The Story
The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea, 1514–15, printed 1549. Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576), Domenico dalle Greche (Italian, 1503–1603). Woodcut; unframed: 41.6 x 53.8 cm (16 3/8 x 21 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1952.296.11
Created in 1514 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the daily life tradition. Titian worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in woodcut, measuring Unframed: 41.6 x 53.8 cm (16 3/8 x 21 3/16 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Titian builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
