Moses at the Rock of Horeb

This painting by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo depicts an episode from the Exodus: Moses, leading the Hebrew people through the desert, strikes a rock at Horeb so that water flows and quenches the thirst of his followers. The work is dated between 1669 and 1674, although the exact chronology remains uncertain, and it still hangs in the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville, the institution for which it was originally painted. That link with its intended setting helps explain its character, since the Sevillian hospital, devoted to caring for the sick and the needy, would have found in the miracle of water an image well suited to its charitable mission. Murillo arranges the scene around Moses and the crowd pressing forward to drink, giving the whole a warm and human tone rather than an epic one. The oil on canvas allows soft gradations of light and shadow, and the contrast between the arid landscape and the water that gushes forth provides the central narrative element. The painting was restored in 2018, an intervention that helped recover its original legibility. Its importance lies in showing the maturity of Murillo, one of the great painters of the Sevillian Golden Age, handling a biblical subject with sensitivity and closeness, well matched to the social function of the building that houses it.

Painter

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Museum

Hospital de la Santa Caridad, Seville

Genre

religious art

Depicts

rock, Moses

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