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Moses Striking the Rock

Maker

(artist)
1576-1638

Formerly attributed to
(artist)
1627-1685

Title

Moses Striking the Rock

Date of Production

(circa?) 1607 - 1609

Medium

brown wash, black chalk, on laid paper, squared in black chalk, now laid down on Japanese tissue

Dimensions

Height: 24.1 cm
Width: 34.6 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.49

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords









Label Text

After leaving captivity in Egypt, the Israelites suffered a lack of water in the wilderness. Moses followed God’s order to strike a rock, causing fresh water to flow. Carducho shows Moses standing in the background with his outstretched stick, while the main focus is the Israelites eagerly collecting water. The elliptical sides of the composition suggest that the design was intended for a vault, probably for the Chapel of the Palace of El Pardo painted by Carducho in 1607-9.

Provenance

Sir William Stirling Maxwell, London (1818-1878); by descent to his son, Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Glasgow (1866-1956); his sale, Sotheby's (London), 15 - 16 February 1921, lot 249; presumably purchased there by E. Parsons & Sons (London); their sale, 1921, probably cat. 38, though does not match any of the lots as described and Witt did not specify which Parsons sale, as he did for his other Spanish purchases from this sale; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt (1875-1952) (£1.9); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

The Spanish Line - From Ribera to Picasso, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 13/10/2011-15/01/2012

The golden age of Spanish art: from El Greco to Murillo and Valdes Leal: paintings and drawings from British Collections, Nottingham University Art Gallery, 11/02/1980-29/03/1980

Spanish drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1978 (March - May)

Literature

Mulcahy, Rosemary, 'Review: Spanish drawings in the Courtauld Gallery. Complete catalogue. By Zahira Véliz' in 'The Burlington Magazine', September 2011 - pp. 646-47; CLIV
p. 646

Véliz, Zahira, Spanish Drawings in the Courtauld Gallery: complete catalogue, London, 2011
no. 14
Illus. p. 83

Nyerges, Eva, 'La serpiente de metal? Un boceto atribuído a Juan Antonio de Frías y Escalante' in 'In sapientia libertas: escritos en homenaje a Alfonso Peréz Sánchez', Madrid and Seville 2007 ...More

Angulo Iñiguez, Diego and Alfonso E. Perez, A Corpus of Spanish Drawings, New York 1975-1988; 4 vols.
vol. II, p. 47
under 'Attributions not accepted' to Carducho, suggested later

The golden age of Spanish art: from El Greco to Murillo and Valdes Leal: paintings and drawings from British Collections, Nottingham University Art Gallery, 1980
cat. no. 13

Spanish drawings from the Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1978 (March - May)
cat. no. 9
Illus. repr.

Jusepe de Ribera: prints and drawings, The Art Museum, Princeton University and Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, 1973-1974
p. 378, no. 6
as Carducho

Delgado Martínez, Natalia, 'Juan Antonio de frias y Escalante (1633-1669)' in 'Cuadernos de arte e iconografia'; X, 20
p. 322, no. DR-1 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: upper left corner, light brown ink, faded and unclear: “646 [?]”; lower centre edge, light brown ink, crossed out in same ink: “Vale 9 R”; lower centre edge, graphite: “Herera [sic] el mozo”. Verso (hidden under Japanese tissue, visible via transmitted light): upper left, brown ink: “i6”; lower centre, graphite?: “Herrera el Mozo”.

Collector's mark: none.

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