In this artwork, how is the History discussed?
Vasari's Lives of the Artists states the work was produced for Giovanni Bandini as "a canvas with some very handsome ignudi in a story [from the life] of Moses, when he lived in Egypt... and I believe it was commissioned in France". The work was then sent to Francis I of France around 1530 It was already in the Casino di San Marco by 1587 among the goods of don Antonio de' Medici. It was first connected to the reference in Vasari by Gaetano Milanesi It is unclear if the original work was sent to France or, as Antonio Natali theorises, this is a faithful copy.In fact, it is not excluded that this is not the original, which is possibly lost: the reflectographs of 1995 found an underlying drawing that is not very good, moreover some passages reveal a certain summary, especially in the male bodies, if not a cheap workmanship (the sheep) and with unsolved passages (such as the part between lawn and stone in the middle of the left edge). The same support on canvas, never used by the painter before his stay in France, also raises doubts.The dating to about 1523 is linked to the coloristic affinities with the Marriage of the Virgin, in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, even if Goldschmidt and Pevsner suggested a slightly later dating, perhaps of the Roman period. The conception of the painting was certainly influenced by the richess of ideas for the nude moving figures in the cartoon of Michelangelo of the now lost Battle of Cascina, and by the expressive force of the also lost The Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci, both destined for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.There is a pendant, Rebecca in the Well almost certainly a copy of Rosso attributed to Giovanni Antonio Lappoli, in the National Museum of the Royal Palace, in Pisa
Sala del Maggior Consiglio Florence ignudi Basilica of San Lorenzo Lives of the Artists Francis I of France Michelangelo Pisa Casino di San Marco Moses 1995 Marriage of the Virgin Gaetano Milanesi Battle of Cascina Antonio Natali Leonardo da Vinci The Battle of Anghiari Giovanni Antonio Lappoli don Antonio de' Medici Palazzo Vecchio National Museum of the Royal Palace