Ancient painting on a religious subject, miracle of Moses, 17th-18th century.

Oil on canvas. Set in a classic landscape, rich in vegetation, the scene depicts the biblical episode from the Book of Genesis that tells how the people of Israel, crossing the Sinai desert to reach the Promised Land, find themselves without water: Moses calls upon God's help and performs the miracle of bringing forth water from a rock. In the scene, the people of Israel rejoice and celebrate the miracle, rushing to bathe and quench their thirst in the pool of water indicated by Moses, who is seen standing to the left of the dry trunk in the foreground, a symbol of the aridity of the land. The branches of the trees, stirred by a strong wind, and the sky filled with dark clouds that begin to tear, evoke the presence of God. The multiple figures, rendered with precise details, create movement and action. This painting has previously been presented at the Lempertz auction with an attribution to Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683), an artist who developed a perfect combination of past and modernity, thanks to a deep interest in classicism, rendered with effective perspective precision in the landscape and great accuracy of detail in the figures. Restored and re-canvas, the painting is presented in a gilded frame from the late 19th century.