CHAMPAIGNE, Philippe de
(b. 1602, Bruxelles, d. 1674, Paris)

Moses with the Ten Commandments

1648
Oil on canvas, 92 x 75 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The painting represents Moses holding the tablets with the Ten Commandments.

In the early 1640s, after his son's sudden death, the court painter Philippe de Champaigne produced a series for the abbey of Port-Royal, thus beginning his flowering as a religious painter.In portraits and biblical scenes produced over the next 20 years, he accentuated the moral content and spiritual passion of his subjects. These aspects are already evident in the present work, in which as much attention is devoted to the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments as to the prophet.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):
Gioacchino Rossini: Moses, Moses' Prayer