Moses and the Daughters of Jethro

Moses wades into a tangle of falling, violently foreshortened nudes to drive off the shepherds who blocked Jethro's daughters from the well, the women and their flock crowded at the right (Exodus 2:16-17). Rosso Fiorentino knots the bodies into an almost abstract pile of limbs, lit by a harsh raking light and keyed to acidic, clashing color. With Pontormo, whose Deposition is also in this collection, Rosso pioneered Florentine Mannerism - deliberately breaking the calm balance of the High Renaissance into tension, distortion, and raw nervous energy. The serene world of Raphael is barely a decade gone, and already overturned.