him would quench the Israelites’ thirst during their escape through the desert to the Promised Land. At right, Moses tells the Israelites to gather manna, food provided by God to sustain his people during their flight. The horizontal format that resembles a frieze elegantly unites the two episodes. The inscription at lower right of the print attributes its design to the artist Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, 1503–1540), but it was actually inspired by a Roman fresco, now lost, painted by Polidoro da Caravaggio (1492–1543).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Moses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the RockMoses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the RockMoses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the RockMoses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the RockMoses Telling the Israelites to Gather the Manna and Moses Striking the Rock

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.