Moses and Pharaoh's Crown

The Bible says only that Moses was slow of speech. Medieval retellings supplied the reason, and around 1670 Jan Steen painted the end of that story. As a toddler at Pharaoh's court, Moses threw the royal crown to the ground, and the advisers read it as a sign that this child would bring Egypt down. He was put to a test with a dish of gold and a pan of burning coals. The boy seized a coal and put it in his mouth. Here the crown lies on the carpet, coins spill from a purse, a page holds the brazier, and the crying boy clings to Pharaoh's daughter. The king slumps on his throne, head on hand, an adviser whispering in his ear. Steen took that sulking pose from a print by the Leiden master Lucas van Leyden of King Saul just before he hurls his spear at David.