The Crossing of the Red Sea Antonio Tempesta

This work is painted on stone, whose reddish patterning is used here to convey the colour and flowing waves of the Red Sea. The grey patches of the surface, meanwhile, have been utilised by the artist to form rocks lining the shore, where Moses and the Israelites take shelter. In the early decades of the seventeenth century, baroque traditions lived side by side with mannerism. Combining man-made art with naturally created forms was a truly mannerist notion, as was the idea of compacting a scene of a crowd of people into a small, oval picture. The vivid colours, the intricately painted details, the exotic clothes and the variety of different genre motifs combine to generate a captivatingly decorative overall effect.