Jacopo Bassano, The Miracle of the Quails

Italy, 1554
Oil on canvas
Location

In Exodus 16 the Israelites complain to Moses and Aaron that there is nothing for them to eat in the desert. God then sends them a multitude of quails every evening and a kind of bread called "manna" every morning.

The artist shows more interest in picturing the people than the quails, which can be seen only in the dark lower section of the painting (see below). In the middle distance Moses speaks with Aaron. He is the one with dark hair and the one "horn" of light emanating from his head. In the far distance women gather something – perhaps the manna?

Figure 1: Quails in the lower right corner of the painting.
Figure 2: The boy with his back to the viewer holds a quail.

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Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.