Moses and the Messengers from Canaan

The spies return from the Promised Land and lay their laden harvest — grapes, pomegranates and figs — at the feet of Moses, reporting that the country “floweth with milk and honey” (Numbers 13). Giovanni Lanfranco painted the picture for the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome, viewing the monumental figures from below so they would carry from the chapel walls high above; the same artifice, pushed further, would crown his illusionistic dome of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.