BLOEMAERT, Abraham
(b. 1566, Gorinchem, d. 1651, Utrecht)

Moses Striking the Rock

1596
Oil on canvas, 80 x 108 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This painting with a graceful young woman in the centre, shows a frenzied eroticism. The density of the composition, with its balletic interplay of poses and gestures, is in the spirit of Joachim Wtewael, Bloemaert's contemporary in Utrecht. The composition is an original invention inspired by an eclectic survey of recent Dutch Mannerist forms.