Art History

The Finding of Moses was painted by Laurent de La Hyre during the 17th Century (1647-50). Known for painting rarely depicted scenes, this painting is immediately captivating to the viewer as it portrays the scene from the bible where Moses is discovered by the King's daughter. Although Laurent de La Hyre chose a scene from a well known biblical story (which was typical during the Counter Reformation), it was his portrayal of the scene itself that makes it unique from other artworks. With his use of perspective, captivating colors, and his arrangement of delicately posed figures, the overall composition of The Finding of Moses gave me a sense of confusion and emotionalism that allowed me to connect to it on a very humanistic level. Painted with oil on canvas, La Hyre was able to use color, blending and shading to give his figures a unique look that express great feelings of emotionalism. La Hyre uses several complimentary colors, colors that oppose each other, which add to the overall energy of the composition. He uses soft hues of blue in the sky and water with blueish green tones in the foliage and reflections in the water, but he chose to use bright opposing colors in the drapery on all of his figures: Whites with pink, orange with blue and even purple and green. I feel that La Hyre used color as a way to attract the viewers eye to the energy in the painting, as a sort of way to separate the emotion from the rest of the composition. La Hyre also pays close attention to detail to the modeling of the figures-- his use of chiaroscuro to subtlety define the muscles and figure of each person, the soft shadows and highlights used to give the drapery more dimension, and even the highlights and shading on the figures themselves give the viewer a feeling of a direct light source. He makes the figures look realistic and with the added dramatic quality of the highlights in accordance with a light source, the scene looks as if it could be happening before our eyes. La