Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro

This painting was created in 1523 and was one of Fiorentino's early works, completed in Florence while he was working in the workshop of Andrea del Sarto. At this time he was honing his unique style that would set him apart from other painters of the day.

Fiorentino's action-packed spectacle draws from the Old Testament story of Moses and his legendary decency in defending the daughters of Jethro, a priest and shepherd in the land of Midian.

While wandering in exile from Egypt, Moses happened to stumble upon Jethro's seven daughters attempting to draw water out of a well to water their father's sheep.

Unfortunately, some shepherds were preventing them from doing their chores, blocking access to the well while they selfishly watered their own sheep. Moses defended the daughters, driving back the bothersome shepherds and chivalrously watering the sheep himself.

Out of gratitude, Jethro gave Moses his prettiest daughter in marriage.

While other artists treated this event with a temperate light, Fiorentino took the conflict and ran with it, turning it into an epic battle over the well.

Moses is in the center giving a beating to the shepherds, with Zipporah, his future wife, looking on in the upper right hand corner. The canvas is a mass of writhing, muscular nudes.

Leonardo da Vinci:
Compositionally, Fiorentino's Moses draws some inspiration from Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari. The painting is lost but Rubens painted a copy of it, seen left. In both paintings the action itself is seen as a broad mass of writhing forms, focusing on the action and movement inherent in battle.

Michelangelo:
Clearly Rosso Fiorentino was greatly influenced by the work Michelangelo was producing at this time. This is apparent in the treatment of the male nude as a subject in itself. The figures are broad, muscular, exaggerations of an ideal form. Careful attention is paid to anatomical details.

Figures:
Above all else, this painting serves as a testament to action and a celebration of the male nude. The figures are extremely muscular, powerful and broad, taking a clear inspiration from Michelangelo.

Arranged in complicated positions, Moses's opponents appear as a tangled mass rather than as individuals. By contrast, the females' hair is arranged in an elaborate fashion, which is a typical Fiorentino touch.

The texture of the skin and garments of the figures engaged in this scene take on a smooth, glossy feel due to the broad panes of light and color.

Composition:
It is speculated that Moses is depicted twice in Fiorentino's arrangement, both as the focal point in the center delivering the blows to the shepherds and also as the figure in red rushing in forcefully to save his future bride.

He is all strength and power in movement, with the eye drawn in a circular clockwise motion from his left arm up to his purposeful stride, the billows of his red garment, and back again through his upturned right arm to the central figure.

The positioning of the figures forms an X shape, with Moses's groin providing the central point of the composition. This accentuates the celebration of masculinity.

Color palette:
The artist utilizes a warm color palette, with hues of cinnamon, coral, apricot, burnt sienna, and peach to represent the nudes and primary background.

Zipporah stands apart, both for the solitary positioning above the melee, as well as the sky blue color of her robe which stands out against the warmer flesh tones in the rest of the scene. A shade of blue is also used to clothe Moses in the center, of a dark smalt hue.

Use of light:
Typical of Mannerist painting, Fiorentino uses a rather dissonant lighting scheme that emphasizes the broad planes of the muscular figures. The figures in the center are illuminated as if with a spotlight from above, creating an unnatural, stylized effect.

Brushstroke:
The paint is applied in broad, flat panes, creating a glossy feel to the painting and its own shimmering texture. There are no rough edges; everything is smooth.

Although this is a seemingly obscure and relatively uneventful tale from the Bible, there have been several interpretations by painters throughout the years. Most of the others chose to portray the event in a more subdued light than Rosso Fiorentino.

Carlo Saraceni, Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro, 1609:
In this interpretation, Moses is the focal point of the painting, resolving the issues between Jethro's daughters and the over-eager shepherds.

The tension of the situation is conveyed in the flexed muscles and positioning of Moses and the head shepherd, leaning in towards each other as if ready to spar.

However, Moses does not seem to have physical confrontation on his mind in this version; his arms are stretched out in a barricade in between the daughters and the shepherds to prevent any further conflict. This scene is most notable for the lush woodland background, contrary to Fiorentino's rendition.

Painted by Rosso in Florence in 1523, Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro was originally commissioned by Giovanni Bandini. The painting travelled with Fiorentino to France around the same time, when documents report it being sold to King Francois I of France, and it most likely resided at Fontainebleau with its creator.

Returning to Florence sometime later in the century, Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro was mentioned in the will of Don Antonio di Medici in 1632 and has remained in Florence ever since.

There may have been a replica of this piece painted at the time the original was sent to France but it remains unknown where that replica resides.

Fiorentino's Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro is a heady mélange of action, bold forms, muscular figures, and shining panes of color and light. Vastly different from other interpretations of this event it perhaps, more than any other of Fiorentino's Works, stands alone as a testament to his independent and unique style during his early years in Florence.

At an exhibition in 2002 in Sydney, Australia covering 300 years of Italian works, Fiorentino's Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro was the star of the show and critic Bruce James said that this piece would "distinguish any exhibition, anywhere, anytime. "

When Fiorentino painted this piece he wasn't given fair credit or regarded as a master of composition and emotional affect as he is today. The angularity of his figures, the almost aggressively dissonant and disturbing use of light and color, and the overemotional aspect of the bizarre compositions all helped to alienate contemporary viewers.

Yet, Fiorentino was used to criticism and as a fiery, restless and imaginative artist, he made no shortage of enemies. However he also inspired awe and respect wherever his travels took him as his talent and foresight was undeniable, not to mention his charm.

Fiorentino single handedly pioneered a new movement in art known as Mannerism, and though he was derided by art critics for centuries afterwards, he has in modern years finally garnered the accolades he deserves along with the recognition as a rebel before his time.

He was unafraid to take conventions established by the Renaissance and turn them upside down, linking him with maverick talents of the modern era, from Surrealists to Abstract Expressionists.

Mannerism was a period of European art history that followed closely on the heels of the Renaissance movement. While some critics consider Mannerism as part of the Late Renaissance, others classify this as a distinct period occurring between 1520 and 1600 that represented a break from many of the artistic values of the Renaissance, as naturalism gave way to the surreal.

Vasari, perhaps the most prominent art historian of the age, held Fiorentino in high regard, calling him a "man of splendid presence, with a gracious and serious manner of speaking, a good musician, and with a knowledge of philosophy. "

He had only positive remarks about the majority of Rosso's works, except that produced during his time in Rome, stating: "it may be that with the air of Rome and the astounding things that he saw, the architecture and sculpture and the pictures and statues of Michelangelo, he was not himself. "

Vasari's inclusion of Fiorentino in his "Lives of the Artists" is one of the primary documents of Fiorentino's life and works, written by a contemporary who clearly deeply admired him.

The perception of not only Rosso Fiorentino but other Mannerists that followed, has fluctuated over the centuries, and only relatively recently have they been seen in a positive light. Fiorentino in particular was criticized for the contorted poses of his figures, as well as the fact that they often appeared somewhat thin, haggard, or skeletal.

Fortunately, in the 1950s art critics and historians started to see the Mannerists, including Fiorentino, in a different light. In fact, they did an about face in their stance on the movement, praising Mannerism for the traits they had previously counted as disabilities.

Fiorentino, with his distorted use of space and elongated figures, desire to shock and rebel against the accepted standards of the day, seems to have more in common with Modern artists than the Renaissance artists of the time.

To find out more about Rosso Fiorentino and the Mannerist era please choose from the following recommended sources.

• Carlo, Falciani. Il Rosso Fiorentino. Olschki, 1996
• Carroll, Eugene A. & Fiorentino, Rosso. Rosso Fiorentino: Drawings, Prints, and Decorative Arts. National Gallery of Art, 1987
• Franklin, David. Rosso in Italy: Italian Career of Rosso Fiorentino. Yale University Press, 1994
• Letta, Elisabetta M. Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Scala Riverside, 2001
• Natali, Antonio. Rosso Fiorentino. Silvana, 2007
• Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Artists: A Selection. Penguin Classics, 1987