The Finding of Moses

The painter came to Turin as a stage designer for the 1730-1731 season at the Teatro Regio, and was later taken on by Filippo Juvarra for the decoration of the Savoy residences. The lively palette of colours and the luminosity of the close-ups are close to the frescoes in the royal hunting lodge of Stupinigi, while the corselet worn by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who takes up Moses, the neckline trimmed with a chain of pearls, and the coiffures inspired by whimsical exoticism all recall theatre costumes The biblical subject had been already chosen by Christine of France as a metaphor of the sovereign as the guard-ian of future generations. Similarly, we can see how also in the age of Charles Emmanuel III the subject had the same emblematic function, even though in a new, lighter form.