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Nicolas Poussin, The Crossing of the Red Sea, c. 1633–34
Poussin shows the moment after. The people stand on the shore; some give thanks, others pull the armour of the drowned out of the water. Moses stretches out his hand over the sea.
Poussin painted the picture in Rome for Amadeo dal Pozzo, as a companion to the Adoration of the Golden Calf, which is now in the National Gallery in London. The two stayed together for three centuries and were separated only in the twentieth.
Moses stands at the edge and raises his arm over the sea.
Men drag shields and armour out of the surf. Exodus says only that Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore; the detail comes from the historian Josephus.
