Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro (detail)
by ROSSO FIORENTINO, Oil on canvas
The detail shows Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro.
This painting is one of the principal works of the maturity of the painter. The obvious inspiration from Michelangelo is surpassed by the intense compression of the various plastic planes which become shining planes of colour. In their brilliant chromatic polish and in the tangle of the masses in violent “contrapposto” there is an unreal smoothness which tends towards a visionary effect.
The painting was restored in 1995.