Joshua Commanding The Sun And The Moon To Stand Still

Joshua Commanding the Sun and Moon to Stand Still is a dramatic Old Testament subject — the miracle at the battle of Gibeon — that was relatively uncommon in painting compared with New Testament or mythological subjects. The attribution to Raphael with a mid-eighteenth-century date indicates a later work in the Raphaelesque tradition or a copy after an earlier original. The subject's combination of military action and divine miracle would have suited large-scale history painting.

The composition requires the painter to depict both Joshua's commanding gesture and the miraculous arrest of celestial motion simultaneously. The figural arrangement follows academic conventions for history painting, with Joshua's prominent gesture organising the viewer's understanding of the event. The warm palette and clear spatial disposition reflect a classicising tradition.