Paintings and first tapestries

Moïse exposé sur les eaux
collection du Mobilier national
© I.Bideau

In this room you can see the first four tapestries that illustrate the History of Moses.
First spend a little time looking around the room.
On your right as you go in is Moses exposed on the waters, (...).
Opposite this is Moses saved from the waters, (...).
On the same section of wall, on the right, is Moses trampling the crown of the Pharaoh, (...).
And finally, opposite the last one, is The Burning Bush.
These tapestries in wool and silk enhanced with gold were woven at the Gobelins Manufactory and delivered in November 1685. Three of them reproduce paintings by Poussin and the last one a painting by Le Brun.
All these scenes illustrate passages from the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament. The same episodes were recounted by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the first century AD, in his work entitled Antiquities of the Jews.