18 - ATTRIBUTED TO FRANS FLORIS DE VRIENDT (Antwerp, ca. 1519/1520–1570).

ATTRIBUTED TO FRANS FLORIS DE VRIENDT (Antwerp, ca. 1519/1520–1570). “Moses Brings Water from the Rock at Horeb.” After 1560. Oil on Baltic oak panel. Cradled. Accompanied by a historical-artistic study by Ignacio González Panicello, art historian and restorer of old master paintings, signed on March 11, 2025, in which he defends the attribution of the work to Frans Floris based on a stylistic, iconographic, and comparative analysis with the master’s paintings. Provenance: Former collection of the Dukes of Lerma. Acquired from the Duchess of San Luis, according to the accompanying study. Measurements: 103 x 132 cm; 120 x 148.5 cm (frame). This painting, attributed to Frans Floris de Vriendt, belongs to one of the most significant periods in the transformation of 16th-century Flemish painting, when the assimilation of Italian models gave rise to a new artistic language characterized by the monumentality of the figures, narrative complexity, and a return to classical ideals. The work is accompanied by an art-historical study by Ignacio González Panicello, who attributes it to the hand of the Antwerp master after establishing specific correspondences with several of his known compositions. Adding to its significance is its provenance from the former collection of the Dukes of Lerma, a fact that links it to the tradition of Spanish aristocratic collecting and to the historical appreciation of Flemish painting in Spain. The subject depicted comes from the Book of Exodus (17:1–7) and portrays the miracle by which Moses, by divine command, causes water to gush from the rock at Horeb to quench the thirst of the people of Israel during their journey through the desert. This episode, traditionally interpreted as a manifestation of divine providence and, in Christian exegesis, as a foreshadowing of the spiritual water of salvation, offered Renaissance painters the opportunity to develop large-scale narrative compositions. In Floris’s case, the interest lies not only in the depiction of the miracle but also in his ability to transform the biblical narrative into a scene of monumental scale, where the multiplicity of figures and poses allows for the full expression of Mannerist artistic techniques. The attribution proposed by González Panicello is based particularly on the treatment of the figures’ anatomy and the spatial organization of the composition. The researcher identifies affinities with works by Floris such as *The Fight with the Beasts in the Colosseum in Rome*, housed in the Vatican Pinacoteca, and *Cain and Abel*, from the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. These comparisons highlight the use of anatomical models related to classical sculpture and Michelangelo’s painting, particularly evident in the musculature of the male figures, the foreshortening, and the poses of pronounced tension. These elements constitute one of the characteristic features of the artistic language developed by Floris following his stay in Italy. The study also establishes significant connections with the paintings of Giorgio Vasari, especially in the treatment of certain female figures. González Panicello compares the mother and child in the foreground with a figure from The Temptation of Saint Jerome, housed in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. He also points out parallels with a study of a female head housed in Dresden and with Frans Floris’s work *Charity*, dated 1545. These connections help us understand the extent to which the painter integrated the models of Florentine Mannerism into his work, adapting them to a Northern sensibility that retained an interest in the individualization of figures and narrative richness. Another key argument for the attribution is the compositional structure. The study highlights the arrangement of the figures in successive planes, with monumental figures in the foreground giving way to progressively smaller and more sketchily rendered groups toward the background. This spatial construction appears in other works by Floris and constitutes one of the techniques employed by the artist to organize highly complex scenes. González Panicello links this technique to compositions such as *The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ*, dated 1562 and housed in the Louvre Museum; *The Last Judgment*, from 1565, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; and *The Defeat of Heliodorus in the Temple*. This comparison allows us to situate the painting within the narrative approaches characteristic of his mature work, in which the influence of Italian Mannerism is particularly evident. The connection to Roman artistic culture is also evident in the incorporation of motifs from antiquity. The researcher identifies in the large vessel appearing in the composition a reference to ancient vases associated with the ornamental repertoire of Polidoro da Caravaggio, later disseminated through engravings such as those by Cherubino Alberti. This connection is significant be