Pharaoh's daughter discovers Moses in the rush basket

This 1650 Pharaoh's Daughter Discovers Moses at the Rijksmuseum depicts the rescue of the infant Moses from the Nile—placed there by his mother Jochebed in a basket to save him from Pharaoh's decree killing Hebrew male infants—and his discovery by Pharaoh's daughter who takes him as her own son. The narrative established the circumstances by which the future leader of the Exodus was raised in Pharaoh's own court—a providential irony that typological reading connected to Christ's own miraculous preservation as infant. Bol's treatment combines the Rembrandtesque handling of Old Testament narrative with the increasing elegance of his mature style. The Rijksmuseum's holding places this biblical narrative in the central repository of Dutch Golden Age achievement.

The discovery scene is composed with Bol's characteristic warmth and narrative clarity, the princess and her attendants grouped around the infant Moses in a composition that balances dramatic action with elegant arrangement.