Israel in Egypt by Edward Poynter, Exodus 1, Bible.Gallery
Artwork Description
Poynter's Israel in Egypt depicts dozens of Israelite slaves pulling a sculpture of a lion, fashioned from red granite, across the foreground while an Egyptian overseer lashes his whip across their backs. The painting is a graphic depiction of Exodus 1:7-11, which reads:
But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong; so that the land was filled with them . . . Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens; and they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Ram'ses (Exodus I: 7-11)
On the right hand side of the canvas, slightly set back from the foreground, one can make out another identical granite lion being dragged through a high gateway, and in the far background, an entire array of nearly complete granite lions appears. Returning to the foreground, one sees a small royal entourage following the central granite lion. An Egyptian princess in the procession carries a baby boy — the infant Moses, who will lead the Isrtaelites out of such slavery — who in turn carries his own miniature-sized whip. Poynter chooses to situate this scene in a magnificently detailed, albeit dishonest architectural landscape. Although the passage from Exodus to which he refers specifically mentions the cities of Pithom and Ram'ses, Poynter opts for an eclectic selection of Egyptian architecture that extends way beyond the temporal and spatial boundaries of these two cities. The four black granite figures pictured near the gateway are modeled after those in the British Museum of Amenhotep III from Thebes, whereas the red granite lions appear to be modeled after another museum piece that was displayed in the Egyptian Court at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1854. Poynter's backdrop also includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Temple from Philae, the Obelisk from Heliopolis, and finally, the Pylon Gateway from Edfu. This selection spans millennia, not to mention the physical distance between all of these structures, and yet here they appear within walking distance of one another.