La Découverte de Moïse

The story is from the Book of Exodus: Pharaoh's daughter comes down to the Nile and finds the baby Moses hidden in the reeds. Veronese stages it in the only world he cared to paint, sixteenth-century Venice. The princess wears a gleaming brocade gown and pearls in the latest Venetian fashion, her ladies are dressed for a wealthy household on the lagoon, and the river behind them could be the edge of any northern Italian town, down to a distant bridge and spire. None of this is a slip. Dressing an ancient scene in modern luxury was exactly the appeal. It is a small canvas, made for a private room rather than a church wall, and Veronese and his workshop turned out several versions of it for collectors who wanted the biblical past wearing the silks of their own Venice.