1270
tempera
metal
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Moses Counting the Children of Israel is a 1270 tempera by French 13th Century, held at National Gallery of Art.
This page shows a tall letter "V" with a small painted scene inside it. The picture has two men in bright robes—one blue, one red—standing under an arch. The blue-robed man holds a long staff, and the red-robed man gestures toward a crowd. Gold leaf shines behind them, and the background is packed with tiny, blocky figures. The text around the image is in Latin, written in a tight, decorative script. The gold leaf isn’t just paint—it’s real thin sheets of gold pressed onto the page, making the scene glow. If you like this, look up tempera next to see how medieval artists mixed egg with pigments.
This artist worked in the last decades of the 13th century, painting scenes from the Bible on vellum with gold leaf and bright colors.
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