The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea (1514–15, printed 1549): Art, History and Details

The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea (1514–15, printed 1549) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576); Domenico dalle Greche (Italian, 1503–1603).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This composition is made up of 12 separately printed woodcuts to create one image in grand scale. The size rivals that of a history painting, and, unlike most prints, the composition would have been hung on the wall. This is confirmed by the lack of complete impressions from the date of the print's creation—around 1515. This and all extant impressions date from a later edition, published in 1549 by the publisher Domenico dalle Greche (Italian, active 1543–1558). The woodcut is based on a drawing by the Venetian master Titian, and the bold, expressive, and irregular marks of the woodcutter imitate his drawing manner. The narrative—that of the Israelites’ persecution under the Egyptian pharaoh and his army’s fate when they followed Moses into the Red Sea—is propelled across the 12 sheets with remarkable unity. The rolling clouds and turbulent sea culminate in the solid gravity of the magnificent cliff that overhangs the shore.

Object facts

• Title: The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea
• Date: 1514–15, printed 1549
• Creator attribution: Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576); Domenico dalle Greche (Italian, 1503–1603)
• Culture: Italy, Venice
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Dimensions: Unframed: 40 x 55 cm (15 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1952.296

A detail from the museum

Titian may have identified the Egyptians in this composition, drowned in the Red Sea as they pursue the fleeing Israelites, with the League of Cambrai, a military alliance formed by the major powers in southern Europe and a menace to his hometown of Venice.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry Sayles. Venetian Tradition: Catalogue of the Exhibition. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.
• Richards, Louise S. “The Titian Woodcut by Domenico Dalle Greche.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43, no. 9 (November 1956): 197–203.
• Shestack, Alan, review of "Titian and the Venetian Woodcut," The Print Collector's Newsletter Vol. 7, No. 6 (January-February 1977): pp. 169-171

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.