Giuseppe Angeli, The Fall of Manna

1722-23
Church of San Stae, Venice

In Exodus 16:1-35 God sends bread and quails from Heaven to allay the hunger of the Israelites. Most images of this episode picture only the bread, not the quails. Here the artist collapses two moments in the story: On the left, the bright cloud and the man with raised arms illustrate verse 10, "And when Aaron spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, they looked towards the wilderness: and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud." Then on the following morning the bread falls and the people collect it and give it the name "manna" (verses 21-31).

Moses is of course the man in the pink cloak with his rod. Miriam is at Aaron's side in the blue dress. She is often pictured clapping her hands, though usually while holding a timbrel (example).

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